In the 7th century the prestige and powers of the ruler had sunk so low that the monarchs were mere puppets in the hands of the nobility. Undoubtedly this contributed much to the decline and fall of the dynasty, but this is a later story, and we must return to Shapur II.
Among the events of Shapiir's reign were his early expeditions against the Arabs of the desert, where he is supposed to have filled their wells with sand to bring them to submit. Shapur penetrated far into Arabia; how far is unknown. An indication of local recalcitrance to imperial rule was the revolt of the city of Susa later in his reign. Shapur not only suppressed the revolt but he caused elephants to trample the remains of the city.
Then he rebuilt the city with the aid of Roman prisoners, as Shapur I did at Gundeshapur, and he renamed the city of Susa Iran Khwarrah Shapur ("Iran's glory [built by] Shapur"). This title was confused with a similar title given to the town of Karkha de Ledan (the Aramaic name of the city) north of Susa, until Karkha was later renamed Iran asan kar(t) Kavad. Other cities were founded or refounded by Shapur II, among them Nishapur in Khurasan. So Shapur II was a worthy successor of his namesake in his building as well as his martial activities.
It was inevitable that the new Sasanian ruler would seek to regain territory lost to the Romans by his predecessors. Armenia was also involved, but, as usual, we have no accurate details of events. In any case, it was Shapur who broke the long peace between the two empires, and the main field of battle was Mesopotamia. It seems that the nephew of Constantine, a certain Hannibalianus, had had some success in Armenia when Constantine died in 337.
The system of fortresses and limes erected primarily by Diocletian in the Roman province of Mesopotamia and in the Syrian desert proved to be a strong bulwark against the Persians. The Roman defences were rendered even stronger by the roads, wells and caravansarais erected behind the forts, castles and walls, enabling soldiers, especially horsemen, to move with speed to an area of invasion. This is not the place to discuss the military reforms of Diocletian and Constantine, except to say that for the defence of the frontiers they provided various trained troops, which Shapur on his expeditions met to his discomfiture. Several sieges of the Roman fortress city of Nisibis ended in failure for Shapur.
A number of minor battles were won or lost but no decision was reached, and Shapur had to end operations on his western front to meet an invasion of new nomads in the east. These were the Chionites, who, to judge from their name, represented the first appearance of Hunnic peoples in the Middle East. They were probably Altaic-speaking (proto-Turkic-speaking ?) nomads mixed with Iranians, remnants of the Sarmatians and others, who adopted the local Kushan-Bactrian language after they settled in the northern part of the Kushan domain in the east. Shapur was successful in containing the Chionites, who even concluded an alliance and gave him aid in his wars against the Romans.
After successes in the east Shapur turned again to the Romans, his principal enemies. Fortunately we have an eyewitness account of some of the martial activities between the two empires in the history of Ammianus Marcellinus. In the f?ce of Shapur's advance a scorchedearth policy was followed by the Romans, but Shapur was able to defeat them and lay siege to the Roman fortress of Amida, present-day Diyarbakr, which he took in 359 after much difficulty. Other towns were captured and their populations taken to Khuzistan and elsewhere in the Sasanian empire. The Romans took up this challenge when the emperor Julian led an impressive force against Shapur in 363. A large detachment was sent to join the Armenians east of Carrhae, so both would march parallel to Julian who, with the main body of troops, descended the Euphrates river to Ctesiphon.
In a combat Julian the Apostate was mortally wounded, and after his death the new emperor, Jovian, found his army in a disadvantageous position. Peace was made by which Shapur obtained most of the former Roman possessions east of the Tigris as well as the cities of Nisibis, Singara and others. Armenia was also abandoned by the Romans and was soon conquered by Shapur who treacherously seized and blinded the king of Armenia. Pap, the son and successor of the blind king, incurred the enmity of the Romans and a few years after the death of his father, Pap was killed by them.
Afterwards, Shapur sought to come to an agreement over Armenia with the emperor Valens, but this was not possible until the invasion of the Goths in the Balkans near Constantinople distracted the Romans. Then the Sasanians took the lion's share of Armenia, while the Romans had to be content with a small area mainly around Mount Ararat. Armenia, however, continued to remain a bone of contention between the two empires.
Divine Majesty and Sassanid Monarchs
