Shapur I
Emperor Shapur I (died c.270 CE) was the Emperor of the Sasanian Persian Empire in modern day Iran from around the year 240 CE to his death around the year 270 CE. He ruled as regent for his dying father until his father's death in 242 CE, after which he was the sole ruler.
During these two years, Shapur would a military campaign to capture the city of Hatra from the Arab Kingdom of Hatra, which was supported by the Roman Empire. During this campaign, he fell in love with the Hatran princess, Princess Nazirah, who was the daughter of the Hatran King, Sanatruq II. She would help him to capture the city by intoxicating her father and the city guards. Shapur would eventually realise that her betrayal of her father was immoral, and had her killed. He then married Khwarranzem, with whom he fathered the later Emperor Hormizd I.
During Shapur's reign, Manicheaism, a new religious movement founded by the alleged Prophet Mani Hayya, flourished. Shapur admired and in 242, he invited him to join the Sasanian court, where Mani tried to convert Shapur by dedicating his only work written in Middle Persian, known as the Shabuhragan. Shapur, however, did not convert to Manicheaism and remained a Zoroastrian.
Shapur was also notorious for capturing and killing the Roman Emperor Valerian, who was a brutal persecutor of Early Christians. According to some accounts, Shapur would use the captured Emperor as a footstool to mount his horse. Later, Valerian is said to have died a miserable death in captivity at the hands of the Sasanians, between the years 260 CE and 264 CE.
