Shapur III
Encyclopedia
Ardashir II
Ardashir II was the tenth Sassanid King of Persia from 379 to 383.He is believed by some to be the son and by others to be the brother of his predecessor, Shapur II...
in the year 383.
Treaty with Rome
Negotiations between the RomansRoman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
and the Persians which had begun in the reign of Ardashir II
Ardashir II
Ardashir II was the tenth Sassanid King of Persia from 379 to 383.He is believed by some to be the son and by others to be the brother of his predecessor, Shapur II...
culminated in a treaty
Treaty
A treaty is an express agreement under international law entered into by actors in international law, namely sovereign states and international organizations. A treaty may also be known as an agreement, protocol, covenant, convention or exchange of letters, among other terms...
of mutual friendship in the year 384.
According to this treaty, Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
was partitioned between the Romans and the Persians. Therefore two kingdoms were formed, one a vassal
Vassal
A vassal or feudatory is a person who has entered into a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. The obligations often included military support and mutual protection, in exchange for certain privileges, usually including the grant of land held...
of Rome and the other, of Persia. The smaller of these, which comprised the more western districts, which was assigned to Rome was committed to the charge of the Arshak III
Arshak III
Arshak III was the last king of the part of Armenia that was put under Roman domination by the Peace of Acilisene.Arshak III originally came to power as co-king with his brother Valarshak in 380 during Manuel Mamikonian's domination of Armenia...
who had been made king by Manuel Mamikonian
Manuel Mamikonian
Manuel Mamikonian was the real leader of Armenia after the death of Varazdat.The Mamikonian family had long been the leading generals of Armenia, holding the title of Sparapet, basically a chief general....
, the son of the unfortunate Pap of Armenia
Pap of Armenia
Pap was king of Armenia of the Arshakuni dynasty from 370 to 374. He was the son of King Arshak II and is notorious for poisoning the Catholicos of Armenia Nerses the Great.-Ascendancy:...
, and the grandson of the Arshak II
Arshak II
Arshak II or Arsaces II, was the son of King Tiran and was himself king of Armenia from 350 to 367.- Reign :In the early years of Arshak's reign, he found himself courted by the empires of Rome and Persia, both of which hope to win Armenia to their side in the ongoing conflicts between them...
contemporary with Julian the Apostate
Julian the Apostate
Julian "the Apostate" , commonly known as Julian, or also Julian the Philosopher, was Roman Emperor from 361 to 363 and a noted philosopher and Greek writer....
. The larger portion, which consisted of the regions lying towards the east, passed under the suzerainty of Persia, and was handed over to an Arshakuni, named Khosrov III, a Christian
Christianity in Iran
Christianity in Iran has a long history, dating back to the early years of the faith. It has always been a minority religion, with the majority state religions — Zoroastrianism before the Islamic conquest, Sunni Islam in the Middle Ages and Shia Islam in modern times — though it had a much larger...
. Thus friendly relations were established between Rome
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
and Persia
Sassanid Empire
The Sassanid Empire , known to its inhabitants as Ērānshahr and Ērān in Middle Persian and resulting in the New Persian terms Iranshahr and Iran , was the last pre-Islamic Persian Empire, ruled by the Sasanian Dynasty from 224 to 651...
which survived for thirty-six years.
Memorials of Shapur's Reign
Shapur III left behind him a sculptured memorial, which is still to be seen in the vicinity of KermanshahKermanshah
Kermanshah is a city in and the capital of Kermanshah Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 784,602, in 198,117 families.The overwhelming majority of Kermanshahi people are Shi'a Muslims...
. It consists of two very similar figures, looking towards each other, and standing in an arched frame. On either side of the figures are inscriptions in the Old Pahlavi
Pahlavi scripts
Pahlavi or Pahlevi denotes a particular and exclusively written form of various Middle Iranian languages. The essential characteristics of Pahlavi are*the use of a specific Aramaic-derived script, the Pahlavi script;...
character, whereby we are enabled to identify the individuals represented with the second and the third Shapur. They are identical in form, with the exception that the names in the right-hand inscription are "Shapur, Hormizd
Hormizd
Hormizd may refer to:Any of the several kings of the Sassanid dynasty of Persia:*Hormizd I of Persia *Hormizd II of Persia *Hormizd III of Persia *Hormizd IV of Persia...
, Narses
Narses
Narses was, with Belisarius, one of the great generals in the service of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I during the "Reconquest" that took place during Justinian's reign....
," while those in the left-hand one are "Shapur, Shapur, Hormizd
Hormizd
Hormizd may refer to:Any of the several kings of the Sassanid dynasty of Persia:*Hormizd I of Persia *Hormizd II of Persia *Hormizd III of Persia *Hormizd IV of Persia...
." It has been supposed that the right-hand figure was erected by Shapur II
Shapur II
Shapur II the Great was the ninth King of the Persian Sassanid Empire from 309 to 379 and son of Hormizd II. During his long reign, the Sassanid Empire saw its first golden era since the reign of Shapur I...
and the other afterwards added by Shapur III; but the unity of the whole sculpture, and its inclusion under a single arch, seem to indicate that it was set up by a single sovereign, and was the fruit of a single conception. If this be so, we must necessarily ascribe it to the later of the two monarchs commemorated, i.e. to Shapur III, who must be supposed to have possessed more than usual filial piety, since the commemoration of their predecessors upon the throne is very rare among the Sassanians.