The Sasanian Empire
A Persian dynasty from Fars overthrows the Parthians and builds a Zoroastrian empire that rivals Rome for four centuries.
- Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire — Touraj Daryaee, I.B. Tauris (2009)
- A History of Iran: Empire of the Mind — Michael Axworthy, Basic Books (2008)
- Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices — Mary Boyce, Routledge (1979)
After Alexander, Iran was ruled first by his Seleucid successors and then, for almost five centuries, by the Parthians, a dynasty from the north-east that fought Rome to a standstill. In 224 CE Ardashir, a local ruler from Fars, the old Persian heartland, defeated the last Parthian king and founded a new dynasty named after his ancestor Sasan.
- Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire — Touraj Daryaee, I.B. Tauris (2009)
The Sasanians called their realm Eranshahr, “the land of the Iranians”, one of the first uses of the name as a political idea. Ardashir’s son Shapur I defeated three Roman emperors; in 260 he captured the emperor Valerian, a scene carved into the cliffs at Naqsh-e Rostam beside the tombs of the Achaemenid kings.
- Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire — Touraj Daryaee, I.B. Tauris (2009)
- A History of Iran: Empire of the Mind — Michael Axworthy, Basic Books (2008)
Zoroastrianism became closely tied to the state, with a powerful priesthood, though Christians, Jews and others lived throughout the empire, sometimes persecuted, often tolerated.
- Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices — Mary Boyce, Routledge (1979)
- Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire — Touraj Daryaee, I.B. Tauris (2009)
- Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire — Touraj Daryaee, I.B. Tauris (2009)
A ruinous war with Byzantium from 602 to 628 exhausted both empires. Within a decade, armies from Arabia, newly united under Islam, would overrun the Sasanian state.
- Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire — Touraj Daryaee, I.B. Tauris (2009)
- A History of Iran: Empire of the Mind — Michael Axworthy, Basic Books (2008)
Why it matters today
The Sasanians are the last great Iranian empire before Islam, and much of what later Persians remembered as ancient glory, the kings of the Shahnameh, the arch of Ctesiphon, the just king Anushirvan, comes from them. The rock relief of a Roman emperor kneeling before Shapur I is a favourite image of national pride.