That's actually a myth. Valerian was treated well by Shahpur: 'Shâhpûr held Valerian captive for seven years , during which time he employed him in helping to build the Great Dam ( Shâdhurwân ) across the river Dujêl , immediately below the city which the Arabs call Tustar and the Persians Shustar' from the book The Rise & Progress of Assyriology by Sir Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge.
Valerian and his son made a great Duo. Shame it was cut so short and in such a way because it could have been the thing that ended the crisis. Next time we will have arguably the most underrated emperor of the period.
Gallienus: I WILL KILL... No, I have to clean up the mess before attacking your sh*thole empire. Perhaps 20 years later you will watch your capital being razed and salted by my troops, and I will annex all the Mesopotamia and parts of Persia!
Yeah but getting captured undermined imperial authority until Auralien restored its prestige. That's not for nothing. He deserves some blame for the next 20ish years of chaos. That said he was clearly a capable leader and may have simply suffered the worst luck ever, but it's gotta reflect poorly that he wedged himself so badly that he was able to be captured. And this is coming less than 10 years after Decius and his son are killed in battle. The worst imperial embarrassments of this century.
Without him and his son Gallienus, the Roman Empire would have likely split up permanently. They did a lot of the leg work in trying to put the reigns back on the horse and their work allowed Claudius II, Aurelian, Probus, and Diocletian to put the empire back together. Valerian was dealt a bad hand with a very weakened army and constant raids and bouts of plagues in his portions of the empire. So though it was a major humiliation in his capture, at least all the work he and his son did proved that his reign as Roman Emperor was not in vain.
Valerian's soldiers likely built the Band-e Kaisar, one of the few Roman architectural projects by the Persians. Valerian was likely put into a prison that resembled a hotel room. After all, the Persians were no barbarians.
People can talk about how great Aurelian was all they want and how sad his death was, but I believe Gallienus was just as good an emperor with a much sadder death. Aurelian was part of the conspiracy to assassinate Gallienus, so I suppose he got a taste of his own medicine when he also met his fate.
Nah he was undermined way too much. The Gallic Empire fell because it was terrified of Auralien's wrath. He failed to put down Posthumus too which is high key embarassing. Odaenathus was a much much more competent soldier and statesman, same with Probus.
@Geordie Jones Gallienus underwent so many more hardships than Aurelian and still performed as a competent ruler and reigned longer than any other in the Crisis of the Third Century. His father was humiliated, tortured, and executed by the Persians, his 8 yr old son was possibly killed by his own trusted general, his 18yr old son was killed by his rebelling general, and then himself and his wife were both stabbed to death by his own troops, probably including Aurelian. Gallienus made reforms to the cavalry and to limit the corruption among generals, he held out against huge amounts of barbarian invaders and also managed to defeat a stupid amount of usurpers. He additionally treated Christians well and was the first emperor to recognise Christianity as a legitimate religion with the Little Peace of the Church.
Shapur I changed the battle tactics of the Iranian army into more effective one in case of fighting Roman armies and was fighting an opponent that had battle equipments equal to his men if not better and armies that surpassed his own, in numbers Before he became king, he fought in his father's army in conquest of the Parthian empire at the battle of Hormozdgan and also in his father's raids in the Roman territories and at the battle of Ctesiphon 233 (and probably in the clash between two Roman and Sassanid armies before that which was also a Sassanid victory) all which were successful for the Sassanids After he became Shahanshah, he defeated 3 Roman emperors and even captured one of them personally and probably even killed one according to the Sassanid sources Based on one of the Sassanid tablets, Gordian III died in a Sassanid ambush at the battle of Misiche Each Roman army had between 60,000-70,000 men Although the only information we have about Shapur's numbers is at the battle of Edessa in which he had 40,000 men It's probably safe to assume Romans were outnumbering Shapur 2-1 in his battles He won the battle of Misiche (60,000 Romans), battle of Barbalissos (60,000 Romans), battle of Edessa (70,000 Romans) and plundered 36 Roman cities which the two most known and famous ones are siege of Antioch 253 and siege of Dura Europos 256 After his clash with Odaenathus, Shapur raided eastern parts of Odaenathus kingdom and even won against him at the battle of Ctesiphon 263
Valerian, probably: "The previous two Emperors were murdered by their own troops, I hope to the Gods that I can avoid the same fate" Shapur: "I got you bro"
Why wasnt it mentioned that tens of thousands in the Roman military were also captured alongside their emperor, our benevolently productive ally, who made many advanced irrigation and dam works to improve the farming of our great Aryan brotherhood. They constructed their own colony city with a palace for Valerian in the center, and they would all be integrated as citizens of Eran Shahr by age 50.
You can't blame the old Christians for throwing some juicy lil ideas into the information vacuum (regarding Valerian in his absence). The saw the fruit of chance hanging low. They plucked. They ate.
Great video, keep em coming! I would also appreciate if the videos were longer and more in depth, diving also into the personal lives of the emperors but I understand that there are a lack or sources unfortunately.
Yeah I would love to go into more detail but it's simply impossible with the state of tbe sources, what I could do is present the discrepancies between the sources and present the differences but I dont know how intresting that would be considering the low intrest in most of the third century emperors in general. The next video will be 40 min as Gallienus actually ruled for 15 years.
@@TheSPQRHistorian Curious that The Persians didn't ransom Valerian. You'd think Gallienus would have a filial duty to buy him back. Definitely sensible to discount Lactantius heavily. He's even less reliable than Plutarch on Carthage.
I guess shortly after Burning the Christians, Shapur Burnt Valerian. I would've used that against him as an example as well. Politicize TF out of that.
gallienus was a great emperor who did the impossible. he remained in the throne of rome at the third century crisis for an unbelievable 15 long years winning many battles and making reforms in the army but sadly ended up murdered in 268 mainly cause some of his officers despised him cause he was a womanizer and he may have seduced their wives or smg like that beep.
Lactantius's account needs to be taken with more than a grain of salt. His book "On the Deaths of the Persecutors" was a collection of horror stories about those in history who had persecuted Christianity, and how God had punished them. And since Valerian had been a major suppressor of Christianity, one can hardly expect Lactantius to be honest about Valerian's end. More than likely he was treated honorably by Shapur, since as a King himself, it was part of the "club rules" of kings not to humiliate fellow kings.
Yes, but even the Arabs could not destroy Iran !!! If you look at the history logically, you will realize that Iran was never defeated by the Arabs!! now we have our own language (Persian) after 3000 years, also Iranian culture It is still alive. Even the religion of Islam that we have is Shia and it is completely different from Arabia and they dont accept our religion(About Shia Islam i must say that Shia Islam is an interpretation of Iranian culture that Iranians made). And finally, with the passage of time, those caliphs came and went, but Iran and Iranians still stand after 3000 years. This is the meaning of true power. But Rome, after the final fall from the Ottomans, could not rise again
@@Almanzor07 Yes they did my brother the Romans were greedy and they paid the price for it. The Mithridates whipped the Romans asses so bad and did the Romans dirty. After the Romans were defeated the Mithridates grabbed both Roman generals Manius Aquillius and Marcus Licinius Crassus and poured hot liquid Gold down their throats a terrible death. Crassus was the Roman General that killed Spartacus. Last but not least Shapur I king of Persia whipped the Romans asses and he took Roman Emperor Valerian hostage and used Valerian as a step ladder to mount his horse. Shapur I dragged Roman Emperor Valerian around in chains for the rest of his life and the Roman Empire didn't even try to rescue their fallen Emperor. Now you want see any of this in the movie Gladiator, America has a double standard when it comes to Rome.
When you underestimate the power of a religious cult as a king on your side that's a fate you must endure as a result of such fatal mistake. King Charles is the only true King alive on this planet whom the Jews weren't able yet to conquer his empire.
![Tee Grizzley - Blow for Blow (feat. J. Cole) [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/wNLN5xsx5dc/mqdefault.jpg)
"10/10 footstool, would capture and ransom again!" - Shapur, 3rd century.
That's actually a myth. Valerian was treated well by Shahpur: 'Shâhpûr held Valerian captive for seven years , during which time he employed him in helping to build the Great Dam ( Shâdhurwân ) across the river Dujêl , immediately below the city which the Arabs call Tustar and the Persians Shustar' from the book The Rise & Progress of Assyriology by Sir Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge.
Valerian and his son made a great Duo. Shame it was cut so short and in such a way because it could have been the thing that ended the crisis. Next time we will have arguably the most underrated emperor of the period.
Gallienus' assassination is genuinely depressing to think about, much sadder than Aurelian's
@@tobiasbourne9073 he was an Emperor that reigned for double digit years in the Third Century Crisis
@@tobiasbourne9073 Aurelian kinda caused it by himself by creating Draconian laws.
Emperor Gallienus: "WHERE'S MY FATHER, SAPHUR?!"
Shapur: "You are touching him right now..."
Emperor Gallienus: *Notices the rug under him*
Gallienus: I WILL KILL... No, I have to clean up the mess before attacking your sh*thole empire. Perhaps 20 years later you will watch your capital being razed and salted by my troops, and I will annex all the Mesopotamia and parts of Persia!
The second saddest thing was that they didn't flay the entire Sassanid family
It's *Shapur
@@starlight0313boo hoo
saphur made a gift to gallienus with the demise of his father........
Honestly Valerian set the foundations on which future emperor's could rebuild the empire which IMO makes him a good emperor.
Indeed
Yeah but getting captured undermined imperial authority until Auralien restored its prestige. That's not for nothing. He deserves some blame for the next 20ish years of chaos. That said he was clearly a capable leader and may have simply suffered the worst luck ever, but it's gotta reflect poorly that he wedged himself so badly that he was able to be captured. And this is coming less than 10 years after Decius and his son are killed in battle. The worst imperial embarrassments of this century.
Excited to see Gallienus next episode
We'll get to see Gallienus in all his glory
Without him and his son Gallienus, the Roman Empire would have likely split up permanently. They did a lot of the leg work in trying to put the reigns back on the horse and their work allowed Claudius II, Aurelian, Probus, and Diocletian to put the empire back together. Valerian was dealt a bad hand with a very weakened army and constant raids and bouts of plagues in his portions of the empire. So though it was a major humiliation in his capture, at least all the work he and his son did proved that his reign as Roman Emperor was not in vain.
His organisation of The Empire anticipated Diocletian's but wasn't so neat.
that work was done mostly by gallienus.
Can't wait until SPQR Historian talks about Aurelian
First!
3:40 OMG THE REINCARNATION OF GAIVS IVLIVS CARSAR HAVE ARRIVED IN THE VIDEO!!!!!!
PRAISE SOL INVICTVS
Valerian's soldiers likely built the Band-e Kaisar, one of the few Roman architectural projects by the Persians. Valerian was likely put into a prison that resembled a hotel room. After all, the Persians were no barbarians.
A brilliantly presented biography! Great channel!😮❤️
People can talk about how great Aurelian was all they want and how sad his death was, but I believe Gallienus was just as good an emperor with a much sadder death. Aurelian was part of the conspiracy to assassinate Gallienus, so I suppose he got a taste of his own medicine when he also met his fate.
Nah he was undermined way too much. The Gallic Empire fell because it was terrified of Auralien's wrath. He failed to put down Posthumus too which is high key embarassing. Odaenathus was a much much more competent soldier and statesman, same with Probus.
@Geordie Jones Gallienus underwent so many more hardships than Aurelian and still performed as a competent ruler and reigned longer than any other in the Crisis of the Third Century. His father was humiliated, tortured, and executed by the Persians, his 8 yr old son was possibly killed by his own trusted general, his 18yr old son was killed by his rebelling general, and then himself and his wife were both stabbed to death by his own troops, probably including Aurelian. Gallienus made reforms to the cavalry and to limit the corruption among generals, he held out against huge amounts of barbarian invaders and also managed to defeat a stupid amount of usurpers. He additionally treated Christians well and was the first emperor to recognise Christianity as a legitimate religion with the Little Peace of the Church.
Ancient Roman saying:
"Well, there's more than one way to skin a captured emperor..."
_A true blue Roman who tried his level best. Rome may be down, but it is far from being out!_
Shapur I changed the battle tactics of the Iranian army into more effective one in case of fighting Roman armies and was fighting an opponent that had battle equipments equal to his men if not better and armies that surpassed his own, in numbers
Before he became king, he fought in his father's army in conquest of the Parthian empire at the battle of Hormozdgan and also in his father's raids in the Roman territories and at the battle of Ctesiphon 233 (and probably in the clash between two Roman and Sassanid armies before that which was also a Sassanid victory) all which were successful for the Sassanids
After he became Shahanshah, he defeated 3 Roman emperors and even captured one of them personally and probably even killed one according to the Sassanid sources
Based on one of the Sassanid tablets, Gordian III died in a Sassanid ambush at the battle of Misiche
Each Roman army had between 60,000-70,000 men
Although the only information we have about Shapur's numbers is at the battle of Edessa in which he had 40,000 men
It's probably safe to assume Romans were outnumbering Shapur 2-1 in his battles
He won the battle of Misiche (60,000 Romans), battle of Barbalissos (60,000 Romans), battle of Edessa (70,000 Romans) and plundered 36 Roman cities which the two most known and famous ones are siege of Antioch 253 and siege of Dura Europos 256
After his clash with Odaenathus, Shapur raided eastern parts of Odaenathus kingdom and even won against him at the battle of Ctesiphon 263
Will you cover odenatheus and Zenobia as well?
Now this guy needs a movie about him , his raise to emperor then ending with his capture at the hands of Shapur, image that?
Valerian, probably: "The previous two Emperors were murdered by their own troops, I hope to the Gods that I can avoid the same fate"
Shapur: "I got you bro"
Thats a worse fate than death if you're an emperor
The stinging roman defeat in Edessa was almost as bad as Cannae.
Worse. It was much worse. It triggered the Third Century Crisis. Cannae had no such political outcome.
What we know about this Battle?
Why wasnt it mentioned that tens of thousands in the Roman military were also captured alongside their emperor, our benevolently productive ally, who made many advanced irrigation and dam works to improve the farming of our great Aryan brotherhood. They constructed their own colony city with a palace for Valerian in the center, and they would all be integrated as citizens of Eran Shahr by age 50.
So It Is possible that Valerian could be rescued by ransom or for negotiate a peace threaty?
3 more emperors before we get the Restorer boi himself
Nice my favourite emperor is next!
Really enjoyed this video ! Subscribed
just found this channel. cant wait to see these videos on the less known emperors!
Great content.
I wonder what became of Valerian's body since there have been several different stories one being he was turned into a mummy.
You can't blame the old Christians for throwing some juicy lil ideas into the information vacuum (regarding Valerian in his absence). The saw the fruit of chance hanging low. They plucked. They ate.
Lol Roman empowers never do well in the east
_Ctesiphon is a beautiful sight when it is burning..._
@@septimiusseverus343
I weep for Seleukia on The Tigris, utterly destroyed by pesky Avidius Cassius.
@@septimiusseverus343 Said by Gallienus after completing his task of restoring the empire
I think the traditional pronunciation is "Sharpoor" although I knew a Parsee who pronounced his name "Sharpa".
Great video, keep em coming! I would also appreciate if the videos were longer and more in depth, diving also into the personal lives of the emperors but I understand that there are a lack or sources unfortunately.
Yeah I would love to go into more detail but it's simply impossible with the state of tbe sources, what I could do is present the discrepancies between the sources and present the differences but I dont know how intresting that would be considering the low intrest in most of the third century emperors in general. The next video will be 40 min as Gallienus actually ruled for 15 years.
@@TheSPQRHistorian The longer the better. Can’t wait for the Gallienus vid!
@@TheSPQRHistorian
Curious that The Persians didn't ransom Valerian.
You'd think Gallienus would have a filial duty to buy him back.
Definitely sensible to discount Lactantius heavily.
He's even less reliable than Plutarch on Carthage.
I love these episodes on the emperors! ⚔ ⚔ ⚔
I am always impressed by how much you can fit into these short form videos.
🇮🇷🇮🇷🇮🇷
OUCH!!!! New job a piece of furniture🍄👣
What's the music you used for the intro? Sounds great
I guess shortly after Burning the Christians, Shapur Burnt Valerian. I would've used that against him as an example as well. Politicize TF out of that.
gallienus was a great emperor who did the impossible. he remained in the throne of rome at the third century crisis for an unbelievable 15 long years winning many battles and making reforms in the army but sadly ended up murdered in 268 mainly cause some of his officers despised him cause he was a womanizer and he may have seduced their wives or smg like that beep.
Lactantius's account needs to be taken with more than a grain of salt. His book "On the Deaths of the Persecutors" was a collection of horror stories about those in history who had persecuted Christianity, and how God had punished them. And since Valerian had been a major suppressor of Christianity, one can hardly expect Lactantius to be honest about Valerian's end. More than likely he was treated honorably by Shapur, since as a King himself, it was part of the "club rules" of kings not to humiliate fellow kings.
Do I hear the HBO Rome soundtrack? nice
Intro music?
Excellent video and content. Really can’t wait for the next videos.
Funny referring to a piece of furniture as a "Good Emperor"..
A lot of errors and omissions in this. Not a reliable production.
The greatest Emparor ever.
السلام عليكم
بلا زحمه بس اريد المصدر الي انذكر بيه الامبراطور فاليريان او مجاه او بحث او اي شي يخص الامبراطور
Arabs tread on the Persians at the end.👍
Yes, but even the Arabs could not destroy Iran !!!
If you look at the history logically, you will realize that Iran was never defeated by the Arabs!!
now we have our own language (Persian) after 3000 years, also Iranian culture It is still alive. Even the religion of Islam that we have is Shia and it is completely different from Arabia and they dont accept our religion(About Shia Islam i must say that Shia Islam is an interpretation of Iranian culture that Iranians made). And finally, with the passage of time, those caliphs came and went, but Iran and Iranians still stand after 3000 years. This is the meaning of true power. But Rome, after the final fall from the Ottomans, could not rise again
Great video awesome technique
Seems to have been a great increase of usurpers and revolts after Valerian, his son must have done something wrong.
Great video!
This period has to be the apex of the third century crisis.
Why is the one about his son not available for me to see anymore??
Who is this brilliant voice actor?
Footnote:Valerian!
Rome lost
*IV...*
Looks like all those persecuted Christians prayers got answered in the most unusual way.
Why did you delete my comment ? You don't like an " inconvienant truth ? "
A title card speaks for itself, a voice over saying the same thing is redundant.
I tell people Rome wasn't all that the Romans got there asses whipped too.
They had too many enemies
@@Almanzor07 Yes they did my brother the Romans were greedy and they paid the price for it. The Mithridates whipped the Romans asses so bad and did the Romans dirty. After the Romans were defeated the Mithridates grabbed both Roman generals Manius Aquillius and Marcus Licinius Crassus and poured hot liquid Gold down their throats a terrible death. Crassus was the Roman General that killed Spartacus. Last but not least Shapur I king of Persia whipped the Romans asses and he took Roman Emperor Valerian hostage and used Valerian as a step ladder to mount his horse. Shapur I dragged Roman Emperor Valerian around in chains for the rest of his life and the Roman Empire didn't even try to rescue their fallen Emperor. Now you want see any of this in the movie Gladiator, America has a double standard when it comes to Rome.
When you underestimate the power of a religious cult as a king on your side that's a fate you must endure as a result of such fatal mistake.
King Charles is the only true King alive on this planet whom the Jews weren't able yet to conquer his empire.
Imagine blaming the persecuted ones instead of who starts the persecution. Go home, you're drunk.
What do you mean in the second part about king Charles?