Page "Diocletian" Paragraph 33

In 294, Narseh, a son of Shapur who had been passed over for the Sassanid succession, came to power in Persia.

Narseh eliminated Bahram III, a young man installed in the wake of Bahram II's death in 293.

In early 294, Narseh sent Diocletian the customary package of gifts between the empires, and Diocletian responded with an exchange of ambassadors.

Within Persia, however, Narseh was destroying every trace of his immediate predecessors from public monuments.

He sought to identify himself with the warlike kings Ardashir ( r. 226 – 41 ) and Shapur ( r. 241 – 72 ), the same Shapur who had sacked Roman Antioch and skinned the Emperor Valerian ( r. 253 – 260 ) to decorate his war temple.