The Two Eyes of the World: A bigger Sassanid Persia

[Collondi]

Hi, welcome to my first alt-history fic. This will be primarily focused on Persia, but for those of you Rome fans there will be plenty of focus on the Roman Empire too. This TL is partially inspired by this thread which I recommend you read. You may notice me in that thread, arguing that Rome would likely reconquer its lost territory. This was based on the logic that as of the fourth century the Roman army outnumbered the Persian army, with Diocletian's reign seeing around 600,000 legions vs ~150,000 in Persia. However, I failed to account for the fact that ITTL Persia's army would grow and Rome's army would shrink, which I think would even the scales. There are other problems to worry about, which I will explore. In that thread you'll find two opposing opinions, one that the conquest would result in the complete collapse of the Roman Empire, and the other that Rome would just recover and reconquer its land. I'll be taking a middle ground. Rome will recover, certainly intact but not nearly as strong as it used to be. For now I'll leave it at that. Also I haven’t quite decided which of these two names I prefer, so I’ll leave it up to a poll. I’ll take other suggestions as well.
Hope you enjoy!
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Chapter 1: the (re)birth of the Persian Empire (part 1)

The entire history of the world can be seen as states and empires struggling for dominance. Sometimes a state will reach a point where it runs out of rivals, where all kingdoms that could have defeated it have been vanquished. Such was the case with the Achaemenid Persian Empire and the Roman Empire, both of which dominated almost all of the known world in their golden age. However, there was a time where both the Persian Empire (albeit a different one) and the Roman Empire existed simultaneously. A time in which the two greatest empires in the world fought for power. This is the story of the two eyes of the world.

The Sassanids arrived at a time in which the glory of the Achaemenids had long faded. The Roman Empire had conquered Egypt, Anatolia, and the Levant, while Mesopotamia and Iran fell to the nomadic Parthians. Four centuries after its establishment, the Parthian Empire was on the decline. While the Parthian kings fought both each other and Roman invaders, many of the local nobles in Persia became independent, such as in Persis, the ancestral homeland of Cyrus and his Persian Empire, and the basis of the future Sassanian Empire.

Little is known about Sasan, the founder of the dynasty. He was likely a foreigner from the east who became the high priest of the city of Istakr, and he and his son Papak eventually created their own small kingdom in Persis. His son(1) Ardashir would soon take over, conquering and expanding the kingdom while the Parthian kingdom was divided among rival claimants. Sixteen years after Ardashir became king, the Parthian king Artabanus IV met him in a pitched battle with a larger force. Ardashir brought his sons with him into battle, and one son, the future Shapur the Great, would prove his skills. His quick cavalry maneuvering and skillful lance tactics helped Ardashir win a massive victory, killing Artabanus in battle. Following the victory Ardashir would crown himself King of Kings of Iran and would declare Shapur his heir. Historians consider this the official beginning of the Sassanid Empire (2).

Ardashir would go on to conquer the lands of the former Parthian Empire, as well as some territory in Bactria. In many ways this empire was a continuation of Parthia. It was a decentralized system in which Ardashir ruled only with the consent of his subject kings. He could only tax his subjects and couldn’t directly govern land he didn’t directly own (3). However, he would begin the process of centralization by taking control of specific economically important cities, which Shapur would greatly expand. This balance between the King of Kings and his subjects would become the defining conflict of Sassanid history.

Sassanid propaganda portrayed the state as the successor to the Achaemenid Empire. The only problem was that much of the former Achaemenid territory was now ruled by the Roman Empire. Luckily for the Persians, they arrived right as the Roman Empire began to enter what would come to be known as the Millenium Crisis (4), called so because it arrived almost exactly a millennium after the founding of Rome. The Roman state would find itself consumed in a perfect storm of events that would lead to military, economic, and political anarchy for decades, creating a perfect opportunity for conquest. The Romans would attempt to invade Persia twice but failed both times. Shapur was crowned in 15 S.E. (240 C.E.). He claimed to have killed the emperor Gordian in battle (though how true this is cannot be known) and soon secured control over Armenia, without much resistance from Rome. The Armenian prince Tiridates fled and was granted asylum in the empire’s capital, an act which constituted war.

Luckily the perfect opportunity would fall into Shapur’s lap. In 27 S.E. (252 C.E), one Cyriades/Mariades, an aristocrat in Antioch, seems to have stolen or embezzled money and was banished from the city as a result. Mariades would flee to Persia, where he asked Shapur to help him retake Antioch and declare himself emperor, in exchange for providing valuable insider information. Shapur began his invasion in the spring of the following year, likely having spent years mobilizing. Shapur took an unusual route for his invasion. The Romans likely expected an attack on the nearby cities of Carrhae and Edessa (5), especially since the very first city captured in the campaign was Nisibis (6), located on the road to the cities. Instead, he marched upstream along the Euphrates, going around whatever defenses they must have built there and directly into the heart of Syria. The Romans thought he just wanted a few cities on the border, but he wanted the entire east. Along the way he did not wait for sieges of enemy cities to finish before marching forward, suggesting he either had a numerical advantage or liked to take risks.

The Romans would fight each other over the question of who would lead their army. The commander of a force from multiple provinces would normally be the emperor or at least appointed by the emperor, but the emperor was distracted by a civil war. In addition, whoever beat Shapur had a shot at declaring themselves emperor and taking the throne. At this critical moment in which the Romans should have been mobilizing for war, they bickered and even fought battles over who should lead. Eventually governor of Syria Coele Pomponius Laetianus won out, but in doing so he lost his men’s respect.

He was forced to meet Shapur in battle at Barbalissus, a small town on the north coast of the Euphrates, commanding a force of 60,000. It was ideal terrain for Shapur, a flat plain with no defenses, but had Laetianus let Shapur advance any further, he would have entered Syria itself, and the already unpopular commander would have lost all support. Such a large force needed a skilled commander to keep control of. Laetianus had gotten command by dubious means, making him somewhat unpopular, and had rushed his men to reach Barbalissus in time. What didn’t help is that this may have been his first time commanding an army. What also didn’t help was that Shapur was a master of fear tactics. His archers fired volleys into the army, his heavy-armored cavalry used hit-and-run tactics, and he brought with him war elephants atop which sat archers, which would have been a horrifying sight for a soldier who had never seen one before. All this seems to have caused Laetianus to lose command and control of his own force. His charges failed, and his men began retreating without being given orders to. With no defenses to flee to, the pursuing Sassanid cavalry massacred the Romans almost totally. Laetianus himself died in battle. (7)

With half the eastern army obliterated, almost nothing stood between Shapur and Syria. Though the war was far from over, the possibility of a Persian conquest was all too real (8).

1. The family tree at this point is disputed, as are many of the details here. I’ve simplified things for the sake of brevity, there’s plenty of resources online for more information on this.
2. I’m going to be using Sassanid Era for dates, meaning Ardashir’s crowning is year 1. I’ll also provide the OTL years. The crowning happened in 226 A.D. so just add 225 to the S.E. year to get the Gregorian calendar conversion. Sassanid Era seems to have existed OTL but wasn’t widely used, instead Iranians preferred to use regnal years, or the number of years since the most recent king has been in power (Zoroastrians still do this technically). Syrians aren’t used to regnal years, so ITTL after getting conquered they adopt Sassanid Era as a replacement for Seleucid Era. Sorry for the spoilers.
3. It’s somewhat analogous to medieval European feudalism.
4. Crisis of the Third Century. Honestly Millennium Crisis sounds cooler and I hope it catches on, but I'm not much of a trendsetter.
5. Around modern Harran, Turkey
6. Modern Nusaybin, Turkey
7. ITTL, because this war is so significant, chronicles record it better. OTL, we know almost nothing about the battle of Barbalissus, besides the fact that it happened and probably was a decisive victory for Shapur. Everything else, including who commanded the Roman army, is made up. Also, if Laetianus seems overly incompetent, obviously the sources might embellish, but also, I tried to create a character whose motivations made sense while also explaining OTL mysteries like why it took so long for the army to respond, and why the battle was such a massive defeat.
8. This is technically the POD. While not much will change between 253 and 260, Shapur’s goal is to conquer the east. I’ll explain it in more detail later.
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Feel free to give any feedback, suggestions, or comments!

 

[Collondi]

Chapter 2: The (re)birth of the Persian Empire (part 2)

Map of the Persian invasion in the early 250's. Black is the army led by Shapur, green is the army led by Pabag, blue is the army led by Peroz, and red is the army led by Hormizd.

Immediately following the battle of Barbalissus there was very little actual opposition to Shapur. He first secured the cities he had bypassed on the Euphrates, then invaded Syria. There he split his army into multiple detachments to take cities as rapidly as possible. The main force was led by Shapur himself, into Syria Coele, specifically towards Antioch. Geographically, the Lake Antioch Basin directly east of the city was surrounded on all sides by mountains with few passes, making it easily defendable even for a highly outnumbered force. There were only two roads into the Basin that Shapur could reach, through Immae from the east and Armenaz from the south. He spent several days attacking both passes both day and night, eventually exhausting the garrison while the Persians armies alternated between attacks.

He arrived at Antioch itself, one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire. It was wedged between a mountain and a river and had powerful walls that were finally being put to the test. Getting bogged down in a siege here would have allowed the Roman army time to recover. However, Shapur didn’t need a long siege to capture the city. While accounts that Antioch was caught by surprise during a performance may be exaggerated, they might not have been sufficiently prepared. The King of Kings first took the nearby coastal cities and blockaded the Orontes River, cutting off all food sources. For weeks he shot arrows from the mountaintops into the city. Here, the “traitor” Mariades becomes relevant. It seems that Mariades’s exile had been indicative of a wider trend of factionalization and political instability in Antioch, and probably everywhere else as well. It seems Mariades still had numerous connections within the city’s elite and was able to arrange for the ruling city council to be overthrown. The new council, now loyal to Mariades, surrendered.

As a reward for his efforts, he was given control of Antioch as promised and recognized as emperor. Shapur’s strategy of rushing past Mesopotamia into Syria was risky, and he may not have been expecting to truly conquer the region yet. This is evidenced partly in how he ran his conquests. He sacked cities which did not surrender to him and looted those which did, which changed once victory became almost assured. This way even if his campaign failed, he would still profit.

Apart from Shapur, one army was led by Pabag, Shapur’s hazarbed. At this point the title meant leader of the royal guard, but Pabag also seems to have taken on a role as military commander. At Hierapolis, he split off and continued north on the Euphrates, before turning back near Anatolia and circling back to capture Germanicea and Cyrrhus. Another cavalry contingent was led by the argbed or head of the stables Peroz. After helping take Lake Antioch, he marched south along the Roman Road, conquering and looting until he reached Emesa. There, a local priest named Sampsigeramos organized a militia and actually succeeded in repelling the Persians. Though it may have had to do with Peroz not wanting to go too far from the main force, it was nonetheless an impressive victory. Afterwards he declared himself emperor and assumed the new name Uranius Antoninus. Further north, Hormizd, Shapur’s son and the king of Armenia launched his own campaign at this time. He invaded Cappadocia and took cities, primarily Satala. Though he would later lose the city, he demonstrated his promise and skills to his father.

Persian sources naturally downplay and ignore Roman victories, but here archaeology helps us. Sometime between 30 and 32 (255-257), one Roman army, probably led by Emperor Valerian, exploited the weakness that the entire Sassanian supply line moved along the Euphrates River and managed to reconquer much of the middle Euphrates region. Shapur’s campaign must have been jeopardized by this, and he was forced to retreat.

Archaeology has uncovered the siege of Dura-Europos and showed us how brutal and advanced siege warfare was in this period. Dura-Europos was naturally defended on three sides by cliffs, meaning only the western side needed walls. These western walls were fifty feet tall, with two layers. Recently the space between them was filled with sand, engulfing several local churches. In 28 S.E (253), the Palmyrenes had successfully defended it, and in 32 (257) it was being used as the basis for the reconquest of the middle Euphrates, so Shapur laid siege. It’s possible the entire campaign relied on capturing the city as quickly as possible, but the city walls held firm and its inhabitants refused to negotiate. The Persians began tunneling underneath, intending to collapse the ground underneath the walls. In many of these tunnels the Romans dug countermines and fought the Sassanids underground. In one case, a Roman occupied mine was filled with toxic gas created by mixing Sulfur and pitch, killing everyone inside. After several attempts to undermine and ramp over the walls, the city finally fell and was thoroughly looted.

After successfully defending his territory, Shapur went on the offensive again. In 33 S.E (258), He marched north of the Euphrates to Carrhae and Edessa where he defeated Valerian. Part of the Roman force had to hide behind Edessa’s walls, where Shapur laid siege. Valerian, meanwhile, came back with a force of 70,000 men, but was hesitant to go against Shapur, both because of his fierce reputation, and because his own men were stricken with plague, especially his Moorish cavalry. The details of what happened next are vague, but it seems Shapur hid much of his army and allowed the Edessan force to beat his besieging army back. Valerian, now confident, marched against Shapur, who feigned retreat. Just as the Romans entered the plains between Edessa and Carrhae (the very same plains where Crassus was defeated three centuries earlier), they were ambushed and kept in place until the rest of Shapur’s army showed up. Just like that, the King of Kings had arranged a pitched battle on the best possible terrain.

The battle was extremely one-sided. The Sassanid skirmishers, archers, and cavalry slowly exhausted the ill-prepared army. Shapur’s used his cavalry advantage to great effect, overwhelming the Roman cavalry. They slowly enveloped the Romans, slaughtering them in massive numbers. Valerian and many of his men likely managed to escape but had to hide in the walls of Edessa. There they were trapped in a siege, but there simply wasn’t enough food to feed the locals and the soldiers. Valerian was forced to negotiate. Shapur demanded that he negotiate in person, but during the negotiations he was taken captive. For the very first time, a Roman emperor was taken as a hostage.

Valerian’s successor Gallienus was never able to pay the ransom. While Roman sources report Valerian being tortured and used as a footstool, it’s more likely he was allowed to live the rest of his life peacefully in Persia. The once mighty emperor was put in charge of local bridge construction. As for the rest of the 70,000 men, those who weren’t killed were taken captive. Many of them also defected to Shapur and joined his army.

The dual total military victories at Barbalissus and Edessa had resulted in the complete death, capture, or defection of around 130,000 men. With the Romans so devastatingly defeated, it would be hard to continue fighting at all. But even now, the Romans were not yet done fighting.
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Feel free to give any feedback, suggestions, or comments!

 

[Collondi]

Chapter 2.5: The POD

So, I feel the point of divergence for this timeline needs a bit more explaining, so I’ve devoted a part specifically focused on it. For this section I will break kayfabe and just talk objectively about both OTL and TTL.

As I mentioned, the POD is that Shapur decides to conquer the Roman East rather than just loot and depopulate it like OTL, which you may have guessed from the title. The military events I’ve described so far are mostly as OTL with only a few changes, made up details, and embellishments (because again the sources ITTL are less vague and more descriptive). Hopefully it should be clear by now that this conquest was entirely possible.

So why didn’t he OTL? It’s a common misconception that the only thing which stopped Shapur OTL was being beaten by Odaenathus. While he is a good general, he couldn’t do much more than harass Shapur’s troops and even that is probably exaggerated by sources. I came across the answer to this question on the paradox forum of all places, where user Semper Victor has compiled a history of Sassanid Persia from its founding to the 4th century, which has proved extremely helpful so far. Obviously, I use other sources too and I disagree with it in a few parts, but I recommend reading it to get an idea of the OTL history. Check it out. Anyway, I’ll quote them on this matter.

“As for Šābuhr I’s retreat and the lack of territorial conquests, probably the main cause was a structural one: the very nature of the Iranian state and its army. As I wrote in previous posts, the Sasanian army was a very different entity from Rome’s professional army. It was basically the assembly of the Iranian nobility under the leadership of their šāhānšāh, with the addition of the armed followers of each of the nobles and the king (who was probably seen as a primus inter pares by the wuzurgān) and the allied and vassal peoples. This military organization reflected closely the social and political fabric of the Iranian empire, and in this respect little had changed since Arsacid times, despite the continuous efforts by Ardaxšir I and Šābuhr I to strengthen the crown.

This meant that in order to mount an offensive of the magnitude of the one launched in the campaign season of 253 CE, Šābuhr I would’ve needed to bargain with the Iranian nobility and gain them to his cause. The real reason for the aggressiveness and effectivity of the Sasanian empire during the reigns of its two first kings is that they were exceptionally able individuals who possessed the charisma as well as the military and political skills needed to gather the unruly Iranian nobility around their leadership. In this sense, Šābuhr I’s campaign of 253 CE was the first full scale Iranian invasion of the Roman Middle East since the early reign of Marcus Aurelius, almost a century ago, and that invasion although it had been very successful at the start, had ended in defeat.

One thing was to gather the forces of the nobility and the subject kings for a defensive campaign (like against Severus Alexander and Gordian III), and another things was to launch an invasion that probably was seen by them as an outright aggression only for the king’s benefit , despite the fact that Šābuhr I had good reasons to launch it and that he was probably justified in describing it as a preemptive strike. But probably he had to work hard at selling that to the Iranian nobility, and despite all, the nobles probably set clear limits to their involvement: a short campaign, no lengthy sieges or actions that could cause heavy losses amongst their ranks, and no annexations (they would’ve had no intention to act as occupation forces for territories that probably would have become a royal domain, and anyway they couldn’t remain absent from their estates in Iran for long periods of time). If the king wanted annexations, he would’ve needed to garrison them himself with his own royal forces, and probably that was too much to ask from the relatively small amount of troops under Šābuhr I’s direct control.

But apart from these issues, there’s yet another factor that could’ve played a part at least as important in the decision to retreat. There’s not a proper surviving Iranian written literary tradition until the VI century CE, but Iran enjoyed a very lively tradition of oral history through the work of the gosān, the traveling minstrels that composed many epic verse works that became a permanent fixture of Iranian culture. After the Islamic conquest of Iran, in the X-XII centuries this rich tradition was put in writing in New Persian by several authors, especially Ferdowsī, but also in lesser known works belonging to the Sistani cycle or epics, like the Garšaspnāma. These epic poems present an idealized version of the Iranian past, but based in real history. And they all show a shocking lack of concern and interest for events in the West. Alexander the Great is a relatively minor character in the Šāhnāma, and Ferdowsī devotes very little space to the Sasanian wars against Rome (as a matter of fact, to Ferdowsī, Alexander, the Seleucids and the Romans were all Rumi, inhabitants of Rum without further distinction). Even when dealing with the campaigns of Šābuhr I, Firdawsī conflates them with the campaigns of Šābuhr II against Constantius II and Julian, making an utter mess of it all. It’s true though that the traditions compiled in these works are mainly based in the traditions of eastern Iran (Sistan and Khorasan), but their utter lack of interest about the West is obvious. On the contrary, these traditions devote endless pages to the fights between Iran and Turan (the mythological term to describe the nomadic peoples of Central Asia) and show a constant fascination with India as a land of untold riches, mystery and learning (all Iranian heroes undertake in their youth a travel to India as a rite of passage before returning to Iran).”

So how do we create a timeline that reconciles these issues? It’s not hard to see why Shapur himself would want this. Semper Victor goes on to speculate that while Iran as a whole may not care much about the East, Persis, the ancient homeland of the Achaemenid empire and also Shapur’s homeland, did care about what they considered to be getting revenge for Alexander’s conquests. It’s easy to see why he might want to be seen as a new Cyrus and undo Alexander’s legacy, not to mention the economic and political benefits. But how would he get the other kings and nobles on board?

Well, I think it would take a little reframing, and that is where our friend Mariades comes in once again. Shapur could portray the war not as a territorial conquest, but as propping up a friendly regime in the west, which also pays tribute (a tribute that looks suspiciously like taxes if you squint hard enough). By making Mariades the Roman emperor (or at least the emperor of Syria), they can prevent future invasions and ensure peaceful relations. Given that the destructive invasion of emperor Caracalla was still fresh in everyone’s mind, I assume they wouldn’t be opposed to that. Even if in reality Mariades isn’t much different from the other Kings and Emperors Shapur controls, he’s still autonomous enough that Shapur wouldn’t be making himself too powerful for the other kings’ tastes. Also, the more victorious Shapur is, the more credible he becomes in the eyes of the nobles, which could allow him to claim some territory for himself. It'd still be hard to sell, but doable IMO.

Cities in Syria could be garrisoned with a mix of Persian forces temporarily and native Syrians, especially soldiers that defected to Shapur. It might sound illogical to use Roman soldiers to defend Roman provinces, but based on the very limited evidence we have, we can assume there was a distinctly pro-Persian faction in the East at that point. Roman controlled cities like Dura-Europos have had pro-Persian battle murals (1), and as we’ve seen even cities as far as Antioch have Persian support.

Now you should at this point be familiar with the fact that the Sassanid state is somewhat feudal, and its cohesion relies on cooperation between the King of Kings and his subjects, which could break down under a weaker ruler, and it doesn’t even have a standing army. How then, can it defend its territory? And isn’t it dangerous to leave Syria so politically autonomous? I guess you’ll have to stay tuned to find out.

1. It is worth noting that in the mural I’m referring to here, it’s not certain whether the victors being depicted are Sassanids or whether the losers being depicted are Romans.
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Feel free to give any feedback, suggestions, or comments!

 

[MagicalPhantom345]

Interesting stuff. Shame about the imploding Roman Empire though

 

[Collondi]

Interesting stuff. Shame about the imploding Roman Empire though

Thank you! As for Rome, nothing is set in stone right now. I could go down that route, I just need to figure out how that would work

 

[MagicalPhantom345]

Thank you! As for Rome, nothing is set in stone right now. I could go down that route, I just need to figure out how that would work

It is just that I remember reading a timeline with a similar premise but very different outcome from yours.

 

[Sbappuz]

Watching this with great interest. There are simply not enough timelines about iranian history!

 

[Collondi]

Watching this with great interest. There are simply not enough timelines about iranian history!

appreciate it! I agree, there’s a lot of untapped potential. Tbh I wanted to do something Rome related initially but that was before I really got interested in Iranian history

 

[Sbappuz]

appreciate it! I agree, there’s a lot of untapped potential. Tbh I wanted to do something Rome related initially but that was before I really got interested in Iranian history

Thanks! I've seen that you have drawn inspiration from a particular thread, but that is not the only one that discusses this scenario. If you are interested, there is another one titled "WI: Sassanids conquer Roman Levant in 260s" which is really interesting, particularly so thanks to the input given by John7755. Once again, best of lucj with this TL!

 

[Collondi]

Thanks! I've seen that you have drawn inspiration from a particular thread, but that is not the only one that discusses this scenario. If you are interested, there is another one titled "WI: Sassanids conquer Roman Levant in 260s" which is really interesting, particularly so thanks to the input given by John7755. Once again, best of lucj with this TL!

It really is an interesting thread, thank you for bringing it to my attention

It is just that I remember reading a timeline with a similar premise but very different outcome from yours.

If you can remember the name of it, I’d love to read that

 

[Avrorrange]

Why couldn’t Shapur offer to share conquered land amongst the vassal houses?

 

[Flavius Iulius Maiorianus]

Watched. Late antiquity is one of the more fascinating time periods in history imo.

 

[Collondi]

Why couldn’t Shapur offer to share conquered land amongst the vassal houses?

Im not sure if the vassal houses would be interested. Managing two separate estates in Iran and Syria might be difficult, and there’s also the cultural apathy towards Romans mentioned in the excerpt. Plus, they’d be obligated to defend the region if/when the empire counterattacks.

The biggest reason is just that just like the houses didnt want the royal house getting too powerful, Ardashir and Shapur were always wary about letting the vassal houses get too powerful, which is why they always claimed conquered territory for themselves. ITTL they reach a compromise

 

[Avrorrange]

Im not sure if the vassal houses would be interested. Managing two separate estates in Iran and Syria might be difficult, and there’s also the cultural apathy towards Romans mentioned in the excerpt. Plus, they’d be obligated to defend the region if/when the empire counterattacks.

The biggest reason is that I think vassalization is the best way to win over the Syrians. Sweeping away the Roman nobility and replacing them with Persian kings might not be too popular

Give the land to your younger sons? Nobles families in medieval Europe for example were quite supportive of younger sons acquiring lands as far as the Levant.

 

[MagicalPhantom345]

If you can remember the name of it, I’d love to read that

It was The Darling of the World by Vinization

 

[Collondi]

Give the land to your younger sons? Nobles families in medieval Europe for example were quite supportive of younger sons acquiring lands as far as the Levant.

That’s what Shapur usually does with conquered royal territory. It’d still be seen as trying to make the dynasty too powerful and they wouldn’t want to defend royal territory from Romans. Whereas who controls the levant wouldn’t be too important to the Duke of Aquitaine

 

[Kurd Gossemer]

Loving this! It's not often we get a TL focused on Persia, especially one that is all about having success against the Romans(which given the treatment the Ottomans often get in TLs, shows how protective people can be of the Roman Empire) and it's about my favorite Persia too... I really enjoy the details you put the chapters and my only "complaint" would be having some images to better illustrate the chapters.

Definitely watching this to see where it goes.

 

[Collondi]

Loving this! It's not often we get a TL focused on Persia, especially one that is all about having success against the Romans(which given the treatment the Ottomans often get in TLs, shows how protective people can be of the Roman Empire) and it's about my favorite Persia too... I really enjoy the details you put the chapters and my only "complaint" would be having some images to better illustrate the chapters.

Definitely watching this to see where it goes.

Thanks for the feedback! I’ll try to add more images in the future, and I hope it wasn’t too hard to follow along with what is happening where

Actually on a related note, I want to make a map, but I’m utterly inexperienced at mapmaking. While I can make something basic in mspaint It might take a little time to create something better. If anyone would like to help me out, please contact me, I’d really appreciate it

 

[Collondi]

Chapter 3: the (re)birth of the Persian Empire (part 3)

For reference, a map of cities in the Roman near east, without any of my MSpaint scribbles on them. Credit to Constantine Plakidas on Wikipedia for the map. It's technically inaccurate because it's from later on and has Dioceses, but it's close enough. Sorry about the quality, it wouldn’t let me upload the picture unless I compressed the hell out of it

Emesa, 28 S.E. (253)

As the sun set, Shapur took a walk outside to clear his head and plan. He wasn’t wearing armor, but surely he must be too far from the city and out of range of arrows. This wasn’t Shapur the king of kings, it was his son, Shapur Mesanshah (meaning king of Mesene). In many ways, he was very similar to his father, and he dreamed of the day he could be crowned Shapur II and surpass the legacy of his father. He was only the second son, but just like his grandfather Ardashir, Shapur intended to choose the most militarily capable of his sons as his heir. This war was Shapur’s chance to prove himself to his father.

He was at Emesa, one of the wealthiest cities in Syria, where men worshipped the sun. Some priest was heading the city’s resistance, and now he had to endure another siege. He didn’t understand why these Romans resisted so much. Sieges were so dull, men just sat around for days. The summer heat had been particularly brutal this year and had claimed many lives. He looked at the setting sun, wondering how the Emesenes could worship something so cruel.

Shapur fantasized about the thrill of battle, the action, the excitement, the risk. But his father didn’t trust him enough for all that yet. Maybe one day, when he became king. For now, he looked forward to when he could massacre the inhabitants of Emesa.

But he reminded himself of why he had gone on this walk. He needed to make plans. He wasn’t as confident as he had once been that he would be the heir. His hotheaded younger brother Hormizd had launched his own invasion into Cappadocia. His father loved it, and now he was praising that brat instead of Shapur. But Shapur was determined to march all the way to Egypt to win back his father. If that didn’t work, he would just have to have Hormizd be taken care of. He was already planning, thinking about how he would deal with him. When he enters the messy world of Persian politics, he needs to have figured out who to trust and who to kill.

But those thoughts were cut short by a 60 mph stone flying directly at his head.

About 300 meters away, on top of the walls of Emesa, a drunk soldier named Julius “Eagle-eye” Felix had just won a 2,000 denarius bet that he could hit the random Persian soldier he saw in the distance with his sling (1).

The following morning, when everyone realized what had happened, the soldiers in Emesa came out and attacked the Sassanids. One of the weaknesses of the Sassanid army was that they tended to rely too hard on their commander, and despite the fact the Sassanid army outnumbered the Emesenes, they immediately retreated once they learned their commander had died. After his victory, the priest declared himself emperor Uranius Antoninus, becoming popular not just because of his victory but because he was a descendant of the Emesene kings of old, as well as a distant cousin of former emperor Severus Alexander.

When news of the dead Shapur reached the alive Shapur, he was furious over the death of his most capable son. In fact, against the advice of his advisors he is said to have sworn to burn Emesa to the ground. Uranius knew just how dire his situation was. He did not have the resources to defeat the Persian army, so he offered to negotiate.

Fortunately, Shapur calmed down and realized that, with Valerian launching a counter invasion to his north, it wasn’t wise to get bogged down in a siege when they were offering surrender. So he negotiated, agreeing to recognize Uranius’s legitimacy and spare the city, if Uranius recognized Shapur as his king. But this mercy came at a high cost. The soldiers who killed Shapur Mesanshah would be executed, and the Sassanids demanded heavy payments of gold and important artifacts. The most important of these was the black stone of Emesa, a highly sacred stone, possibly meteorite, that was worshipped as a symbol of their sun god Elagabal. As revenge for the Emesenes taking away the son he loved most, he would take away the sun they loved most (2). But despite losing such an important religious artifact, the negotiation with Shapur was generally celebrated as both sides having made peace while avoiding bloodshed.

Edessa, 33 (258)

After Valerian’s capture, he had left behind an army of 50,000 which was now under the effective control of one Macrianus the elder, who had overseen managing supply lines and finances and was one of the few high-ranking officials who had avoided capture. He was forced to retreat into Anatolia. Since someone now needed to call the shots, he became the de facto emperor, though he couldn’t claim the title officially because he had a deformity in one of his legs.

After his crushing victory, Shapur wasted no time. He left an army to continue the sieges of Edessa and Carrhae and rushed off. From Edessa he took the fastest route possible to the Cilician gates, a pass in southern Anatolia which, once under Shapur’s control, would block Roman armies from entering Syria.

They marched with remarkable speed even for the Persians. The Romans were given false intel that Shapur was heading south and that he was suing for peace, so they were unprepared to deal with him. Cilicia was also an interior province, meaning it had a relatively small army stationed there that was only meant to keep the peace. Cities like Mopuseta surrendered immediately, and the siege of Adana reportedly lasted a week. The man chosen to lead them was Callistus, nicknamed Ballista, who was a member of Valerian’s praetorian guard. Realizing his men weren’t prepared to defend Tarsus, he was forced to retreat to the narrower mountain pass near Seleucia and let the city be besieged without a fight.

Callistus defended the pass fiercely, but like he did at the Antioch basin, Shapur used his superior numbers to wear down the Romans. He had his archers alternate between sleeping and firing volleys of arrows at the Romans at night, so the Roman army never got to sleep. Callistus eventually had to escape by ship, and Shapur promptly laid siege to every city from Tarsus to Selinus, almost 175 miles of coastline. Selinus’s capture was especially symbolically important, as it was where Trajan had died. But spreading his troops so thin and not yet having a functioning navy gave Callistus an opportunity. He landed his men near Pompeiopolis and took the army besieging the city by surprise, killing several thousand. By the time Persian reinforcements arrived his men were back in the sea. It didn’t change much, and it certainly didn’t stop Shapur from taking the entire coastline, but it did help morale.

During this time Macrianus was busy with his own campaign. In the year 29 (254), Hormizd, Shapur’s third son, king of Armenia, and an ambitious prince looking to prove himself, captured Satala. Orontes, an Armenian bureaucrat, was put in charge of the city. Later in 31 (256) Valerian took back the city and forced Orontes to flee, but since the emperor was far too preoccupied to pay attention to a single city, several of his key supporters remained in control of the city. After Edessa, Orontes snuck back in via oxcart, messaged Hormizd, and took back control of Satala when the Armenian army arrived. Macrianus was busy dealing with Hormizd when he received news that Shapur was invading, but he had no reinforcements to spare.

By spring of 34 S.E. (259), the Persians had conquered all they intended to hold. Campaigning in Cappadocia continued, but it was now about weakening the Romans by burning down Anatolia, looting it, and most importantly, taking its population as captives. Shapur left Hormizd in charge of the Cappadocian campaign.

Caesarea Mazaca, the largest city in Cappadocia, was the first target. Its inhabitants held out for several grueling months under the leadership of Demosthenes, an influential Cappadocian patrician, known for his oration skills. Eventually the Sassanids kidnapped a doctor and tortured him into revealing a passage into the city, and the besiegers snuck in at night. Demosthenes managed to escape the city; the rest didn’t. The residents of Caesarea were thoroughly slaughtered. The city was known its large Jewish population, many of whom helped resist the Sassanids. Both Shapur and Hormizd were religiously tolerant and were generally seen in a positive light in Jewish scripture, but Jewish or not, the Persians always made an example of those who didn’t surrender to them. And so, among those massacred in Caesarea were reportedly 12,000 Jews (3).

Macrianus and Callistus didn’t have nearly enough men to pose a serious threat to Shapur. All they could do was try to harass the Persians and fight a guerilla war until Gallienus could bring reinforcements. Reinforcement, however, proved difficult to provide. After Edessa Gallienus had to defeat the usurper Ingenuus, and after that he had to defeat the usurper Regalianus. After that, he embarked with his men to Anatolia, only to receive word that he had left the Rhine frontier undermanned and an Alemannic army of 30,000 had broken through and invaded Italy itself. They were barely repelled by a militia from the defenseless city of Rome and were now laying siege of Mediolanum. It was too serious of a threat for the emperor to ignore. He beat the army back at the battle of Mediolanum, but by this point it was well into the summer of 34 S.E (259). By the time he got to Anatolia campaign season would be over and he would have had to wait until spring of 35 to attack, almost two years after the battle of Edessa, and that was assuming nothing else went wrong.

What made things worse was that the Persians had invited barbarians to raid into Anatolia. The Goths and Borani had already been raiding the northern coast and sacked Trapezus and Chalcedon, but the war left the Roman army distracted and allowed them to pillage and loot Anatolia to an extent far greater than they ever had before. The Roman army was already stretched thin and could only watch as they plundered cities in the northwest virtually unopposed.

Map of the Persian invasion of Anatolia. In black is Shapur's army as he invades Cilicia. In green is the same army, this time not under Shapur's command, and this time looting and plundering rather than conquering. In red is the Armenian army, led by Hormizd. In blue are the various black sea tribes looking to also get in on the action.

There is a lot of historical debate over how successful the Anatolian campaign really was. Cilicia and Eastern Cappadocia were conquered, but most of Cappadocia wasn’t. But did they intend to conquer it in the first place? Given how heavily they plundered the area, they probably didn’t, and Persian nobles who had grown tired of the war would have likely opposed it. Roman sources written decades afterwards tend to report that Macrianus successfully defended his territory and fought the Persians bravely. This could be dismissed as Roman propaganda, if it wasn’t for the fact that eastern sources are strangely silent about Anatolia. They normally describe Shapur’s campaigns in detail but tend to skip over Anatolia. It’s possible Hormizd did suffer significant losses, not from any one battle except Pompeiopolis, but through raids and guerilla warfare. In fact, the mountainous terrain of Cappadocia would have made it easy to harass and demoralize the Persians. But it can’t have been that bad, as Hormizd was given the title of “the brave” for his campaign, as well as made the heir to the throne. Regardless of the costs, they had accomplished their goals.

Meanwhile, Shapur began the process of conquering the south, which mostly just involved cleaning up. Uranius had already negotiated for much of Palestinia to surrender peacefully, and they didn’t really have the resources to defend themselves. The province of Arabia was mostly ignored besides its coast, as Shapur wanted to skip directly to Egypt.

In Egypt, the population was divided. Many were against this foreign invasion, but plague, political unrest, and economic downturn had hit Egypt hard even compared to the rest of the Roman Empire, and many hoped the Persians could help restore order.

The governor was Lucius Mussius Aemilianus, and he had received an army reportedly 60,000 men strong, though that number was probably inflated and may have been closer to 40,000. Even though he knew this wouldn’t be enough, he could neither afford nor get access to more men. Dealing with local riots alone cost him quite a lot, and it left his men quite demoralized. Aemilianus had to rely heavily on Roman shipments of money, supplies, and reinforcements from Italy, where Gallienus was hoping to keep Egypt from falling under Sassanid control until the end of the year, when he could launch his counterattack. To ensure Aemilian’s loyalty, Gallienus appointed a co-commander named Theodotus to watch over him. One of the leading men opposed to Aemilianus was a garrison commander named Timagenes, who secretly wrote to Shapur, but Shapur ordered him not to betray Aemilian yet.

Though Shapur had numerical superiority, he lacked a navy, which meant Egyptian sieges were slow. The inhabitants couldn’t be blockaded and starved, either they had to negotiate or overwhelm the walls. Like Callistus had done at Pompeiopolis, Aemilianus could transport his army freely by sea and catch the Persians by surprise, which allowed him to defeat the Persians at Tanis. Still, he captured cities at a slow pace.

To solve his naval problem, Shapur turned to the island of Cyprus. During Shapur’s invasion, much of the fleet in Syria escaped to Cyprus, which became their new naval base. Aemilianus had taken much of the local garrison to reinforce his men. This gave the locals an opportunity to rebel, with Shapur’s support. He helped a local named Androcles, who would later become the infamous “tyrant of the seas,” gain power. In exchange for a large sum of money, Androcles took over the Roman ships stationed there, as well as various merchant ships in the Aegean. Though this wasn’t enough to defeat Rome navally, Androcles was able to launch raids and capture supplies being shipped to Egypt. Shapur had also started spreading rumors about having constructed his own grand fleet. In reality, he had made a few ships, and was using sailors from the Caspian Sea and Persis to launch occasional raids, but they weren’t experienced enough in naval combat. Still, this worried Aemilianus, who believed time wasn’t on his side.

At the suggestion of Timagenes, he decided to meet Shapur in battle at Heliopolis (Modern Cairo), near Babylon fortress. He knew he would be outnumbered, as he was attacking an army of 30,000 with an army of 25,000. To maximize his odds, he would catch the Sassanids by surprise at night, which would also make their archers, a significant portion of their army, useless. 15,000 men would attack directly, while 10,000 men, led by Timagenes, who hid in the hills to the east, would go behind and cut of the Sassanids’ escape. Shapur, however, found out about the ambush and planned accordingly. He would enter a feigned retreat, while Timagenes would betray Aemilian and stay put. Then, the Persians would turn around and catch the Romans by surprise.

Aemilian, however, suspected someone was leaking his plans. A week before the ambush was scheduled, he let his men know they would launch the ambush that very night. Possibly suspecting Timagenes, or also to throw Shapur off, he had Timagenes garrison Babylon Fortress, while his second in command Theodotus controlled the smaller force.

The plan worked, and on the night of the attack Shapur truly was caught off-guard. He also hadn’t fully prepared, believing he had plenty of time left. As a result, his retreat was more disoriented than he had expected, with Aemilian hot on his tail. Meanwhile, Theodotus’s men were rapidly approaching from the other direction. Shapur knew he needed to act fast, because if he was attacked from both sides the battle would quickly be over.

He ordered his men to stop retreating, stand firm, and had his entire lance cavalry charge directly into Aemilian’s center. Instead of fighting a war on two sides he knew he couldn’t win, he would focus almost all his strength into Aemilian’s army, while leaving his rear vulnerable.

What little rearguard Shapur had was quickly overwhelmed by Theodotus, so quickly that he suspected a trap. He believed that there were more cavalry hiding in the night waiting to ambush him if he advanced. As a result, his attack was slow and cautious, far too cautious to take full advantage of the remarkable opportunity that could have, with the benefit of hindsight, won the battle right then and there.

Meanwhile, Aemilian’s army suddenly found itself facing the full brunt of Shapur’s attack. For unknown reasons, whether it was confusion over the nighttime obscuring communication, uncertainty about the status of Theodotus’s force, fear over the infamous Persian cavalry, or simply Aemilian’s already demoralized force giving up, the army began retreating within the hour.

With them dealt with, Shapur could turn his cavalry around and attack Theodotus in full force. Once Theodotus was dealt with, he turned around again to finish Aemilian off. Aemilian attempted to hide his men in Babylon fortress, only to find that the traitorous Timagenes had locked them out, leaving the Romans to their fate. In the end, exposing his flank has cost Shapur thousands of men, but his victory cost the Romans two thirds of their men (4).

The next morning, a defeated Aemilian committed suicide while Theodotus fled with the rest of his men to Africa. With Egypt now defenseless, emperor Gallienus was forced to sue for peace. In addition to recognizing Sassanid control of Egypt, Syria, Palestinia, Arabia, Cilicia, and a slice of Cappadocia, he was forced to pay a sum of 20,000 pounds of gold upfront with an extra 3,500 annually (5). Peace between Rome and Persia would be guaranteed for at least 20 years.

The war had lasted for seven years. It was certainly costly for the Sassanids, and though estimating losses on their end is more difficult, scholars have suggested between 40,000-50,000 out of a force numbering an upwards of 150,000. For the Romans, if Shapur’s army size reports are to be believed-and none of the claims he makes seem to be outrageously exaggerated-the total amount of Roman soldiers who were killed, captured, deserted, or defected to Shapur would be over 165,000. This was almost a third of the entire Roman army, combined with a loss of almost a third of its land. Such a devastating defeat would be enough to destroy any empire even without the numerous other issues plaguing the empire, and yet it would persist, its inhabitants hoping they can one day strike back at the Persians even harder.
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A lot of work, computer issues, and writing issues conspired against me releasing this earlier. I’ll try to release future updates sooner, but no promises. In the next few updates there won’t be nearly as much war stuff, except for some campaigns in India and the Caucasus but they won’t be this intense, most of it will focus on consolidation and the way the new Sassanid state develops.

As always, any thoughts, questions, comments, feedback, or anything else are appreciated!

1. We’re rewinding the timeline a little bit to before the battle of Edessa to talk about Emesa and Uranius Antoninus, since I kind of glossed over them last time. Now, you may be wondering; did this really happen IOTL? Well, while multiple sources attest that Uranius won a military victory at Emesa, only one gives any detail about how that was achieved, which is the byzantine chronicler, John Malalas. He claims that king Shapur met up with Uranius to discuss terms but was killed by a slingshot. Most historians dismiss this outright, since obviously this couldn’t have happened. However, a commander being sniped is one of the few plausible explanations for how a far outnumbered force could defeat a professional army. IOTL, extremely little is known about prince Shapur Mesanshah, only that he likely died sometime around the 250’s or 260’s. Malalas could have gotten the prince confused with his more famous father. That means its plausible the events I’m describing did happen, though this specific scenario might not be the most likely, I just wanted to have some fun.

2. Sorry about the pun, I couldn’t resist. Anyway, Uranius didn’t repel the Persians like I claimed in the last update, at least not totally, he had to submit to Shapur. I’m still getting the hang of things so there may be a few retcons here and there. What this means is that there actually is OTL precedent for the entire premise of this TL, and although we know almost nothing about Uranius, we can learn some things, like the fact that despite being subordinate to a Persian king, he was still a popular emperor.

3. Shapur’s relationship with the Jews is a subject to be explored in future updates, and this massacre will certainly not be forgotten

4. I feel like my explanation of battles in the last update was very lackluster and was hoping to improve that in this update. I’d like some feedback on my battle descriptions. Was it captivating? Was it too hard to follow along with what is happening where?

5. For comparison, the largest sum of money promised to Atilla the Hun OTL was 6,000 pounds of gold upfront and 2,100 annually

 

[Kurd Gossemer]

Super glad seeing this back! Hopefully the Sassanids can hold their conquests and prepare for the inevitable Roman attack in the future.