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Shapur II and the Roman Wars

Shapur II has the record for the longest reign in the history of Persia, 70 years, out of which he ruled personally for 54 years. During the first sixteen years of his life, the power in the country was in the hands of Shapur’s mother and her husband Vahram, but in the year 309 C.E. Shapur became the king of the Persian Empire at a very young age. Shapur was probably the greatest military genius Iran had seen since Arashk I, founder of the Parthian empire. Shapur was able to humiliate the Romans in several battles throughout Mesopotamia, and this was all because of his outstanding military tactics. Although the Romans possessed much better armor and military equipment, Shapur was still able to defeat them in battles and keep the Persian army strong-willed and valiant. In a few short years, Shapur defeated all of the minor kingdoms that had dared to declare independence in his absence. He expanded his empire from Punjab in northern India to the north of Caucasus, and from borders of present day China to the edge of Egypt. Shapur also limited the power of the priests and forced them to yield their semi-independence status in favor of the central government’s authority. In s

"Then you visited the cities you had freed, and bestowed on them peace and plenty, all possible blessing and all at once. Thus at your hand they received what they had so long desired, the defeat of the barbarians."

The battle of Singara was a part of 9 battles that Constantius fought with the Persians. At the battle of Narasara, Shapur's son Narseh was killed, and in the battle of Eleia the Roman army was totally devastated by the Persian archers as "they were overwhelmed by a cloud of arrows" (p. 188). The misfortunate Constantius suffered many calamities, and he never had a single successful encounter with Shapur. Constantius could have won the battle of Singara if it was not for the foolish decisions that his army made. Shapur thus broke the power of Rome. Unable to restore the lost ground, the Romans sent overtures to commerce peace negotiations but Shapur pressed on until he had ceded all of Mesopotamia. In 346 C.E., Shapur went on to lay siege on Nisibis again for the second time for 73 days. The Persians tried everything to take down the walls of Nisibis. But the people were so strong willed that they kept rebuilding the walls and forced back the Persian army. The Persians used elephants and heavily armored cavalry but nothing worked as the Romans kept throwing stones down and flooded them with arrows. "And they slew above ten thousand of their troops. And a lightening bolt from heaven fell on the rest, and with the onset of dark clouds and violent rain they filled them all with panic so that the majority of them perished through fear." (p. 204) This did not discourage Shapur from continuing his conquest, and several years later, after a brief moment of peace, war started again.

“So, in order to rid himself of the need to stay in a strange and hostile country and wanting nothing so much as to return home quickly, he made a shameful and disgraceful truce, so bad that it is even now harmful to the Roman state.” (Dodgeon, 238)

Some topics in this essay:
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