_Death of Artaxerxes I. and Accession of Sapor I. War of Sapor with
Manizen. His first War with Rome. Invasion of Mesopotamia, A.D. 241.
Occupation of Antioch. Expedition of Gordian to the East. Recovery by
Rome of her lost Territory. Peace made between Rome and Persia. Obscure
Interval. Second War with Rome. Mesopotamia again invaded, A.D. 258.
Valerian takes the Command in the East. Struggle between him and Sapor.
Defeat and Capture of Valerian, A.D. 260. Sapor invests Miriades with
the Purple. He takes Syria and Southern Cappadocia, but is shortly
afterwards attacked by Odenathus. Successes of Odenathus. Treatment of
Valerian. Further successes of Odenathus. Period of Tranquillity. Great
Works of Sapor. His Scriptures. His Dyke. His Inscriptions. His Coins.
His Religion. Religious Condition of the East in his Time. Rise into
Notice of Mani. His Rejection by Sapor. Sapor’s Death. His Character._
[Illustration: CHAPTER-4]
Artaxerxes appears to have died in A.D. 240. He was succeeded by his
son, Shahpuhri, or Sapor, the first Sassanian prince of that name.
According to the Persian historians, the mother of Sapor was a daughter
of the last Parthian king, Artabanus, whom Artaxerxes had taken to wife
after his conquest of her father. But the facts known of Sapor throw
doubt on this story, which has too many parallels in Oriental romance
to claim implicit credence. Nothing authentic has come down to us
respecting Sapor during his father’s lifetime; but from the moment that
he mounted the throne, we find him engaged in a series of wars, which
show him to have been of a most active and energetic character. Armenia,
which Artaxerxes had subjected, attempted (it would seem) to regain
its independence at the commencement of the new reign; but Sapor easily
crushed the nascent insurrection, and the Armenians made no further
effort to free themselves till several years after his death.
Contemporaneously with this revolt in the mountain region of the north,
a danger showed itself in the plain country of the south, where Manizen,
king of Hatra, or El Hadhr, not only declared himself independent, but
assumed dominion over the entire tract between the Euphrates and the
Tigris, the Jezireh of the Arabian geographers. The strength of Hatra
was great, as had been proved by Trajan and Severus; its thick walls
and valiant inhabitants would probably have defied every attempt of
the Persian prince to make himself master of it by force. He therefore
condescended to stratagem. Manizen had a daughter who cherished
ambitious views. On obtaining a promise from Sapor that if she gave
Hatra into his power he would make her his queen, this unnatural child
turned against her father, betrayed him into Sapor’s hands, and thus
brought the war to an end. Sapor recovered his lost territory; but he
did not fulfil his bargain. Instead of marrying the traitress, he handed
her over to an executioner, to receive the death that she had deserved,
though scarcely at his hands. Encouraged by his success in these two
lesser contests, Sapor resolved (apparently in A.D. 241) to resume the
bold projects of his father, and engage in a great war with Rome. The
confusion and troubles which afflicted the Roman Empire at this time
were such as might well give him hopes of obtaining a decided advantage.
Alexander, his father’s adversary, had been murdered in A.D. 235 by
Maximin, who from the condition of a Thracian peasant had risen into the
higher ranks of the army. The upstart had ruled like the savage that he
was; and, after three years of misery, the whole Roman world had risen
against him. Two emperors had been proclaimed in Africa; on their fall,
two others had been elected by the Senate; a third, a mere boy, had been
added at the demand of the Roman populace. All the pretenders except
the last had met with violent deaths; and, after the shocks of a year
unparalleled since A.D. 69, the administration of the greatest kingdom
in the world was in the hands of a youth of fifteen. Sapor, no doubt,
thought he saw in this condition of things an opportunity that he ought
not to miss, and rapidly matured his plans lest the favorable moment
should pass away.
Crossing the middle Tigris into Mesopotamia, the bands of Sapor first
attacked the important city of Nisibis. Nisibis, at this time a Roman
colony, was strongly situated on the outskirts of the mountain
range which traverses Northern Mesopotamia between the 37th and 38th
parallels. The place was well fortified and well defended; it offered a
prolonged resistance; but at last the Avails were breached, and it was
forced to yield itself. The advance was then made along the southern
flank of the mountains, by Carrhae (Harran) and Edessa to the Euphrates,
which was probably reached in the neighborhood of Birehjik, The hordes
then poured into Syria, and, spreading themselves over that fertile
region, surprised and took the metropolis of the Roman East, the rich
and luxurious city of Antioch. But meantime the Romans had shown a
spirit which had not been expected from them. Gordian, young as he
was, had quitted Rome and marched through Mossia and Thrace into Asia,
accompanied by a formidable army, and by at least one good general.
Timesitheus, whose daughter Gordian had recently married, though his
life had hitherto been that of a civilian, exhibited, on his elevation
to the dignity of Praetorian prefect, considerable military ability.
The army, nominally commanded by Gordian, really acted under his orders.
With it Timesitheus attacked and beat the bands of Sapor in a number of
engagements, recovered Antioch, crossed the Euphrates, retook
Carrhae, defeated the Persian monarch in a pitched battle near Resaina
(Ras-el-Ain), recovered Nisibis, and once more planted the Roman
standards on the banks of the Tigris. Sapor hastily evacuated most of
his conquests, and retired first across the Euphrates and then across
the more eastern river; while the Romans advanced as he retreated,
placed garrisons in the various Mesopotamian towns, and even threatened
the great city of Ctesiphon. Gordian was confident that his general
would gain further triumphs, and wrote to the Senate to that effect;
but either disease or the arts of a rival cut short the career of
the victor, and from the time of his death the Romans ceased to be
successful. The legions had, it would seem, invaded Southern Mesopotamia
when the Praetorian prefect who had succeeded Timesitheus brought
them intentionally into difficulties by his mismanagement of the
commissariat; and at last retreat was determined on. The young emperor
was approaching the Khabour, and had almost reached his own frontier,
when the discontent of the army, fomented by the prefect, Philip, came
to a head. Gordian was murdered at a place called Zaitha, about twenty
miles south of Circesium, and was buried where he fell, the soldiers
raising a tumulus in his honor. His successor, Philip, was glad to make
peace on any tolerable terms with the Persians; he felt himself insecure
upon his throne, and was anxious to obtain the Senate’s sanction of his
usurpation. He therefore quitted the East in A.D. 244, having concluded
a treaty with Sapor, by which Armenia seems to have been left to the
Persians, while Mesopotamia returned to its old condition of a Roman
province.
The peace made between Philip and Sapor was followed by an interval of
fourteen years, during which scarcely anything is known of the condition
of Persia. We may suspect that troubles in the north-east of his empire
occupied Sapor during this period, for at the end of it we find Bactria,
which was certainly subject to Persia during the earlier years of
the monarchy, occupying an independent position, and even assuming an
attitude of hostility towards the Persian monarch. Bactria had, from a
remote antiquity, claims to pre-eminence among the Aryan nations. She
was more than once inclined to revolt from the Achaemenidae; and during
the later Parthian period she had enjoyed a sort of semi-independence.
It would seem that she now succeeded in detaching herself altogether
from her southern neighbor, and becoming a distinct and separate power.
To strengthen her position she entered into relations with Rome, which
gladly welcomed any adhesions to her cause in this remote region.
Sapor’s second war with Rome was, like his first, provoked by himself.
After concluding his peace with Philip, he had seen the Roman world
governed successively by six weak emperors, of whom four had died
violent deaths, while at the same time there had been a continued series
of attacks upon the northern frontiers of the empire by Alemanni,
Goths, and Franks, who had ravaged at their will a number of the finest
provinces, and threatened the absolute destruction of the great monarchy
of the West. It was natural that the chief kingdom of Western Asia
should note these events, and should seek to promote its own interests
by taking advantage of the circumstances of the time. Sapor, in A.D.
258, determined on a fresh invasion of the Roman provinces, and, once
more entering Mesopotamia, carried all before him, became master of
Nisibis, Carrhae, and Edessa, and, crossing the Euphrates, surprised
Antioch, which was wrapped in the enjoyment of theatrical and other
representations, and only knew its fate on the exclamation of a couple
of actors “that the Persians were in possession of the town.” The
aged emperor, Valerian, hastened to the protection of his more eastern
territories, and at first gained some successes, retaking Antioch, and
making that city his headquarters during his stay in the East. But,
after this, the tide turned. Valerian entrusted the whole conduct of the
war to Macrianus, his Praetorian prefect, whose talents he admired, and
of whose fidelity he did not entertain a suspicion. Macrianus,
however, aspired to the empire, and intentionally brought Valerian into
difficulties, in the hope of disgracing or removing him. His tactics
were successful. The Roman army in Mesopotamia was betrayed into a
situation whence escape was impossible, and where its capitulation was
only a question of time. A bold attempt’ made to force a way through the
enemy’s lines failed utterly, after which famine and pestilence began
to do their work. In vain did the aged emperor send envoys to propose a
peace, and offer to purchase escape by the payment of an immense sum in
gold. Sapor, confident of victory, refused the overture, and, waiting
patiently till his adversary was at the last gasp, invited him to
a conference, and then treacherously seized his person. The army
surrendered or dispersed. Macrianus, the Praetorian prefect, shortly
assumed the title of emperor, and marched against Gallienus, the son and
colleague of Valerian, who had been left to direct affairs in the West.
But another rival started up in the East. Sapor conceived the idea of
complicating the Roman affairs by himself putting forward a pretender;
and an obscure citizen of Antioch, a certain Miriades or Cyriades, a
refugee in his camp, was invested with the purple, and assumed the title
of Caesar. [PLATE. XIII.]
[Illustration: PLATE 13.]
The blow struck at Edessa laid the whole of Roman Asia open to attack,
and the Persian monarch was not slow to seize the occasion. His troops
crossed the Euphrates in force, and, marching on Antioch, once more
captured that unfortunate town, from which the more prudent citizens had
withdrawn, but where the bulk of the people, not displeased at the turn
of affairs, remained and welcomed the conqueror. Miriades was installed
in power, while Sapor himself, at the head of his irresistible
squadrons, pressed forward, bursting “like a mountain torrent” into
Cilicia and thence into Cappadocia. Tarsus, the birthplace of St. Paul,
at once a famous seat of learning and a great emporium of commerce,
fell; Cilicia Campestris was overrun; and the passes of Taurus, deserted
or weakly defended by the Romans, came into Sapor’s hands. Penetrating
through them and entering the champaign country beyond, his bands soon
formed the siege of Caesarea Mazaca, the greatest city of these parts,
estimated, at this time to have contained a population of four hundred
thousand souls. Demosthenes, the governor of Caesarea, defended
it bravely, and, had force only been used against him, might have
prevailed; but Sapor found friends within the walls, and by their help
made himself master of the place, while its bold defender was obliged to
content himself with escaping by cutting his way through the victorious
host. All Asia Minor now seemed open to the conqueror; and it is
difficult to understand why he did not at any rate attempt a permanent
occupation of the territory which he had so easily overrun. But it
seems certain that he entertained no such idea. Devastation and plunder,
revenge and gain, not permanent conquest, were his objects; and hence
his course was everywhere marked by ruin and carnage, by smoking towns,
ravaged fields, and heaps of slain. His cruelties have no doubt been
exaggerated; but when we hear that he filled the ravines and valleys of
Cappadocia with dead bodies, and so led his cavalry across them; that
he depopulated Antioch, killing or carrying off into slavery almost the
whole population; that he suffered his prisoners in many cases to perish
of hunger, and that he drove them to water once a day like beasts, we
may be sure that the guise in which he showed himself to the Romans was
that of a merciless scourge--an avenger bent on spreading the terror
of his name--not of one who really sought to enlarge the limits of his
empire.
During the whole course of this plundering expedition, until the retreat
began, we hear but of one check that the bands of Sapor received. It had
been determined to attack Emesa (now Hems), one of the most important of
the Syrian towns, where the temple of Venus was known to contain a vast
treasure. The invaders approached, scarcely expecting to be resisted;
but the high priest of the temple, having collected a large body of
peasants, appeared, in his sacerdotal robes, at the head of a
fanatic multitude armed with slings, and succeeded in beating off the
assailants. Emesa, its temple, and its treasure, escaped the rapacity
of the Persians; and an example of resistance was set, which was not
perhaps without important consequences.
For it seems certain that the return of Sapor across the Euphrates was
not effected without considerable loss and difficulty. On his advance
into Syria he had received an embassy from a certain Odenathus, a Syrian
or Arab chief, who occupied a position of semi-independence at Palmyra,
which, through the advantages of its situation, had lately become a
flourishing commercial town. Odenathus sent a long train of camels laden
with gifts, consisting in part of rare and precious merchandise, to the
Persian monarch, begging him to accept them, and claiming his favorable
regard on the ground that he had hitherto refrained from all acts of
hostility against the Persians. It appears that Sapor took offence at
the tone of the communication, which was not sufficiently humble to
please him. Tearing the letter to fragments and trampling it beneath his
feet, he exclaimed--“Who is this Odenathus, and of what country, that he
ventures thus to address his lord? Let him now, if he would lighten his
punishment, come here and fall prostrate before me with his hands tied
behind his back. Should he refuse, let him be well assured that I will
destroy himself, his race, and his land.” At the same time he ordered
his servants to cast the costly presents of the Palmyrene prince into
the Euphrates.
This arrogant and offensive behavior naturally turned the willing
friend into an enemy. Odenathus, finding himself forced into a hostile
position, took arms and watched his opportunity. So long as Sapor
continued to advance, he kept aloof. As soon, however, as the retreat
commenced, and the Persian army, encumbered with its spoil and captives,
proceeded to make its way back slowly and painfully to the Euphrates,
Odenathus, who had collected a large force, in part from the Syrian
villages, in part from the wild tribes of Arabia, made his appearance in
the field. His light and agile horsemen hovered about the Persian host,
cut off their stragglers, made prize of much of their spoil, and even
captured a portion of the seraglio of the Great King. The harassed
troops were glad when they had placed the Euphrates between themselves
and their pursuer, and congratulated each other on their escape. So
much had they suffered, and so little did they feel equal to further
conflicts, that on their march through Mesopotamia they consented to
purchase the neutrality of the people of Edessa by making over to them
all the coined money that they had carried off in their Syrian raid.
After this it would seem that the retreat was unmolested, and Sapor
succeeded in conveying the greater part of his army, together with his
illustrious prisoner, to his own country.
With regard to the treatment that Valerian received at the hands of
his conqueror, it is difficult to form a decided opinion. The writers
nearest to the time speak vaguely and moderately, merely telling us that
he grew old in his captivity, and was kept in the condition of a slave.
It is reserved for authors of the next generation to inform us that he
was exposed to the constant gaze of the multitude, fettered, but clad in
the imperial purple; and that Sapor, whenever he mounted on horseback,
placed his foot upon his prisoner’s neck. Some add that, when the
unhappy captive died, about the year A.D. 265 or 266, his body was
flayed, and the skin inflated and hung up to view in one of the most
frequented temples of Persia, where it was seen by Roman envoys on their
visits to the Great King’s court.
It is impossible to deny that Oriental barbarism may conceivably have
gone to these lengths; and it is in favor of the truth of the details
that Roman vanity would naturally have been opposed to their invention.
But, on the other hand, we have to remember that in the East the person
of a king is generally regarded as sacred, and that self-interest
restrains the conquering monarch from dishonoring one of his own class.
We have also to give due weight to the fact that the earlier authorities
are silent with respect to any such atrocities and that they are
first related half a century after the time when they are said to
have occurred. Under these circumstances the scepticism of Gibbon with
respect to them is perhaps more worthy of commendation than the ready
faith of a recent French writer.
It may be added that Oriental monarchs, when they are cruel, do not show
themselves ashamed of their cruelties, but usually relate them openly in
their inscriptions, or represent them in their bas-reliefs. The remains
ascribed on good grounds to Sapor do not, however, contain anything
confirmatory of the stories which we are considering. Valerian is
represented on them in a humble attitude, but not fettered, and never in
the posture of extreme degradation commonly associated with his name. He
bends his knee, as no doubt he would be required to do, on being brought
into the Great King’s presence; but otherwise he does not appear to
be subjected to any indignity. It seems thus to be on the whole most
probable that the Roman emperor was not more severely treated than the
generalty of captive princes, and that Sapor has been unjustly taxed
with abusing the rights of conquest.
The hostile feeling of Odenathus against Sapor did not cease with the
retreat of the latter across the Euphrates. The Palmyrene prince was
bent on taking advantage of the general confusion of the times to carve
out for himself a considerable kingdom, of which Palmyra should be the
capital. Syria and Palestine on the one hand, Mesopotamia on the other,
were the provinces that lay most conveniently near to him, and that he
especially coveted. But Mesopotamia had remained in the possession of
the Persians as the prize of their victory over Valerian, and could
only be obtained by wresting it from the hands into which it had fallen.
Odenathus did not shrink from this contest. It had been with some
reason conjectured that Sapor must have been at this time occupied with
troubles which had broken out on the eastern side of his empire. At any
rate, it appears that Odenathus, after a short contest with Macriarius
and his son, Quietus, turned his arms once more, about A.D. 263, against
the Persians, crossed the Euphrates into Mesopotamia, took Oarrhee and
Nisibis, defeated Sapor and some of his sons in a battle, and drove
the entire Persian host in confusion to the gates of Ctesiphon. He even
ventured to form the siege of that city; but it was not long before
effectual relief arrived; from all the provinces flocked in contingents
for the defence of the Western capital; several engagements were fought,
in some of which Odenathus was defeated; and at last he found himself
involved in difficulties through his ignorance of the localities, and
so thought it best to retire. Apparently his retreat was undisturbed; he
succeeded in carrying off his booty and his prisoners, among whom
were several satraps, and he retained possession of Mesopotamia, which
continued to form a part of the Palmyrene kingdom until the capture of
Zenobia by Aurelian (A.D. 273).
The successes of Odenathus in A.D. 263 were followed by a period of
comparative tranquillity. That ambitious prince seems to have been
content with ruling from the Tigris to the Mediterranean, and with
the titles of “Augustus,” which he received from the Roman emperor,
Gallienus, and “king of kings,” which he assumed upon his coins. He did
not press further upon Sapor; nor did the Roman emperor make any serious
attempt to recover his father’s person or revenge his defeat upon the
Persians. An expedition which he sent out to the East, professedly
with this object, in the year A.D. 267, failed utterly, its commander,
Heraclianus, being completely defeated by Zenobia, the widow and
successor of Odenathus. Odenathus himself was murdered by a kinsman
three or four years after his great successes; and, though Zenobia
ruled his kingdom almost with a man’s vigor, the removal of his powerful
adversary must have been felt as a relief by the Persian monarch. It
is evident, too, that from the time of the accession of Zenobia, the
relations between Rome and Palmyra had become unfriendly; the old empire
grew jealous of the new kingdom which had sprung up upon its borders;
and the effect of this jealousy, while it lasted, was to secure Persia
from any attack on the part of either.
It appears that Sapor, relieved from any further necessity of defending
his empire in arms, employed the remaining years of his life in
the construction of great works, and especially in the erection and
ornamentation of a new capital. The ruins of Shahpur, which still exist
near Kazerun, in the province of Fars, commemorate the name, and afford
some indication of the grandeur, of the second Persian monarch. Besides
remains of buildings, they comprise a number of bas-reliefs and rock
inscriptions, some of which were beyond a doubt set up by Sapor I.
In one of the most remarkable the Persian monarch is represented on
horseback, wearing the crown usual upon his coins, and holding by the
hand a tunicked figure, probably Miriades, whom he is presenting to the
captured Romans as their sovereign. Foremost to do him homage is the
kneeling figure of a chieftain, probably Valerian, behind whom are
arranged in a double line seventeen persons, representing apparently the
different corps of the Roman army. [PLATE XIV.] All these persons are on
foot, while in contrast with them are arranged behind Sapor ten guards
on horseback, who represent his irresistible cavalry. Another bas-relief
at the same place gives us a general view of the triumph of Sapor on his
return to Persia with his illustrious prisoner. Here fifty-seven guards
are ranged behind him, while in front are thirty-three tribute-bearers,
having with them an elephant and a chariot. In the centre is a group
of seven figures, comprising Sapor, who is on horseback in his usual
costume; Valerian, who is under the horse’s feet; Miriades, who stands
by Sapor’s side; three principal tribute-bearers in front of the main
figure; and a Victory which floats in the sky.
[Illustration: PLATE 14.]
Another important work, assigned by tradition to Sapor I., is the great
dyke at Shuster. This is a dam across the river Karun, formed of cut
stones, cemented by lime, and fastened together by clamps of iron; it is
twenty feet broad, and no less than twelve hundred feet in length. The
whole is a solid mass excepting in the centre, where two small arches
have been constructed for the purpose of allowing a part of the stream
to flow in its natural bed. The greater portion of the water is directed
eastward into a canal cut for it; and the town of Shuster is thus
defended on both sides by a water barrier, whereby the position becomes
one of great strength. Tradition says that Sapor used his power over
Valerian to obtain Roman engineers for this work; and the great dam is
still known as the Bund-i-Kaisar, or “dam of Caesar,” to the inhabitants
of the neighboring country.
Besides his works at Shahpur and Shuster, Sapor set up memorials
of himself at Haji-abad, Nakhsh-i-Rajab, and Nakhsh-i-Rustam, near
Persepolis, at Darabgerd in South-eastern Persia, and elsewhere; most
of which still exist and have been described by various travellers. At
Nakhsh-i-Rustam Valerian is seen making his submission in one tablet,
while another exhibits the glories of Sapor’s court. The sculptures are
in some instances accompanied by inscriptions. One of these is, like
those of Artaxerxes, bilingual, Greek and Persian. The Greek inscription
runs as follows:
[Illustration: PAGE 289]
In the main, Sapor, it will be seen, follows the phrases of his father
Artaxerxes; but he claims a wider dominion. Artaxerxes is content to
rule over Ariana (or Iran) only; his son calls himself lord both of the
Arians and the non-Arians, or of Iran and Turan. We may conclude from
this as probable that he held some Scythic tribes under his sway,
probably in Segestan, or Seistan, the country south and east of the
Hamoon, or lake in which the Helmend is swallowed up. Scythians had been
settled in these parts, and in portions of Afghanistan and India,
since the great invasion of the Yue-chi, about B.C. 200; and it is not
unlikely that some of them may have passed under the Persian rule during
the reign of Sapor, but we have no particulars of these conquests.
Sapor’s coins resemble those of Artaxerxes in general type, but may be
distinguished from them, first, by the head-dress, which is either a cap
terminating in the head of an eagle, or else a mural crown surmounted by
an inflated ball; and, secondly, by the emblem on the reverse, which is
almost always a fire-altar between two supporters [PLATE XV., Fig. 2.]
The ordinary legend on the coins is “Mazdisn bag Shahpuhri, malkan
malka Airan, minuchitri minyazdan,” on the obverse; and on the reverse
“Shahpuhri nuvazi.”
It appears from these legends, and from the inscription above given,
that Sapor was, like his father, a zealous Zoroastrian. His faith
was exposed to considerable trial. Never was there a time of greater
religious ferment in the East, or a crisis which more shook men’s belief
in ancestral creeds. The absurd idolatry which had generally prevailed
through Western Asia for two thousand years--a nature-worship which
gave the sanction of religion to the gratification of men’s lowest
propensities--was shaken to its foundation; and everywhere men were
striving after something higher, nobler, and truer than had satisfied
previous generations for twenty centuries. The sudden revivification
of Zoroastrianism, after it had been depressed and almost forgotten for
five hundred years, was one result of this stir of men’s minds. Another
result was the rapid progress of Christianity, which in the course of
the third century overspread large portions of the East, rooting itself
with great firmness in Armenia, and obtaining a hold to some extent on
Babylonia, Bactria, and perhaps even on India. Judaism, also, which had
long had a footing in Mesopotamia, and which after the time of Hadrian
may be regarded as having its headquarters at Babylon--Judaism itself,
usually so immovable, at this time showed signs of life and change,
taking something like a new form in the schools wherein was compiled the
vast and strange work known as “the Babylonian Talmud.”
Amid the strife and jar of so many conflicting systems, each having a
root in the past, and each able to appeal with more or less of force
to noble examples of virtue and constancy among its professors in the
present, we cannot be surprised that in some minds the idea grew up
that, while all the systems possessed some truth, no one of them was
perfect or indeed much superior to its fellows. Eclectic or syncretic
views are always congenial to some intellects; and in times when
religious thought is deeply stirred, and antagonistic creeds are brought
into direct collision, the amiable feeling of a desire for peace comes
in to strengthen the inclination for reconciling opponents by means of a
fusion, and producing harmony by a happy combination of discords. It was
in Persia, and in the reign of Sapor, that one of the most remarkable of
these well-meaning attempts at fusion and reconciliation that the whole
of history can show was made, and with results which ought to be a
lasting warning to the apostles of comprehension. A certain Mani (or
Manes, as the ecclesiastical writers call him), born in Persia about
A.D. 240, grew to manhood under Sapor, exposed to the various religious
influences of which we have spoken. With a mind free from prejudice and
open to conviction, he studied the various systems of belief which he
found established in Western Asia--the Cabalism of the Babylonian Jews,
the Dualism of the Magi, the mysterious doctrines of the Christians, and
even the Buddhism of India. At first he inclined to Christianity, and is
said to have been admitted to priest’s orders and to have ministered to
a congregation; but after a time he thought that he saw his way to the
formation of a new creed, which should combine all that was best in
the religious systems which he was acquainted with, and omit what
was superfluous or objectionable. He adopted the Dualism of the
Zoroastrians, the metempsychosis of India, the angelism and demonism
of the Talmud, and the Trinitarianism of the Gospel of Christ. Christ
himself he identified with Mithra, and gave Him his dwelling in the sun.
He assumed to be the Paraclete promised by Christ, who should guide men
into all truth, and claimed that his “Ertang,” a sacred book illustrated
by pictures of his own painting, should supersede the New Testament.
Such pretensions were not likely to be tolerated by the Christian
community; and Manes had not put them forward very long when he was
expelled from the church and forced to carry his teaching elsewhere.
Under these circumstances he is said to have addressed himself to Sapor,
who was at first inclined to show him some favor; but when he found
out what the doctrines of the new teacher actually were, his feelings
underwent a change, and Manes, proscribed, or at any rate threatened
with penalties, had to retire into a foreign country.
The Zoroastrian faith was thus maintained in its purity by the Persian
monarch, who did not allow himself to be imposed upon by the specious
eloquence of the new teacher, but ultimately rejected the strange
amalgamation that was offered to his acceptance. It is scarcely to be
regretted that he so determined. Though the morality of the Manichees
was pure, and though their religion is regarded by some as a sort of
Christianity, there were but few points in which it was an improvement
on Zoroastrianism. Its Dualism was pronounced and decided; its
Trinitarianism was questionable; its teaching with respect to Christ
destroyed the doctrines of the incarnation and atonement; its “Ertang
“ was a poor substitute for Holy Scripture. Even its morality, being
deeply penetrated with asceticism, was of a wrong type and inferior to
that preached by Zoroaster. Had the creed of Manes been accepted by the
Persian monarch, the progress of real Christianity in the East would,
it is probable, have been impeded rather than forwarded--the general
currency of the debased amalgam would have checked the introduction of
the pure metal.
It must have been shortly after his rejection of the teaching of Manes
that Sapor died, having reigned thirty-one years, from A.D. 240 to
A.D. 271. He was undoubtedly one of the most remarkable princes of the
Sassanian series. In military talent, indeed, he may not have equalled
his father; for though he defeated Valerian, he had to confess himself
inferior to Odenathus. But in general governmental ability he is among
the foremost of the Neo-Persian monarchs, and may compare favorably with
almost any prince of the series. He baffled Odenathus, when he was not
able to defeat him, by placing himself behind walls, and by bringing
into play those advantages which naturally belonged to the position of
a monarch attacked in his own country. He maintained, if he did not
permanently advance, the power of Persia in the west; while in the east
it is probable that he considerably extended the bounds of his dominion.
In the internal administration of his empire he united works of
usefulness with the construction of memorial which had only a
sentimental and aesthetic value. He was a liberal patron of art, and
is thought not to have confined his patronage to the encouragement of
native talent. On the subject of religion he did not suffer himself
to be permanently led away by the enthusiasm of a young and bold
freethinker. He decided to maintain the religious system that
had descended to him from his ancestors, and turned a deaf ear to
persuasions that would have led him to revolutionize the religious
opinion of the East without placing it upon a satisfactory footing. The
Orientals add to these commendable features of character, that he was a
man of remarkable beauty, of great personal courage, and of a noble and
princely liberality. According to them, “he only desired wealth that he
might use it for good and great purposes.”