The Roman Emperor Captured ALIVE by a Persian King #Shorts
Pack: 29 - The Roman Emperor Captured ALIVE by a Persian King
In 260 CE the Roman emperor Valerian was taken prisoner by Shapur I of Persia, who had his triumph carved into a cliff in Iran. Valerian never came home. The gruesome stories told about him came later, from a hostile writer.
- Valerian, emperor from 253 to 260, tried to negotiate with Shapur I in person; the talks failed and he was captured in June 260, near Edessa (Britannica, Valerian; Shapur I).
- Shapur's rock relief at Naqsh-e Rostam, in Fars, Iran, shows the king on horseback and a Roman emperor before him; Valerian's capture was a favourite subject of Sasanian carvings (Britannica; The Met).
- Valerian died in captivity (Britannica, Valerian).
- The Christian writer Lactantius, writing decades later, claimed Shapur used Valerian's back to mount his horse and had him flayed after death; he told it as God's punishment of a persecutor (Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 5). Valerian had executed Bishop Cyprian of Carthage (Britannica).
Cruel truth, or convenient legend? Tell us in the comments. Full story in our documentary, The Full History of Rome.
Sources
- Britannica, Valerian
- Britannica, Shapur I
- Britannica, Lactantius
- The Met, The Sasanian Empire (224–651 A.D.)
- Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors, ch. 5, tr. William Fletcher (1886), New Advent
Images
- Relief of Shapur I capturing Valerian, Naqsh-e Rostam — Ali Ganjei — Public domain —
- Antoninianus of Valerian, Rome, 253 — Ghent University Library — CC0 —
- Drawing of the Naqsh-i Rustam relief of Shapur I and Valerian, 1812 — Lutf-'Ali Shirazi, The Metropolitan Museum of Art 1998.6.4 — CC0 —
- Naqsh-e Rostam, the relief in its cliff — Blondinrikard Fröberg — CC BY 2.0 —
- The Humiliation of Emperor Valerian by Shapur, 1521 (as imagined) — Hans Holbein the Younger — Public domain —
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