03-31-2004, 10:34 PM
Found this:<br>
It's from the "Chronique de Séert" a nestorian historical text written in arabic. XIth C.AD.<br>
"In the eleventh year of his reign Shapour son of Ardashir, invaded the land of the Romans. He stayed there a long time and destroyed several cities. He defeated the emperor Valerian and took him captive to the country of the Nabateans. Valerian fell ill from despair and died there."<br>
It's about as credible as the two other main sources: Trebonius Pollio in Historia Augustae and Lactantius in "On the death of persecutors".<br>
Historia Augustae just mentions that Shapour spoke to Valerian "like he was a vile slave". It also says that several lesser kings and personalities appealed to Shapour in favor of Valerian's freedom and that the Palmyrean king Odenath fought the Persians to free the captured emperor.<br>
Lactantius was a Christian and since Valerian was a notorious persecutor of Christians he obviously held a grudge..<br>
He mentions gleefully that after having been used as a step by Shapour to mount his steed for some undisclosed period of time, Valerian "reached the term of an infamous life". His skin, painted red, was then displayed "in a temple of the barbarian gods".<br>
It can be a invention. However, the practice of skinning dead enemies or even turning them into stuffed trophies is known among the steppe people, not far from Persia. <p></p><i></i>
It's from the "Chronique de Séert" a nestorian historical text written in arabic. XIth C.AD.<br>
"In the eleventh year of his reign Shapour son of Ardashir, invaded the land of the Romans. He stayed there a long time and destroyed several cities. He defeated the emperor Valerian and took him captive to the country of the Nabateans. Valerian fell ill from despair and died there."<br>
It's about as credible as the two other main sources: Trebonius Pollio in Historia Augustae and Lactantius in "On the death of persecutors".<br>
Historia Augustae just mentions that Shapour spoke to Valerian "like he was a vile slave". It also says that several lesser kings and personalities appealed to Shapour in favor of Valerian's freedom and that the Palmyrean king Odenath fought the Persians to free the captured emperor.<br>
Lactantius was a Christian and since Valerian was a notorious persecutor of Christians he obviously held a grudge..<br>
He mentions gleefully that after having been used as a step by Shapour to mount his steed for some undisclosed period of time, Valerian "reached the term of an infamous life". His skin, painted red, was then displayed "in a temple of the barbarian gods".<br>
It can be a invention. However, the practice of skinning dead enemies or even turning them into stuffed trophies is known among the steppe people, not far from Persia. <p></p><i></i>
