I have written about how in 260AD, Emperor Valerian (253-260AD) led the Roman army against the Sassanian Persian Empire, ruled by King Shapur I. At the Battle of Edessa, the Roman army was decisively defeated, and Valerian was taken prisoner. This was an unprecedented and catastrophic event—a Roman Emperor had been captured alive on the battlefield. That was the first time in history. That set off a financial panic.
When Valerian was captured and Rome could not rescue him, the confidence in the Empire began to collapse. People were even suddenly skeptical about accepting Roman coins. Would they still be worth anything since they were valued over and above their actual metal content?
A document from Egypt has survived illustrating the financial crisis that was unleashed. It is from Aurelius Ptolemaeus who is the strategus of the Oxyrhynchitenome. The public officials gathered and accused the bankers of closing their doors on account of their unwillingness to accept the divine coins of the Emperors. It became necessary that an order had to be issued to all the owners of the banks directing them to open and accept and exchange all coins except the absolutely spurious and counterfeit. It was also directed that all who engaged in business transactions who refused to comply would be penalized. (POxy 1411 260AD, cited by Burnett 1987: p104)
Valerian’s capture was a massive propaganda victory for Shapur. Persian inscriptions and rock reliefs (like at Naqsh-e Rostam and Bishapur) show Valerian humiliated—submitting to Shapur on his knees, or being held captive by the king. This is what Iran has turned into a statue.
Valerian’s body was never returned to Rome and his son, Gallienus couldn’t rescue his father because the entire Roman world was on fire, and leaving the heart of the empire undefended would have meant its immediate collapse. While Valerian was in the East, Gallienus was fighting for his life in the West.
Massive invasions by the Germanic tribes, the Alamanni and Franks, had broken through the Rhine frontier, penetrating deep into Gaul, Raetia, and even reaching as far as Italy and Spain. The Goths and other tribes were launching devastating seaborne raids across the Black Sea and the Aegean, attacking the Balkans and the coast of Asia Minor. If Gallienus had marched the bulk of his army east to Persia, there would have been nothing to stop these Germanic tribes from overrunning Italy and sacking Rome itself.
The capture of Valerian created a power vacuum and a perception of weakness that immediately led to rebellion also within the Roman Empire. Just after Valerian’s capture, the military commander Postumus was proclaimed emperor in the West. He seized control of Gaul, Germania, Britannia, and Hispania, creating a separate, breakaway empire that would last for 14 years. Gallienus spent the next several years fighting Postumus in a civil war, unable to dislodge him.
In the East, the Sasanian Persian King Shapur I, who had previously captured Roman Emperor (Valerian), invaded the eastern Roman provinces. With the central Roman government in crisis (the period known as the Crisis of the Third Century), it fell to Zenobia’s Palmyrene forces to defend the region. Zenobia’s brilliant general, Zabdas, was the primary military commander in these campaigns. The Palmyrene army soundly defeated the Persians, pushing them back and even securing territories like much of Roman Arabia and parts of Egypt.
This period saw a revolving door of emperors and usurpers. Gallienus himself had to deal with at least eighteen known usurpers during his reign. Marching east would have been an open invitation for another general to seize Italy. This is where the legend comes in. The most gruesome account comes from the later Roman historian Lactantius, a Christian writer who was deeply hostile to the pagan emperors who had persecuted Christians (Valerian was one of them). He claims that Valerian died in captivity, King Shapur had his body flayed (skin removed). The skin was then tanned and dyed with vermilion (a red pigment). This preserved, red-colored skin was then stuffed with straw and put on display in a Persian temple as a permanent war trophy and a symbol of the Persian victory over Rome. Most assume that this account was invented as a powerful piece of moralizing propaganda piece as the fate of pagans.