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Bahram III (died 293) was the sixth Sassanid King of Persia. Born unto Bahram II
Bahram II

Bahram II was the fifth Sassanid dynasty King of Persia in 276–293.He was the son of Bahram I .Bahram II is said to have ruled at first tyrannically, and to have greatly disgusted all his principal nobles, who went so far as to form a conspiracy against him, and intended to put him to death....
 and being his only son at a young age he was appointed viceroy
Viceroy

A viceroy is a royal official who governs a country or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning "in the place of" and the French word roi, meaning king....
 to the region of Sakasthan
Sistan

Modern Sistan is a border region in southeastern Iran and southwestern Afghanistan . In ancient times the area was known as Arachosia; it became known as 'Sakastan' in the 1st century BC, after it was conquered by the Saka tribes....
 after Bahram II
Bahram II

Bahram II was the fifth Sassanid dynasty King of Persia in 276–293.He was the son of Bahram I .Bahram II is said to have ruled at first tyrannically, and to have greatly disgusted all his principal nobles, who went so far as to form a conspiracy against him, and intended to put him to death....
's conquest
Conquest

Conquest may refer to:...
 of it sometime in the 280's CE
Common Era

Common Era, abbreviated as CE, is a designation for the calendar system most commonly used in the Western world, and also internationally, for numbering the year part of the calendar date....
.

Bahram III ascended to the throne vacated by his father following his death in 293 CE. Following his father's loss of Armenia
Armenia

Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in South Caucasus between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea....
, Bahram III was considered too weak to rule the kingdom by much of the nobility and many nobles challenged his succession, instead pledging allegiance too his grand-uncle Narseh of Persia.






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Bahram III (died 293) was the sixth Sassanid King of Persia. Born unto Bahram II
Bahram II

Bahram II was the fifth Sassanid dynasty King of Persia in 276–293.He was the son of Bahram I .Bahram II is said to have ruled at first tyrannically, and to have greatly disgusted all his principal nobles, who went so far as to form a conspiracy against him, and intended to put him to death....
 and being his only son at a young age he was appointed viceroy
Viceroy

A viceroy is a royal official who governs a country or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning "in the place of" and the French word roi, meaning king....
 to the region of Sakasthan
Sistan

Modern Sistan is a border region in southeastern Iran and southwestern Afghanistan . In ancient times the area was known as Arachosia; it became known as 'Sakastan' in the 1st century BC, after it was conquered by the Saka tribes....
 after Bahram II
Bahram II

Bahram II was the fifth Sassanid dynasty King of Persia in 276–293.He was the son of Bahram I .Bahram II is said to have ruled at first tyrannically, and to have greatly disgusted all his principal nobles, who went so far as to form a conspiracy against him, and intended to put him to death....
's conquest
Conquest

Conquest may refer to:...
 of it sometime in the 280's CE
Common Era

Common Era, abbreviated as CE, is a designation for the calendar system most commonly used in the Western world, and also internationally, for numbering the year part of the calendar date....
.

Bahram III ascended to the throne vacated by his father following his death in 293 CE. Following his father's loss of Armenia
Armenia

Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in South Caucasus between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea....
, Bahram III was considered too weak to rule the kingdom by much of the nobility and many nobles challenged his succession, instead pledging allegiance too his grand-uncle Narseh of Persia. After reigning for a period of only four months Bahram III was either captured or more likely killed during a campaign by Narseh who then ascended to the throne in Bahram's place.

Biography

In Sassanid Persia it was customary for kings after conquering a land or people, to give their sons titles showing domination over them. Bahram III gained his title of "sakan shah" presumably after his father's victory over the Sakasthan (present day Sistan) region. Also following early Sassanid practices of giving appanage of provinces to princes, Bahram III was appointed to Sakasthan due to the regions importance as being a defence against influencial peoples on the eastern extremes of the kingdom.

Following the death of Bahram II
Bahram II

Bahram II was the fifth Sassanid dynasty King of Persia in 276–293.He was the son of Bahram I .Bahram II is said to have ruled at first tyrannically, and to have greatly disgusted all his principal nobles, who went so far as to form a conspiracy against him, and intended to put him to death....
 in 293 CE, Bahram III was proclaimed king in Fars by a group of nobles led by Wahnam and supported by Adurfarrobay, King of Mesan
MESAN

The Mouvement pour l'?volution sociale de l'Afrique noire was a nationalism quasi-religious political party that sought to affirm black humanity and advocated for the independence of Oubangui-Chari, then a France French colonial empires....
. By the time of his ascension he was still a minor and considered to be a weak character by much of the nobility. Bahram II's loss of Armenia
Armenia

Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in South Caucasus between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea....
 undermined the integrity of the kingdom giving the Romans
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 an easy route to invade Media
Medes

The Medes were an Ancient Iranian peoples who lived in the northwestern portions of present-day Iran. This area was known in Greek as Media or Medea ....
 and many western parts of the kingdom. Many amongst the nobility considered him too weak to properly handle the threat posed by the Romans and the possibility of invasion. Many of the nobility decided to instead challenge his succession to the throne and instead pledged allegience to Narseh
Narseh

Narseh was the seventh Sassanid dynasty King of Persian Empire , and son of Shapur I .During the rule of his father Shapur I, Narseh had served as the Viceroy of Sistan, Baluchistan and Sindh....
, the last remaining son of Shapur I
Shapur I

Shapur I was the second Sassanid King of the Sassanid Empire. The dates of his reign are commonly given as 241 - 272, but it is likely that he also reigned as co-regent prior to his father's death in 241....
, and someone who was perceived as being a stronger leader and one who would be able to bring glory to Persia.

Four months into Bahram III's reign his grand-uncle Narseh was summoned to Ctesiphon
Ctesiphon

Ctesiphon was one of the great cities of the Persian Empire, located on the east bank of the Tigris.Ctesiphon was an imperial capital of the Arsacids and of their successors, the Sassanids....
 by the request of many members of the Persian nobility. According to the Paikuli inscription
Paikuli inscription

The Paikuli inscription was set up as a monument to victory, and tells how and why Narseh ousted his grand-nephew from power. In 293 Narseh marched from Armenia in open revolt against his nephew with a host of supporters and allies, whose names are recorded on the Paikuli inscription....
 these nobles swore their total allegiance to him there and asked that he would take the throne. In a brief revolt, Wahnam was captured and excecuted and Bahram was removed from the throne. It is assumed Bahram III was also killed in the uprising though there is no documentation of this so his fate remains uncertain.

Artifacts

Many coins that could be attributed to him are small in number and due to uncertainty many are often attributed to Narseh. Because many of the coins are attributed to him are smoother than usual the details of his crown are faint. It is believed that he is depicted wearing a gold
Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and atomic number 79. It is a highly sought-after precious metal, having been used as money, as a store of value, in jewelry, in sculpture, and for ornamentation since the beginning of recorded history....
 crown with a crenelatted lower rim and two large deer
Deer

Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae . A number of broadly similar animals from related families within the order even-toed ungulate are often also called deer....
 horns
Horn (anatomy)

A horn is a pointed projection of the skin on the head of various mammals, consisting of a covering of horn surrounding a core of living bone....
 or at least replicas of them attatched on each side. The Sasani sphere sits between the horns on the front of the crown.

A low relief at the Bishapur
Bishapur

Bishapur is an ancient city situated south of modern Faliyan, Iran on the ancient road between Persis and Elam. The road linked the Sassanid capitals Istakhr and Ctesiphon....
 archeological site depicts a figure being trampled by a horse. It is assumed that this scene is a representation of either the death of Bahram III or more likely his ally Wahnam.

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