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Sasanian Empire

last pre-Islamic Iranian empire (224–651 AD)

59 dated entries naming Sasanian Empire, drawn from 52 separate years between 243 BCE and 705 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

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3rd century BC

  • 243 BCEPtolemy III returns from his conquests of Seleucid territory with a large amount of treasure and works of art, including many statues of Egyptian gods carried off to Persia by Cambyses. He restores the statues to the Egyptian temples and earns the title of Euergetes ("Benefactor").source

2nd century

  • 180Ardashir I, founder of the Sasanian Empire (d. 242)source

3rd century

  • 228King Ardashir I, four years after establishing the Sassanid Persian Empire, completes his conquest of Parthia.source
  • 230King Ardashir I of the Persian Empire invades the Roman province of Mesopotamia, and unsuccessfully besieges the fortress town of Nisibis (Turkey). His army threatens the border outposts of Syria and Cappadocia.source
  • 231Emperor Alexander Severus accompanies his mother Julia Mamaea to Syria, and campaigns against the Persians. Military command rests in the hands of his generals, but his presence gives additional weight to the empire's policy.source
  • 232Roman–Persian Wars: Emperor Alexander Severus launches a three-pronged counterattack against the Persian forces of King Ardashir I, who have invaded Mesopotamia. However, the Roman army advancing through Armenia is halted. Alexander gives the order to march to the capital at Ctesiphon, but the Romans are defeated, and withdraw to Syria. The result is an acceptance of the status quo, and after heavy losses on both sides, a truce is signed.source
  • 233Emperor Alexander Severus celebrates a triumph in Rome to observe his "victory" the previous year over the Persians (in reality, Severus Alexander advanced towards Ctesiphon in 233, but as corroborated by Herodian, his armies suffered a humiliating defeat against Ardashir I). He is soon summoned to the Rhine frontier, where the Alamanni invade what is now modern-day Swabia. German tribes destroy Roman forts, and plunder the countryside at the Limes Germanicus.source
  • 240April 12 – Prince Shapur I becomes co-ruler of the Sasanian Empire with his father King Ardashir I.source
  • 256King Shapur I of the Sasanian Empire invades Mesopotamia and Syria. He conquers and plunders Antioch, destroys Dura-Europos, and sacks the Anatolian city of Zeugma on the Euphrates. A devastating fire and an earthquake soon follow, causing Zeugma to be abandoned.source
  • 270Shapur I (the Great), ruler of the Sassanid Empiresource
  • 271Hormizd I (or Ohrmazd), ruler of the Sassanid Empiresource
  • 272Shapur I (the Great), king of the Sassanid Empiresource
  • 273Hormizd I, king of the Sassanid Empiresource
  • 274March 2 – Mani, a sage of Persia, dies at Gundeshapur after 30 years of preaching his "heresy" at the court of the late Sassanian King Shapur I and on long journeys to Khorasan, India and China. He is executed or allowed to die in prison, and claims to be a prophet of God. Mani combines Zoroastrian dualism with Christian theology, and his disciples gain wide support for Manichaeism, despite opposition from Roman Emperors.source
  • 274September – Bahram I, king of the Sassanid Empiresource
  • 276Bahram I, king of the Sassanid Empiresource
  • 293Bahram II, king of the Sassanid Empiresource

4th century

  • 302Narseh (or Narses), ruler of the Sassanid Empiresource
  • 302Narseh, ruler (Shahanshah) of the Sassanid Empire, dies after a 9-year reign. He is succeeded by his son Hormizd II.source
  • 309Shapur II (the Great), king of the Sassanid Empire (d. 379)source
  • 309King Hormizd II, ruler of the Sassanid Empire, demands that the king of the Ghassanids pays tribute. After the king refuses, Hormizd invades Ghassanid territory. The Ghassanids seek aid from Maximinus Daza, but before a Roman army can arrive, Hormizd defeats the Ghassanid army and kills their king. A Ghassanid force then ambushes Hormizd's small retinue while the latter is on a hunting trip, and the Sasanian king is mortally wounded. He dies after a 7-year reign.source
  • 337King Shapur II of Persia begins a war against the Roman Empire. He sends his troops across the Tigris to recover Armenia and Mesopotamia.source
  • 363June 16 – The Roman army starts its retreat northward to Corduene (Armenia). Julian marches back up the Tigris and burns his fleet of supply ships. During the withdrawal Julian's forces suffer several attacks from the Persians.source
  • 369King Shapur II occupies the pro-Roman kingdom of Armenia. He besieges Artogerassa in modern Georgia, where Papas (Pap), son of King Arsaces II (Arshak II), defends the fortress and the royal treasure against Persian forces.source
  • 371The Persian Empire attains the zenith of its power under King Shapur II as the Romans renew their war against Persia. Hostilities will continue for the next 5 years.source
  • 379Shapur II (the Great), ruler of the Sasanian Empire (b. 309)source
  • 384King Shapur III signs the Peace of Acilisene with Theodosius I. Armenia is divided in two kingdoms and becomes a vassal state of the Roman Empire and Persia. The friendly relations survive for 36 years.source
  • 400Bahram V, Sasanian King of Kings (shahanshah)source

5th century

  • 427The Ephthalites (White Huns) invade Western Asia and reduce the Sasanian Empire threat to the Eastern Roman Empire. King Bahram V sends an expeditionary force into Khorasan.source
  • 442Veh Mihr Shapur, Sasanian military officer and Marzban of Armeniasource
  • 457Yazdegerd II dies after a 19-year reign. He is succeeded by his son Hormizd III who seizes the Persian throne. His elder brother Peroz I rebels against him in Sistan (Iran). After months of civil war he defeats Hormizd and becomes the seventeenth Sasanian king of the Persian Empire.source
  • 457Yazdegerd II, king of the Persian Empiresource
  • 459Hormizd III, king of the Sasanian Empire (approximate date)source
  • 473Kavad I, king (shah) of the Sasanian Empire from 488 to 531, with an interruption of two yearssource

6th century

  • 506November – Emperor Anastasius I accepts a peace agreement with the Sasanian Empire (Persia), based on the status quo. He upgrades the fortifications at Batnae, Edessa and Amida (Northern Mesopotamia).source
  • 510The Sasanian Persians conquer the independent kingdom of Caucasian Albania, a state converted to Christianity in the 4th century by Armenian missionaries (approximate date).source
  • 529The Academy, originally founded at Athens by Plato around 387 BC, closes down by order of Justinian I, on charges of un-Christian activity. Many of the school's professors emigrate to Persia and Syria.source
  • 543Summer – Khosrow I, Shahanshah of the Sasanian Empire, invades Syria again, and turns south towards Edessa to besiege the fortress city.source
  • 544King Khosrau I unsuccessfully attacks the Byzantine fortress city of Dara. The siege of Edessa is repulsed, and the Persians are forced into a stalemate.source
  • 548Lazic War: King Gubazes II revolts against the Persians, and requests aid from Justinian I. He sends a Byzantine expeditionary force (8,000 men) to Lazica (modern Georgia).source
  • 553The Sassanid commander Mihr-Mihroe force the Byzantines to retreat from Telephis and later Ollaria. (See Battle of Telephis–Ollaria).source
  • 557The Göktürks under Muqan Qaghan ally with the Persian Empire, and destroy the Hephthalites (White Huns) in Central Asia.source
  • 582Tamkhosrau, Sassanid Persian general (marzban)source
  • 600The Persians begin to use windmills for irrigation (approximate date).source

7th century

  • 614The Sudarium of Oviedo is taken from Palestine, after the invasion of the Sassanid Persians.source
  • 618Byzantine–Sassanian War: A Persian expeditionary force under Shahrbaraz invades Egypt, and occupies the province. After defeating the Byzantine garrisons in the Nile Valley, the Persians march across the Libyan Desert as far as Cyrene.source
  • 622Byzantine–Sasanian War: Emperor Heraclius sails from Constantinople with an expeditionary force (probably 50,000 men), and starts a counter-offensive against the Persian Empire (his young son, Constantine III, is left behind as regent under the charge of Sergius I, patriarch of Constantinople, and patrician Bonus). He lands a few days later at the junction of Cilicia and Syria, near Alexandretta and ancient Issus.source
  • 624Byzantine–Sasanian War: Emperor Heraclius advances with an expeditionary force (40,000 men) along the Araxes River, destroying the fortress city of Dvin, capital of Armenia, and Nakhchivan (modern Azerbaijan). At Ganzak, Heraclius defeats the Persian army and destroys the famous fire temple at Takht-e Soleymān, an important Zoroastrian shrine. He winters his army in Caucasian Albania to gather forces for the next year.source
  • 624Yazdegerd III, king of the Persian Empire (d. 651)source
  • 626Winter – Heraclius makes an alliance with Tong Yabghu Qaghan, ruler (khagan) of the Western Turkic Khaganate, for a joint invasion of the Persian Empire the following spring. He promises his daughter Eudoxia Epiphania, age 15, in marriage to Tong Yabghu and sends her under escort with wondrous gifts.source
  • 627Spring – Byzantine–Sasanian War: Emperor Heraclius sweeps through southern Armenia with a 50,000-man expeditionary force, recapturing most of the Byzantine fortresses lost to the Persians ten and fifteen years earlier. The army of Shahrbaraz, still in Anatolia, is now cut off completely. Hearing from Byzantine agents (showing him letters) that King Khosrau II, dissatisfied with his failure to capture Constantinople, is planning to have him executed, he surrenders to Heraclius, refusing to join the Byzantine army against his ungrateful sovereign.source
  • 628February 25 – Khosrau II, the last great king of the Sasanian Empire, is overthrown by his son Kavadh II.source
  • 628September 6 – Ardashir III, age 7, succeeds his father Kavadh II as the twenty-fourth king of the Sasanian Empire on the latter's death from plague.source
  • 629April 27 – Shahrbaraz usurps the throne of the Sasanian Empire from Ardashir III, but is himself deposed forty days later by nobility in favour of Borandukht. Khosrow III briefly rules Khorasan in the confusion, until he is assassinated by the governor of the province.source
  • 630April 27 – King Ardashir III, age 9, is murdered after an 18 month reign. He is succeeded by Shahrbaraz who becomes ruler (shah) of the Sasanian Empire.source
  • 630April 27 – Ardashir III, king of the Persian Empiresource
  • 634Battle of Firaz: The Rashidun Arabs (15,000 men) under Khalid ibn al-Walid defeat the combined forces of the Byzantine Empire, Persian Empire and Arab Christians (at least 10 times larger than Khalid's army) in Mesopotamia (Iraq).source
  • 636The city of Basra (modern Iraq) is founded on the Shatt al-Arab, at the head of the Persian Gulf. The port will become a major trading center for commodities from Arabia, India, and Persia.source

8th century

  • 705October 8 – Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan dies in his winter resort at Al-Sinnabra (Palestine), after a 20-year reign. During his rule, the financial administration of the Umayyad Caliphate has been reorganized. Arab coins have replaced former Byzantine and Sassanian coins, and regular postal service has been established between Damascus and the provincial capitals. Abd al-Malik is succeeded by his son Al-Walid I.source

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