Shapur II of Persia

Shapur II ruled the Sasanian Empire for seventy years, from 309 to 379, and was crowned before he was born. His father Hormizd II died leaving no acceptable adult heir, and the nobility, having blinded or imprisoned the elder sons, placed the crown on the womb of a pregnant queen — a story preserved in several sources and treated as broadly reliable. The long minority was a period of raiding by Arab tribes across the Persian Gulf and by nomads in the east. On assuming power he campaigned against the Arabs with severity, earning the epithet Dhul-Aktaf, he of the shoulders, from the practice of piercing captives' shoulder blades. He fought Rome for most of his reign. He besieged Nisibis three times without success, and took Amida in 359 after a seventy-three-day siege that Ammianus Marcellinus, who was inside it, described at first hand. The decisive campaign was in 363, when the emperor Julian invaded with a large army, reached Ctesiphon, could not take it, and burned his own fleet. Shapur harassed the retreat, Julian was killed in a skirmish, and his successor Jovian bought the army's escape by ceding Nisibis, Singara and five provinces beyond the Tigris — the most humiliating treaty Rome had signed in centuries. He persecuted Christians heavily after Constantine's conversion made them suspect as a Roman fifth column, imposing a double tax and executing large numbers, while tolerating Jews. He resettled deported populations to develop agriculture and founded cities, and secured the eastern frontier against the Kushans. He died in 379.

• Lived: 309 CE – 379 CE
• Nationality: Sasanian
• Roles: king, military_leader