Home > Ardashir I of Persia

Ardashir was born in the late second Century CE. He inherited a tribal kingship of the Fars province, Persis, in 208. He rapidly extended his territory, defeating his Parthian overlords at Hormizdagan in 224, and occupying their capital Ctesiphon. In 228, he destroyed the Parthian Empire which had held sway over the region for 400 years. He made Zoroastrianism again the state religion.

Ardashir is the ancestor of Sassanid dynasty on the Persian throne. He claimed that he descended from ancient Persian Akhemenid Kings, Cyrus the Great of Persia and Darius I of Persia the Great.

The Sassanid era began in earnest in 228. Ardashir began to create a vast empire which included those lands of the old Achaemenid Persian empire east of the Euphrates River.

Towards the end of his reign, Ardashir renewed the war against Rome.

There is a Persian legend which says his son and successor Shapur was his son with an Arsacid princess, though the legend has no historical evidence.

Ardashir was succeeded by his son Shapur I (king from 241Events Shapur I of Persia succeeds Ardashir I Births Deaths Ardashir I, first ruler of the Sassanids 241. to 272Events Roman emperor Aurelian reconquers the kingdom of Palmyra ( Syria, Egypt and large parts of Asia Minor), forcing queen Zenobia to flee to Parthia. During the Siege of Tyana, Roman Emperor Aurelian has a dream (vision?) of Apollonius of Tyana and spa). A stone inscription of Shapur tells that Ardashir's father was a local king named Papak. "the Mazdayasnian, the god Sapores, king of kings of the Aryans [Iranians] and non-Aryans, of divine descent, son of the Mazdayasnian, the god Artaxares, king of kings of the Aryans, grandson of the god-king Papak."