rning to Iran, Shapur then turned his warrior's eyes on the increasingly troubled Roman Empire. Shapur marched west, his army steamrolling through Armenia and Syria until he captured Antioch. The Romans, increasingly concerned with the Persian threat, sent their best general and new Emperor, Valerianus Caesar, to combat the Sassanian armies. What followed was perhaps the most impressive accomplishment of the Sassanian empire: "At the battle fought outside the city of Edessa, the ailing Emperor was captured alive, together with 70,000 Roman legionaries. The triumph of Shapur was complete. Never before had a Roman Emperor fallen into the hands of an oriental power" (Payne, p. 1). Although the Sassanian Empire would last for four more prosperous centuries, that moment defined the grandeur of the empire and remains arguably its high-water mark. Although Shapur's son would extend the empire greatly and usher in a golden era of prosperity, the triumph over Rome engendered by Shapur I served to bolste
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