The Ka’ba-ye Zartosht Inscription of Shapur I

The inscription of Shapur I on the Ka’ba-ye Zartosht at Naqsh-e Rostam, known to scholars as ŠKZ or the Res Gestae Divi Saporis, is the longest and most important surviving text from the early Sasanian Empire. Carved around 262 CE in Middle Persian, Parthian and Greek, it records Shapur’s lands, his three victories over Rome, the fires he founded and the names of the men and women of his court.

An old building with a new text

The Ka’ba-ye Zartosht (“Cube of Zoroaster”) is much older than the inscription. It is a square stone tower about 12 m high, built in the Achaemenid period, probably in the fifth century BCE, facing the rock-cut tombs of Darius I and his successors. A single room inside is reached by a stone staircase. Its original purpose is still argued over: suggestions include a fire temple, a tomb, a store for royal regalia or sacred texts, and a place for coronation rites. The Persian name is a much later popular label and has no historical link with Zoroaster.

Shapur chose this building in the holiest royal landscape of Fars, among the tombs of the Achaemenid kings and close to the rock reliefs of his own dynasty. By carving his record on its walls he placed his deeds alongside those of the ancient kings, as if adding a new chapter to their story.

How it was found

For centuries the lower part of the building was buried by soil and debris. Excavations by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, led by Erich Schmidt, cleared it in the 1930s. The three versions came to light in two seasons, in 1936 and 1939. The first full English translation was published by Martin Sprengling in 1953 under the title Third Century Iran: Sapor and Kartir. The French scholar André Maricq named the Greek version the Res Gestae Divi Saporis in 1958, by analogy with the Res Gestae Divi Augusti, the record of the emperor Augustus’s achievements. The standard modern edition, with all three versions side by side, is by Philip Huyse (1999).

Three languages, three audiences

Each version was meant for a different readership. Middle Persian was the language of Fars and the new court. Parthian was still spoken and written by the great noble families who had served the Arsacids. Greek was the language of administration and culture in the eastern Roman world, and of many of the Roman captives now living in Iran. The three texts are close but not identical; where the Middle Persian is damaged, scholars reconstruct it from the Parthian and Greek.

What the inscription says

Titles and lineage

The text opens with Shapur’s name and titles: the Mazda-worshipping lord, king of kings of Iran and non-Iran, whose lineage is from the gods, son of Ardashir and grandson of Papak. It is one of the earliest texts to use the word Eranshahr, “the realm of the Iranians”, as the name of the state.

The lands of the empire

Next comes a list of provinces, running from Fars, Parthia, Khuzestan and Mesopotamia through Armenia, Georgia and Albania in the Caucasus, to Media, Gurgan, Merv, Herat, Kerman, Sistan, Makran and the Kushan lands “up to Peshawar”, Sogdiana and Chach (Tashkent). Some of these regions were ruled directly, some by vassals, and some may represent claims rather than control. Historians use the list as a map of how the king saw his realm.

Three wars with Rome

The core of the text describes Shapur’s three campaigns: the defeat of Gordian III at Misiche in 244 and the peace with Philip the Arab, who paid 500,000 denarii; the victory at Barbalissos over a Roman force of 60,000 and the capture of Antioch and dozens of other cities; and the battle beyond Carrhae and Edessa in 260 in which Valerian was taken prisoner. Each campaign ends with a list of the cities captured. For the last campaign, see The Battle of Edessa and the Capture of Valerian.

The inscription also gives a reason for Shapur’s settlement policy: he says he brought people from the Roman lands and settled them in Persis, Parthia, Khuzestan and Mesopotamia.

Fires and offerings

Shapur then lists the sacred fires he founded in thanks for his victories, each named for the soul of a family member: for himself, his daughter Adur-Anahid, whom he calls “queen of queens”, and his sons Hormizd-Ardashir, Narseh and Shapur. He sets out the daily offerings of lambs, bread and wine at these fires. The passage is valuable evidence for royal Zoroastrian practice in the third century.

The court

The last section names the members of three royal courts, those of Papak, Ardashir and Shapur, with their titles. Here we find the queens and princes, the heads of the great noble houses such as the Karen and the Suren, satraps and officials. Among the names is a young priest called Kartir, listed with the simple title herbed. It is the first appearance of the man who would later dominate the Zoroastrian church.

Kartir’s addition

A generation later, under Bahram II, Kartir had his own inscription carved on the same building, directly below the Middle Persian version of Shapur’s text. In it he tells of his rise through the reigns of Shapur’s sons and of his campaign against other religions. Placing his words beneath the king’s was a statement of how far a priest had come. His career is told on Kartir and the Zoroastrian Church.

Why historians value it

Before the inscription was found, the Roman wars of the third century were known almost only from Roman authors, who wrote decades or centuries later and played down their defeats. ŠKZ gives the Persian side in the king’s own words. It is propaganda, of course, and some details are disputed, such as Shapur’s claim that Gordian III died in battle. But it allows historians to compare two hostile accounts of the same events, a rare luxury in ancient history.

It also tells us things no Roman would have recorded: the names of provinces, the structure of the court, the family of the king and the religious duties of royalty. Together with the reliefs of Naqsh-e Rostam, it makes this one cliff and the plain in front of it the best single source for the early Sasanian state. For the language itself, see Middle Persian (Pahlavi) Language and Literature, and for the king, Shapur I.