The Purple Footstool: the Captivity of Valerian as Paradigm of the Rise of the Sasanian Empire

Abstract

This article aims to reflect about the balance of Eurasiatic imperial power between Romans in the West and Persian in the East through an emblematic ephemerid: the defeat suffered by the Latin Emperor Valerian in Edessa, his capture by Sassanian forces and subsequent death in captivity, marking the first and last time that the Roman leader would be taken hostage. It’s proposed here that the Western defeat and the memory of the capture and death of Valerian can be read as a paradigm of the ascension and solidification of Sasanian power in the East. If, on the one hand, the death of Valerian indicates the beginning of a period of Roman turbulence, on the other hand, to the Persians, the victory of the Shah Shapur indicates the beginning of a period of wealth and authority. Therefore, from this passage, it is possible to discuss both a mechanism of wider Eurasiatic integration – integration in which events have shared consequences, in which the Roman world influences the Persian world and vice-versa – and the traditional historiographic focus, given that the death of Valerian can be viewed not just as Roman failure, but as Persian success, shifting the focus of analysis from the West to the East.