Twenty-four years of incessant warfare against the Byzantine Empire had exhausted the Sasanian state. Outraged by the defeats their armies had suffered and incensed by Khosrow’s obstinacy and intransigence, a group of Persian army officers, joined by sons of several powerful families, organized a coup to overthrow the king and replace him with his son Kavad, known as Shiruya (Shiroy). On the evening of February 23, 628, the plotters staged their coup. Shiruya was released from prison, and a herald proclaimed him the king of kings. The gates of the jails were also opened, and all prisoners, including Roman prisoners, were allowed to escape. Khosrow fled the palace but was later captured. Two days later, his son Shiruya ascended the throne as Kavad II. The new monarch, who had initially promised to restore peace and reverse the harsh policies of his father, initiated a bloodbath by killing all his brothers. He then ordered the execution of his father. The Sasanian dynasty would never recover from this mad rampage. Shiruya died a few months after he had seized the throne. His death signaled the disintegration of the Sasanian Empire. As army commanders and powerful members of the Persian nobility battled among themselves and eliminated one another, Sasanian territory was invaded on all sides by powerful neighbors. The eastern borders of the empire were breached by the Turks, while the Khazars invaded its northern provinces by using the Caucasus region to raid Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Asia Minor. In the end, however, it was the Muslim Arabs bursting out of the Arabian Peninsula who brought about the final collapse of the Sasanian state. The Muslim armies defeated the Sasanian forces first at Qadisiyyah in 636 and again at Nahavand (Nihavand) in western Iran in 642. The last Sasanian king, Yazdegerd III, was killed in 651 near Marv in Central Asia.
Ardashir I
The founder and first king of the Persian Sasanian dynasty who ruled from 224 to 239/240 CE. Ardashir, the son of Papak or Pabag (New Persian: Babak), founded the Sasanian dynasty after he defeated and killed the last Arsacid (Parthian) monarch, Artabanus IV, on the battlefield.
There are several legendary accounts that describe Ardashir’s family lineage and his rise to power. The inscription of Shapur I, the son of Ardashir, at Naqsh-e Rostam near Persepolis in southern Iran identifies Papak as the father of Ardashir and names Sasan as the ancestor of the family after whom the dynasty was named. Karnamak-e Ardashir-e Papakan states that Ardashir was the son of Sasan by the daughter of Papak. The Pahlavi text Bundahishn presents Artakhshatar (Ardashir) as the grandson of Papak through his mother (a daughter of Papak) and the son of Sasan (Bundahishn: 31.30). The historian Tabari stated that Papak was the father of Ardashir and that Sasan was his grandfather (Tabari: 2.580). Several sources claim that Sasan was the custodian of the temple of Anahid, the Iranian goddess of waters, in the district of Istakhr (Estakhr) in the province of Fars (Tabari: 2.580). These same sources also state that Ardashir’s grandmother was a member of a prominent noble family called Bazrangi (Tabari: 2.580).
Papak served as the vassal of Gochihr or Gozihr, the ruler of Istakhr. Gozihr was himself a vassal of the ruling Arsacid dynasty. With permission and support from Gozihr, Papak had his son Ardashir appointed to a military post in Darabgerd, a town near present-day Darab in the province of Fars. After the commander of Darabgerd died, Ardashir succeeded him. Using Darabgerd as his operational base, Ardashir expanded the territory under his control by waging war and defeating several local rulers. With encouragement from Ardashir, Papak revolted against Gozihr and removed him from the throne of Istakhr. From Istakhr, Papak extended his rule to a large portion of Fars province. He may have requested that the ruling Arsacid monarch recognize his older son, Shapur, as the ruler of Istakhr. When the Arsacid king turned down his request, Papak raised the flag of rebellion and proclaimed his independence.
Sasanian rock relief depicts the investiture of the Persian Sasanian monarch Ardashir I, at Naqsh-e Rostam in southern Iran. After defeating the last Arsacid/Parthian ruler, Artabanus IV, on the battlefield, Ardashir founded the Sasanian dynasty in 224. (Alan Davey)
The revolt of Papak and the subsequent rise of Ardashir to power took place in the context of a civil war within the Parthian (Arsacid) Empire and a series of wars between the Romans and the Arsacid dynasty. After the death of the Arsacid monarch Vologeses V (r. 191/192–207/208 CE), his son Vologeses VI had ascended the throne. Soon, however, the new king was challenged by his younger brother, Artabanus. By around 216 CE, Artabanus had triumphed over his older brother, seizing the Arsacid throne. In 216 CE, the Roman emperor Caracalla asked for the hand of the daughter of Artabanus IV. The Arsacid monarch turned down the request. Caracalla used this response as a convenient pretext to invade Parthian territory. Roman forces reached as far east as Arbela (Arbil/Erbil in present-day northern Iraq), but they failed to defeat the Parthians. When the Roman forces withdrew, Artabanus struck back, demanding the return of territories that the Romans had occupied. Meanwhile, Caracalla was assassinated by Marcinuis, the commander of the imperial guard who installed himself as the new emperor. The new Roman emperor rejected the demands of Artabanus, and war ensued between the two empires. The decisive battle took place at Nisibis in present-day southeastern Turkey, where the Parthians scored an impressive victory. In the peace treaty signed with the Romans in 218 CE, the emperor agreed to pay a high war indemnity to Artabanus.
The civil war between Vologeses VI and his younger brother Artabanus and the wars between the Arsacids and the Romans provided a golden opportunity for Ardashir to expand his territorial possessions from Fars into the present-day southwestern province of Khuzestan and territories along the northern shores of the Persian Gulf. Ardashir also pushed eastward and seized Kerman in southeastern Iran. These conquests allowed Ardashir to declare himself an independent king. To demonstrate his independence, Ardashir minted his own coins.
The Arsacid monarch seems initially not to have taken this challenge from a petty vassal very seriously. As Ardashir seized more territory and imposed his rule over neighboring kings, however, Artabanus had no other alternative but to respond. In April 224 when the two armies joined battle, Ardashir defeated and killed Artabanus. According to one Roman source, Ardashir conquered the Parthians in three battles and killed their king, Artabanus (Cassius Dio: LXXX.23.2). The victory over Artabanus was celebrated on rock reliefs in Firuzabad in the province of Fars. With the death of Artabanus IV, Arsacid rule came to a sudden end. Ardashir ascended the throne as the shahanshah (king of kings) and the founder of the new Sasanian dynasty. Soon, all the provinces of the Parthian Empire were brought under the authority of the new king of kings. Initially, Ardashir allowed local kings and governors who submitted voluntarily to his rule to retain their power, but he removed those who refused and replaced them with Sasanian princes, often his own sons. It seems that the majority of the powerful landowning families previously allied with the Arsacid dynasty submitted to Ardashir. The inscription of Ardashir’s son and successor, Shapur I, includes the names of prominent families such as Suren and Karen, who constituted the backbone of the Arsacid power structure. The Suren were based in Sistan in eastern Iran, and the Karen were dominant in Nahavand in western Iran.
In sharp contrast to the Arsacids, who ruled a highly decentralized political system, Ardashir I embarked on creating a centralized administrative structure, which concentrated absolute power in the hands of the Sasanian monarch, a king who ruled as the representative of god on Earth. Also unlike the Arsacids, who tolerated religious diversity and granted autonomy to the religious communities of their empire, Ardashir’s successors imposed Zoroastrianism as the state religion of the Sasanian Empire. As already mentioned, the ancestor of Ardashir, Sasan, was the custodian of the temple of Anahid, the Iranian goddess of water in the district of Istakhr (Tabari: 2.580). According to the Byzantine historian Agathias, Ardashir “was a devotee of the magian religion and an official celebrant of its mysteries. Consequently the priestly caste of the magi rose to inordinate power and arrogance. This body had indeed made its influence felt on previous occasions in the co
urse of its long history, though it had never before been elevated to such a position of privilege and immunity, but had hitherto been officially accorded what in certain respects amounted to an inferior status” (Agathias: 2.26.2).
Historians disagree on the extent of Ardashir’s empire. It seems, however, that he brought all the provinces ruled by the Parthians under his authority. In the east, the king of the Kushans, who ruled the area corresponding to Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the southern regions of Central Asia, submitted and accepted Sasanian suzerainty. Sasanian forces also seized the island of Bahrain and the nearby southern coast of the Persian Gulf. In 230 CE, Ardashir shifted his focus to the west and attacked Roman possessions in Mesopotamia. According to Cassius Dio, Ardashir viewed himself as the heir to the Persian Achaemenid dynasty, and “he boasted that he would win back everything that the ancient Persians had once held, as far as the Grecian Sea, claiming that all this was his rightful inheritance from his forefathers” (Cassius Dio: LXXX.23.4). Another author, Herodian, wrote that Ardashir intended to restore the power and glory of the first Persian Empire. He planned to recover “the entire continent opposite Europe … called Asia” for the “Persian empire,” believing “these regions to be his by inheritance” (Herodian: 6.2). He therefore declared that “all the countries in that area, including Ionia and Caria, had been ruled by Persian governors, beginning with Cyrus,” the founder of the Achaemenid Empire (Herodian: 6.2). The Muslim historian Tabari also wrote that Ardashir had revolted to avenge the blood of his cousin Dara (Darius), son of Dara, who had fought Alexander and been defeated (Tabari: 2.580).
In his initial campaign against the Roman Empire, Ardashir first laid siege to Nisibis in today’s southeastern Turkey near the border with Syria and Iraq. He also attacked Hatra, a major religious and commercial center of the Arsacid Empire in present-day northern Iraq, but failed to capture it (Cassius Dio: LXXX.23.2). Alarmed by the attacks on their eastern provinces, the Romans tried to conclude a peace agreement with Ardashir, but the negotiations failed. In 232 CE, the Roman emperor Alexander Severus organized a two-pronged attack against the Sasanian state, targeting Armenia in the north and Mesopotamia in the south. The Roman forces succeeded in seizing Armenia, but their campaign in Mesopotamia fizzled. Ardashir struck back in response. In 238, Sasanian forces attacked and captured Nisibis and Carrhae in present-day southeastern Turkey on the border with Syria. In 240, Ardashir attacked the important trade center of Hatra situated between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in present-day northern Iraq. The town played a vital role in linking the economies of the Near East to Rome. In describing Ardashir’s successful campaigns, Herodian wrote that three Roman armies had been ordered to invade Sasanian territory, and “a final rendezvous had been selected to which they were to bring their booty and prisoners” (Herodian: 6.5.8). The Roman emperor, however, failed to support his forces by marching behind them with his own army. Separated from one another and suffering from lack of support from their emperor, the Roman forces fell apart when Ardashir attacked, trapping “the Romans like fish in a net; firing their arrows from all sides at the encircled soldiers,” and massacring the whole army (Herodian: 6.5.9). These successful campaigns by Ardashir convinced the Romans to send an army to recapture northern Mesopotamia. Ardashir died in either 240, 241, or 242 CE and was succeeded by his son Shapur, who had ruled with his father as co-regent in the last years of Ardashir’s reign.
See also: K&Q, Arsacid/Parthian: Artabanus IV; K&Q, Sasanian: Shapur I; Peoples: Arsacid Parthian Empire; Sasanian Empire; Primary Documents: Document 30
Further Reading
Agathias. The Histories. Translated by Joseph D. Frendo. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1975.
Bundahishn. Edited by Mehrdad Bahar. Tehran: Tus Publications, 1991.
Bundahishn: The Sacred Books of the East; Pahlavi Texts. Translated by E. W. West. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1965.
Cassius Dio. Dio’s Roman History. Translated by Earnest Cary. London: William Heinemann, 1927.
Daryaee, Touraj. Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire. London: I. B. Tauris, 2013.
Frye, R. N. “The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 3(I), edited by Ehsan Yarshater, 116–180. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Frye, Richard Nelson. The History of Ancient Iran. München: C. H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1984.
Herodian. History of the Roman Empire. Translated by Edward C. Echols. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1961.
Herrmann, G., and V. S. Curtis. “Sasanian Rock Reliefs,” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 2002, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/sasanian-rock-reliefs.
Shayegan, M. Rahim. Arsacids and Sasanians: Political Ideology in Post-Hellenistic and Late Antique Persia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
Tabari. Tarikh-e Tabari, Vol 2. Translated from Arabic into Persian by Abol Qassem Payandeh. Tehran: Asatir Publications, 1984.
Ardashir II
The king of kings of the Persian Sasanian dynasty who ruled from 379 to 383 CE. Ardashir succeeded Shapur II, the longest-reigning Sasanian monarch. After the death of the Sasanian monarch Hormozd II (r. 303–309 CE), Persian nobles at the court refused to allow any member of the Sasanian royal family to succeed the deceased Persian king. Instead, they designated the unborn child of an expectant wife of Hormozd II as the future king by placing the crown over the belly of the pregnant woman. Thus, before his birth the Persian nobles at the Sasanian court had selected Shapur, who was born after his father’s death, as their king of kings. Once he had attained the appropriate age, Shapur ascended the Sasanian throne and ruled for 70 years, until 379 CE. Before his death, Shapur II appointed Ardashir as his successor. Ardashir ascended the Sasanian throne after Shapur’s death in 379.
Some of the Arabic, Persian, and Roman sources claimed that Ardashir II was one of the sons of Hormozd II and the younger brother of Shapur II (Tabari: Tarikh-e Tabari, 2.606). Some other sources, however, stated that Ardashir II was the son of Shapur II (Frye: 316–317). Thus, the relationship between Ardashir II and his immediate predecessor remains a mystery.
Ardashir may have served for a time during Shapur’s reign as the governor of Adiabene, which incorporated the core territory of ancient Assyria in present-day northern Iraq and southeastern Asia Minor (today’s Turkey). Some sources maintain that when Shapur II appointed Ardashir as his immediate successor in 379, the aging and dying monarch received assurances from Ardashir that he would abdicate the Sasanian throne once Shapur’s young son, also named Shapur (the future Shapur III), reached the appropriate age for becoming king.
In 379 after the death of Shapur II, Ardashir ascended the Sasanian throne. The investiture of the new king was celebrated with a rock relief at Taq-e Bostan near modern-day Kermanshah in western Iran. Carved into a rectangular frame, the relief shows Ardashir II, accompanied by two dignitaries, receiving the diadem of power from the hands of a crowned figure who has been identified by some scholars as Shapur II. Behind Ardashir stands Mithra, the sun god, who also was venerated as the guarantor of covenants, alliances, and contracts. Mithra, who wears a crown festooned by 12 rays of sun, holds a barsom bundle and is depicted as standing on a lotus flower. The two Sasanian monarchs Ardashir II and Shapur II stand on the body of a vanquished man, presumably a Roman ruler, perhaps Julian the Apostate, who attacked the Sasanian state in 363 and was defeated before reaching the Sasanian capital of Ctesiphon.
The short reign of Ardashir II was uneventful. The Sasanians tried to diffuse a crisis in Armenia, and though the tension between the Roman and Sasanian Empires remained high, Ardashir did not fight in either a defensive or an offensive campaign in the west. Ardashir II either died or was deposed in 383 CE. The historian Tabari wrote that Ardashir II killed many members of the Persian nobility and court dignitaries, and in turn he was deposed after ruling for four years (Tabari: Tarikh-e Tabari, 2.606). Shapur III, the son of Shapur I
I, succeeded Ardashir II as the new ruler of the Sasanian Empire.
See also: Ancient Cities: Taq-e Bostan; K&Q, Sasanian: Shapur II; Shapur III
Further Reading
Agathias. The Histories. Translated by Joseph D. Frendo. Berlin: Walter De Gruyter, 1972.
Frye, R. N. “The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 3(I), edited by Ehsan Yarshater, 116–180. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Howard-Johnston, James. East Rome, Sasanian Persia and the End of Antiquity. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2006.
Shahbazi, A. Sh. “Ardašīr II.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1986, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ardasir-ii-sasanian-king-of-kings-a.
Tabari. The History of al-Tabari: The Sassanids, the Byzantines, the Lakhmids. Translated by Clifford Edmund Bosworth. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999.
Tabari. Tarikh-e Tabari, Vol 2. Translated from Arabic into Persian by Abol Qassem Payandeh. Tehran: Asatir Publications, 1984.
Ardashir III
King of kings of the Persian Sasanian dynasty who ruled for a short period after the death of his father, Kavad II Shiruya (Shiroy). The short reign of Ardashir III lasted from 628 to 630 CE. Ardashir’s mother was a Byzantine Greek noblewoman named Anzoi. Ardashir’s father, Shiruya, had seized the throne after participating in a coup against his father, Khosrow II Parvez. After seizing the Sasanian throne, Shiruya ordered the imprisonment and murder of his father as well as the execution of all his brothers. After ruling for only several months, however, Shiruya died, the victim of a plague that already had devastated the western provinces of the Sasanian Empire. After Shiruya’s death the high officials at the court chose his seven-year-old son, Ardashir, as the new shahanshah (king of kings). Given the very young age of the new monarch, actual power resided with prominent courtiers and high government officials, particularly the capable Meh Adur Gushnasp, who acted as regent.
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