A Visit From Valerian...

Is it coincidence, or perhaps a sign from somewhere without, or within? Hard to say, but I find it rather odd that just as I became engrossed in the study of something like the era of late antiquity- in particular the political and military events and the religious controversies that were coming about in the Middle East in the midst of the ongoing confrontation between the Roman & Persian empires in the 3rd to 6th centuries...am I bestowed with a generous and appropriate gift that makes my day. I recently received as a generous and sublime gift an actual ancient Roman coin. Pictured on the silver coin is the emperor Valerian- Publius Licinius Valerianus, who ruled the Roman empire 253-260 AD. Valerian was a tyrant of sorts, infamously known for his persecution of Christians. During his reign Rome was in a nearly constant state of war with the rival Persian empire, a realm we in the West hear about but seldom study. Rome and Persia were the balance of power in the ancient Mediterranean world. Rome conquered territory in the MIddle East up to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in the region known to the ancient Greeks as Mesopotamia in what is now modern Iraq. However, beyond these rivers all the way to the Great Wall of China were the dominions and satellite nations of 'Iranshahr', the realm of the Sassanid kings. Little have we studied about the might of this formidable empire, which was made rich by controlling the fabled Silk Road that crossed Asia, an empire that actually held the Roman empire at bay for centuries. Every time a Roman emperor dreamed to annex this land as in imitation of Alexander the Great did in earlier times, the Persians were able to defeat and stop their advances in the East. While the Romans were unrivalled in the use of rank formations of foot soldiers, it was no secret regarding the Persian use of their expert and maneuverable mounted cavalry archers who annoyingly rode round the massed Roman legions and delivered what became known as the never failing 'Parthian shot' from their powerful bows. Their heavy cavalry, the predessor of the later medieval knight with rider and horse covered in full chain mail literally from head to hoof, smashed into the standing Roman legions. These were indeed hard fought campaigns between the two empires, which was a constant in the fertile crescent region in this era known as late antiquity. Armies of both empires whether victor or vanquished devastated the fertile crescent, as the locals sided with either the Romans or the Persians, often shifting their loyalties for what they perceived as possible benefit, which brought on revenge and punishment from their former masters. Many cities were sacked in these wars and campaigns, and the despised local inhabitants would naturally develop a hatred for both empires. Perhaps something that intrigued the Romans was that Iranshahr, the Sassanid empire of Persia, had a unifying state religion, Zoroastrianism. This faith which acknowledged one god, Ahura Mazda, inspired Persian kings to be tolerant with their subjects, a tradition that went back in time to Cyrus The Great, who issued the world's first charter of human rights. All religions and ideologies were tolerated in the Persian empire, and they did not engage in the slavery of subject nations. Rather, their servants and workers were paid and considered free men, in stark contrast to the Roman empire which took slaves from the conquered peoples. Both empires, however, were political minded and propagandized the other as barbaric and uncivilized, and felt it was their duty to stem the tide of each other's desire to rule the world. The Romans, after persecuting Christians, would eventually adopt a unified version of Christianity and make it the religion of the state.

The armies of the aggressive Persian king Shapur I had already conquered much territory in the Middle East and was advancing, taking city after city. The Roman emperor Valerian sought to achieve glory by stemming the tide and gaining a glorious victory over the Persians, and indeed he pushed them back for a while. In the meantime, the fertile crescent region was being ravaged by war and fell victim to the harsh reality of both armies. Valerian took the initiative and pushed hard, eager to attain immrotal status as the conqueror of Persia, only to confront another strong leader, the mighty Shapur I and in so doing faced a resounding defeat at the battle of Edessa in 260 AD. Valerian asked for a truce, but Shapur took him captive and kept him as such...for the rest of his life! This was the first and only time a Roman emperor was captured and died as a captive in enemy hands. What Shapur did to commemorate his victory was to commission sculptures erected throughout his empire which portrayed the mighty and victorious Sassanid king sitting on his horse proudly as Valerian knelt before him, defeated and submissive. Some of these sculpted carvings depicted Valerian with a collar round his neck, shackled like the dog Shapur thought him to be. Ancient kings could be vain, no question, but it was considered a great feat, considered a near impossibility, to capture the emperor of the Roman empire and enslave him. The unfortunate Roman emperor was never allowed to return, and Valerian died in captivity. While wars between the two superpowers would continue for centuries thereafter with each side either gaining victory or experiencing defeat, never again would Rome dare to invade and penetrate the realm of Iransharh on such an agressive scale or with such a conviction of invincibility.

With the victory and the might of Shapur's rule came an appreciation for what was perceived as a superior and more tolerant empire in the minds of many of Rome's subjects. Persian thought and religion became popular among those Roman subjects, with Persian religions such as the cult of Mithraism gaining momentum. In Egypt and Syria groups of mystics such as the Gnostics, various Christian inspired sects, the Mandaneans or followers of John the Baptist and a number of Jewish sects came about, their literature reflecting the doom and finality of the last days as their world was tossed and turned by the incessant wars between the two mighty empires who used their lands as the battleground. The visions of the end days, the fantastic versions and descriptions found in books such as those of Enoch, Revelations and the great Apocalypse, all inspired by Persian naratives, were recited with conviction. In time these fantastic revelations and visions would beget stories of saints, martyrs, magical beings and events. One such religion of note that developed in this era was that of Mani, an inhabitant of what is now Iraq, who preached his religion of light as a conflict between the forces of light and darkness which manifested in the human being. Shapur I was so impressed with Mani, who was a painter and a medical doctor besides being a preacher of mystic knowledge, that he contemplated converting to his religion and gave him free reign to preach in his empire, much to the chagrin of the Zoroastrian priests, the Magi. Manichaeism became a popular religion on the Silk Road and eventually reached into the Roman empire as well. Mani was asked by Shapur to accompany him on his campaign against Valerian, and was reluctantly present at the battle of Edessa- Mani was a pacifist and renounced all killing and violence as being a manifestation of darkness. Ancient kings, much like later day rulers, used religion to rally and unite their forces. Mani's reluctance to do so allowed the powerful, organized clergy of the Zoroastrian Magi who were threatened by Mani's influence, to whisper into the ear of their Shah, and Mani slowly lost favor with him. After Shapur's death, the Magi would clamp down and see to it that no new, peaceful religion of light would raise it's head in their domain, a threat to their established institutionalized religion much as Christianity was seen as a threat to the virtues of the Roman soul, or as later heretical versions of Christianity would be seen as competition to the established Nicaean Christianity of Constantine. Mani and his followers were, like Jesus for whom Mani proclaimed to be the 'splendor', the earthly version of that original sacrifice of the God of light to the forces of darkness- imprisoned, put to death, then persecuted on a larger scale. The new Persian empire, guided by the Magi priesthood in the form of Mazdaism saw to it that their empire would have a state religion and all were subject to that ruling of religion, an intolerance in what once was perhaps the world's most tolerant empire, eerily forboding the rule of the mullahs and ayatollahs in Iran today. This drastic change may eventually have been the undoing of their empire after all.

Why is this important? Because in time the Romans would do the very same thing and imitate the Persians. They would create a state religion, and that religion would be the faith which was for centuries itself persecuted, namely Christianity. Constantine would unite the Roman empire under one God and one church, in direct imitation of the Persians, negating all dualistic/monotheistic influence from that realm which might undermine the power of the state, and in fact allowing his ;church' to embue Chtistianity with elements of that duality battle. Christianity insured that the Persian faiths of Mithraism, Mazdaism and Manichaeism and other ideological institutions would be countered by a religion created in the 4th century as ordered by Constantine and with a clergy imitating the magi to enforce and guide it. However, it should be noted that Armenia, a buffer state in the Caucasus between Rome and Persia, was the first nation to adopt Christianity and make it their state religion in 301 AD. This act placed Armenia at the very epicenter of the great struggle between east and west, but she also gave Rome a formidable bulwark against the empire of Iranshahr. Indeed, the kingdom of Armenia stood defiant against the incursions of the Persian empire. Both Rome and Persia would continue their wars and commit to the destruction of the Middle East, until a new power would emerge from the deserts of Arabia in the form of a new monotheistic religion called Islam. These two empires, exhausted and bled from centuries of constant war, would succumb to this new power, which would inherit the best and the worst features of these powers and by the beginning of the 8th century rule the largest land empire the world had known to that time. Eventually, the caliphate would incorporate an Islamic state religious policy with the creation of an ulema/clergy that created religiously inspired legal systems which persecuted all those who dared to question the findings and interpretations of that clergy, commencing their own 'witch hunts' against free thinkers known as Sufis, themselves inspired by Persian mysticism, beginning in the middle of the 9th century. This clamping down by the caliphs began the downfall of the intellectualism of Islamic world, which resulted in an intolerant and harsh approach to faith, imitating the downfall of Persian civilization previously. All of this happened in the era of late antiquity which came to an end at the onset of the Islamic period, as the die was cast for a new order that would influence the region and even the world unto our own time. The current mullahs of Tehran, led by their power hungry ayatollahs are an updated version of the treacherous Magi of long ago, and Iranians to this day struggle with the role of religion in government. To their credit, all through their history Iranian shahs and the Iranian people struggled with the separation of religion in both personal life and in matters of the state, which was often a rarity in the Islamic world, and this struggle in which they were engaged in fact preceeded the struggle in the West. There has always been an irreverent side to Iranian Shi'a Islam, with mystics who taught sometimes through crude jokes and tales poking fun and even spouting downright hatred of established, organized religion. One need but read a few lines of Omar Khayyam to understand the honesty of dubiousness and doubt in the Persian soul, a feature of the Iranian people that goes back to the time of Cyrus and even earlier regarding religion. One need but be a witness to history and see the effects of intolerance on a society, something the caliphs of Dar Ul Islam might have taken notice of, before that intolerance brought on the wrath of Christian Crusaders and Mongol hordes. But the cause and affect of what we are witnessing in the world today can be said to have all began with the rise, career and eventual defeat of Publius Licinius Valerianus, known to history as the Roman emperor Valerian.
So, if the timeliness of this gift is taken as a sign then I am perhaps on the right path and engaged in the right studies. I am curious as to what we will discover from the past and this interesting and important period known to historians as the era of late antiquity. It was a fascinating time for which we all, in our own day, remain in debt, for the events and the mind set of that time still haunt us in a thousand ways. Thank you Jennifer, you did it again! Leave it to those Phonecians to find an ancient treasure to inspire one on a quest! Yes, Jennifer's father was Lebanese, a descendant of those merchants of the fertile crescent who certainly were witness to the unfolding of historical events during this fascinating period.