Shapur I

Shapur ruled from 240 to 270, co-reigning with his father Ardashir I until 242, then consolidating and expanding the empire alone. He pushed into Roman Syria, seizing Nisibis and Carrhae, lost at Resaena in 243 to Gordian III, then won at Misiche the next year and forced the new emperor Philip the Arab into what Romans called "a most shameful treaty". A second campaign in the 250s sacked Antioch and Dura-Europos; a third in 260 netted the ultimate prize - the capture of Emperor Valerian himself. He plundered rather than occupied, deporting masses of Roman subjects to rebuild cities like Gundeshapur, later a center of scholarship, and expanded his title to "King of Kings of Iranians and non-Iranians" to account for them. He built Zoroastrian fire temples, folded Greek and Indian elements into the faith, tolerated the new prophet Mani, and according to his own inscription at Hajiabad still practiced archery at court in old age. He died of illness in Bishapur in May 270.