The Middle East: 244–387 CE

Rise of the Sassanid Empire and Persistent Roman Rivalries

The period from 244 to 387 CE in the Middle East is marked by the decline of the Parthian Empire and the rise of the Sassanid Empire, reshaping the political, cultural, and religious landscape. Ardashir I, son of the priest Papak and claiming descent from the legendary hero Sasan, overthrows the last Parthian king in 224 CE and establishes the Sassanid dynasty, which endures for four centuries. Ardashir and his successors reassert Iranian cultural traditions, deliberately distancing themselves from previous Greek influences by fostering a national Persian renaissance.

Under Sassanid rule, the empire approximates the frontiers of the ancient Achaemenid Empire, with its capital established at Ctesiphon. Sassanian rulers adopt the title shahanshah (king of kings), governing numerous local rulers (shahrdars). Persian society is rigidly structured into four primary classes: priests, warriors, secretaries, and commoners, with powerful priests (led by the mobadan mobad), military leaders (eran spahbod), and bureaucratic officials reinforcing this social stratification.

Military Confrontations with Rome

The Roman Empire remains Persia's principal western adversary, inheriting the rivalry from the Greeks. Emperor Shapur I (241–272) conducts successful military campaigns against Rome, culminating in the capture of Emperor Valerian in 260 CE at the Battle of Edessa, symbolizing a high point of Persian military achievement.

However, the fortunes of war fluctuate significantly over this period. Roman Emperor Carus sacks Ctesiphon in 283, temporarily weakening Persian dominance. Under Emperor Diocletian, Roman forces achieve a decisive victory in 298 at the Battle of Satala, reclaiming extensive territories and exerting renewed control over Armenia. Despite these setbacks, the Sassanians retain substantial power, sustaining intermittent hostilities with Rome, notably under Shapur II (309–379), who captures Armenia and repeatedly confronts Emperor Constantius II.

The drawn-out Roman–Sassanian confrontations, epitomized by engagements at Singara and multiple sieges of the fortress city of Nisibis, underscore the sustained strategic rivalry. A notable truce occurs in 387 CE with the Peace of Acilisene, partitioning Armenia into Roman and Persian spheres of influence, temporarily stabilizing the contested frontier.

Religious Transformations and Christianity’s Spread

Religious and cultural transformations are equally significant during this era. Armenia, influenced by early Christian centers like Antioch and Edessa, officially adopts Christianity as its state religion in approximately 306 CE under King Tiridates III, credited to the miracles performed by Saint Gregory the Illuminator. This conversion precedes Emperor Constantine’s legalization of Christianity within the Roman Empire. Similarly, Georgian King Mirian III converts in 330 CE, aligning Georgia culturally and politically with the Byzantine Empire.

Christianity also thrives in Cyprus, bolstered by the legacy of apostles like Paul and Barnabas. Roman rule brings economic prosperity and infrastructure advancements to the island, despite periodic devastation from earthquakes that continually diminish the grandeur of cities like Salamis.

Sassanian Cultural Influence and Economic Expansion

Sassanian Persia’s influence extends significantly across the Persian Gulf, reaching its apex during this period. Persian authorities establish agricultural colonies in Oman, employing local nomadic tribes as border guards against Roman incursions, promoting Persian agricultural practices, irrigation techniques, and Zoroastrian beliefs. Zoroastrianism, Persia's state religion, reinforces Sassanian rule, elevating the priestly class to a powerful political force.

Urban Prosperity and Cultural Exchange

The people of Greater Syria, notably in cities such as Damascus, Palmyra, and Busra ash Sham, maintain economic vitality, leveraging advanced irrigation, alphabetic writing, and astronomical knowledge predating Roman annexation. Emperor Constantine’s relocation of the Roman capital to Byzantium (Constantinople) in 324 reorients regional administrative structures, dividing Greater Syria into provinces Syria Prima and Syria Secunda, enhancing Roman administrative efficiency and economic integration.

Meanwhile, powerful Arab civilizations like the Nabataeans and the Palmyrenes exert economic influence, with Palmyra flourishing as a vital trade hub along caravan routes.

Thus, from 244 to 387 CE, the Middle East undergoes transformative geopolitical, cultural, and religious shifts. The ascendancy of the Sassanid Empire, sustained Roman–Persian confrontations, and the profound spread of Christianity collectively redefine regional dynamics, laying foundational patterns that endure into subsequent eras.

The Middle East: 328–339 CE

Shapur II and Renewed Sassanid Aggression

In 328 CE, the Sassanid king Shapur II, likely motivated by both strategic ambitions and religious differences, disrupts the forty-year peace that had prevailed since the settlement between Narseh and Roman Emperor Diocletian in 297 CE. Shapur’s aggressive policy inaugurates a prolonged phase of intense and often bitter warfare between the Roman and Persian empires.

After successfully suppressing internal rebellions in southern Persia, Shapur mobilizes his armies against Roman territories. His campaigns are marked by swift victories and significant territorial gains, enabling him to recapture Armenia and occupy parts of Roman Mesopotamia. This resurgence of Persian military power dramatically reshapes the geopolitical landscape, placing Roman frontier defenses under severe strain.

The resulting wars, stretching from 337 to 350 and again from 358 to 363, are poorly documented but clearly indicate a shift in power dynamics, with the Sassanids challenging Rome's dominance in the region. Shapur’s victories signal a robust revival of Persian influence, setting the stage for the Middle East to again become a fiercely contested arena between two imperial powers.

Thus, the era 328–339 CE underscores Shapur II’s determination to reassert Persian dominance, profoundly impacting the political and military trajectories of the region for decades to come.

Sassanid king Shapur II, probably provoked by religious differences, breaks the peace concluded in 297 between Narseh (293–302) and Emperor Diocletian (284–305), which had been observed for forty years.

This is the beginning of two long drawn-out wars (337–350 and 358-363), which are inadequately recorded.

After crushing a rebellion in the South, Shapur invades Roman Mesopotamia and recaptures Armenia.

The Syro-Christian populations of Mesopotamia and …

…Babylonia have begun to feel sympathy with Roman policies for religious reasons.

The Sassanian emperors have consequently felt the need to consolidate their Zoroastrianism, and efforts have been made to perfect and enforce state orthodoxy.

Shortly after 337, the Persian king Shapur II, determined to reconquer lost Persian territory to the east and west and to assert his own authority, takes an important policy decision.

Although the state religion of the Sassanian Empire is Mazdaism (Zoroastrianism), Christianity flourishes within its boundaries.

Constantine had granted toleration to Christians in 313, and with the subsequent Christianization of the empire, Shapur, mistrustful of a potential force of a fifth column at home while he is engaged abroad, orders the persecution and forcible conversion of the Christians; this policy will be in force throughout his reign.

All heresy is proscribed by the state, defection from the official faith is made a capital crime, and persecution of the heterodox, the Christians in particular, begins.

Competition between Iran and Rome-Constantinople thus takes on a religious dimension.

A new war is inevitable.

Seeing an opportunity in the death of Constantine, Shapur sends his forces across the Tigris River, the uneasy frontier, to recover Armenia and Mesopotamia, which his predecessors had lost to the Romans.

Constantine had been preparing to go to war against the Persians at the time of his death in 337.

This legacy weighs heavily on the shoulders of Constantius, a military incompetent when compared to the energetic Shapur, with whom Constantius in 338 becomes engaged in what will prove to be a dozen years of inconclusive but extremely bloody warfare.

The Emperor's death in 337 had allowed Athanasius to return to Alexandria, but Constantius renews the order of banishment in 338.

Constantius, a weak emperor who relies on his Church advisors, begins a series of anti-Jewish decrees protecting Jewish converts to Christianity, banning Jewish pilgrimages to Jerusalem, and forbidding “on pain of death” Christian intermarriage between Jewish men and Christian women and the circumcision of pagan or Christian slaves.

Constantius also does away with the right of Jews to possess slaves.

This prohibition to trade in and to keep slaves at a time when slave labor is common is not merely an attempt to arrest conversion to Judaism; it is also a blow at the economic life of the Jew, placing Jews at a disadvantage with Christian competitors with whom this economic privilege is assured.

The Middle East: 340–351 CE

Shapur II and the Battle for Mesopotamia

The era from 340 to 351 CE is dominated by persistent military confrontations between the Sassanid Empire under King Shapur II and the Roman Empire under Emperor Constantius II. Of the numerous battles fought during this prolonged conflict, the inconclusive Battle of Singara (modern-day Sinjar, Iraq), occurring in either 344 or 348, is the most renowned. Initially, Constantius II manages a notable success, capturing the Persian camp, but a vigorous night counterattack by Shapur's rallied forces compels the Romans to retreat. Despite historian Edward Gibbon's claim that Shapur consistently bested Constantius, contemporary assessments suggest a more evenly matched struggle between these formidable leaders. The very location of Singara, deep within Persian territory, may itself indicate that Rome had not seriously lost ground at this juncture.

A defining feature of this conflict is the remarkable resilience of the Roman fortress city Nisibis in Mesopotamia. Shapur lays siege to Nisibis on three distinct occasions (337, c. 344, and 349), each time being decisively repulsed by Roman general Lucilianus. Although often victorious in open battles, Shapur's advances make minimal lasting gains against determined Roman resistance.

Simultaneously, Shapur II faces severe threats along his eastern borders from Central Asian tribes, particularly the Scythian Massagetae. These persistent incursions force Shapur to abandon his western campaigns prematurely, prompting a hurried truce with Rome in 350 CE.

This period also sees a profound religious shift. As Christianity's ascendancy within the Roman Empire engenders increased intolerance towards other faiths, the heart of Jewish religious and intellectual life moves decisively eastward, toward Persian-controlled Babylonia. Here, Jewish scholars intensify their study, ultimately compiling the Talmud, a monumental commentary on the Torah. This work meticulously analyzes Jewish law, shaping the religious and communal life of the Jewish diaspora for centuries to come.

Thus, the era 340–351 CE encapsulates a time of persistent but inconclusive warfare between Rome and Persia, significant fortitude displayed at Nisibis, and pivotal cultural developments in the religious landscape of the Middle East.

The inconclusive Battle of Singara (Sinjar, in Iraq) in which the Roman emperor Constantius II is at first successful, capturing the Persian camp, only to be driven out by a surprise night attack after Shapur II had rallied his troops (344-or 348?), is the most renowned of the nine major battles that are apparently fought during this period between the Sassanid and Roman Empires.

Gibbon asserts that Shapur II invariably defeated Constantius, but there is reason to believe that the honors were fairly evenly shared between the two capable commanders. (Since Singara is on the Persian side of the Mesopotamian frontier, this alone may suggest that the Romans had not seriously lost ground in the war up to that time.)

The most notable feature of this war is the consistently successful defense of the Roman fortress of Nisibis in Mesopotamia.

Shapur besieges the fortress three times (337, 344? and 349) and is repulsed each time by Roman general Lucilianus.

Although often victorious in battles, Shapur has made scarcely any progress.

He is attacked at the same time in the East by Scythian Massagetae and other Central Asian tribes.

In order to pay attention to the East, he has to break off the war with the Romans in 350 and arrange a hasty truce.

Shapur II, Sassanid ruler of the Persian Empire, has waged his campaign against Constantius II from 337, but it has so far been mostly unsuccessful.

Shapur had repelled Constantius’s invasion of Adiabene (Mesopotamia) in 343 but is unable to take the fortress of Singara in the siege of 344).