Shapur II

309–379

Shapur II was a long-reigning Sasanian king who restored Persian power in the fourth century. He fought repeated wars with Rome over Mesopotamia and Armenia, captured Amida and resisted Julian’s invasion, while also campaigning on Iran’s eastern frontiers.

Shapur II also held the offices or ranks of King of Kings and emperor of the Sasanian Empire. Shapur II belonged to the Sasanian dynasty and operated within Sasanian Empire. Shapur II was born in Firuzabad and died in Bishapur.

Gore Vidal’s Julian makes Shapur II the formidable Sasanian ruler against whom Emperor Julian launches his disastrous Persian expedition, reaching Ctesiphon before retreat, supply failure and Julian’s death destroy the Roman plan. Gordon Doherty’s Eagles in the Desert places Roman soldiers in 360 CE inside the long frontier war with Shapur’s empire, where isolation and the Persian landscape become as dangerous as the enemy. Land of the Sacred Fire moves to 377, with Roman agents crossing the eastern frontier because Valens fears renewed conflict with the ageing Shapur while the Goths absorb imperial attention elsewhere. Ian Hughes’s Thirteen Roman Defeats supplies the wider military history through cases such as Amida and Julian’s Persian campaign, showing why the Sasanian wars under Shapur repeatedly exposed Roman weaknesses in intelligence, logistics and command.

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Shapur II (1 series)

Legionary in Order

by Gordon Doherty 11 books 4.4(14,164)

The Legionary series follows Numerius Vitellius Pavo from slavery into the ranks and command of the XI Claudia during the late fourth-century crisis of the Roman Empire. Its main sequence begins on the Danube in 376 CE and carries Pavo through the Gothic War, the disaster at Adrianople,…