The Sassanid Empire

In Our Time: History

BBC

History

4.4 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 December 2007

⏱️ 42 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Sassanian Empire. Founded around 226 AD, in Persia, the Sassanian Empire lasted over 400 years as a grand imperial rival to Rome. In modern day Iran, just down the road from the ancient Persian capital of Persepolis, there is a picture carved into a rock. It depicts a king, triumphant on horseback, facing two defeated enemies. This is no pair of petty princes, they are Roman Emperors - Philip and Valerian - and the king towering above them is Shapur I of the Sassanian Empire. So complete was his victory that Shapur is reputed to have used Valerian as a footstool when mounting his horse. This super-power traded goods from Constantinople to Beijing, handed regular defeats to the Roman army and only fell to the Islamic conquests of the 7th century. It still influences Persian identity to this day. But what was the culture and the literature of the empire, its structure and organisation? And what was its role in the great geopolitical game played out between the decaying empires in late antiquity?With Hugh Kennedy, Professor of Arabic in the Faculty of Languages and Cultures at the School of Oriental and African Studies; Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis, Curator of Iranian and Islamic Coins in the British Museum; James Howard-Johnston, University Lecturer in Byzantine Studies at the University of Oxford.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for downloading the Inartime podcast. For more details about Inartime and for our terms of use
0:05.4	Please go to bbc.co.uk forward slash radio for I hope you enjoy the program
0:11.4	Hello in modern-day Iran near the ancient Persian capital of Visepolis
0:15.7	There's a picture card into a rock. It depicts a king triumphant on horseback facing two defeated enemies
0:22.4	This is no power of petty princes their Roman emperors
0:25.7	Philip and Valerian and the king towering above them is Shapo or the first of the Sasanian Empire
0:31.4	So complete was his victory that Shapo is reputed to views Valerian as a footstool when mounting his horse
0:38.2	Founded in 226 AD the Sasanian Empire lasted over 400 years
0:43.4	It traded goods from Constantinople to Beijing
0:46.4	Handed out regular defeats to the Roman army and only fell to the Islamic conquest of the seventh century
0:51.8	It still influences Persian identity to this day
0:55.0	When me to discuss the Sasanian Empire, its wars, its culture and its beliefs, the Hugh Kennedy
1:00.2	Progressive Arabic at the School of Oriental and African Studies
1:03.8	Vesta Sarkoche Curtis, Curator of Iranian and Islamic coins in the British Museum
1:08.5	And James Howard Johnson, University Lecture in Byzantine Studies at the University of Oxford Hugh Kennedy
1:13.8	The Sasanian Empire flourished from 226 to 651 AD
1:18.1	But there's a deeper history to empires in Persia. Was there any way in which the Sasanians were inspired by that?
1:24.5	Yes, the Sasanians are the last really of the great pre-Islamic empires of Iran
1:30.3	The story starts with the Achaemenids, it starts with Cyrus the Great in the 6th century BC
1:37.2	And then the empires who we know most about, I'm sure that the Darius and Xerxes who led the ill-fated expeditions to try and conquer Greece
1:45.5	And we hear mostly about these people from the records of the Greek historians
1:50.6	And so with the vivid impression of the splendor of the empire
	...

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