Sasanian Victory

Dura-Europos fell in 256 CE to the Sasanian Empire, under King Shapur, heirs to the Parthian Empire. While there is no written record of how the siege of Dura-Europos unfolded, the Sasanian victory is a critical fixed point in the history of the city, because the Romans fortified the town so extensively from the anticipated siege that many of the buildings were buried by an earthen wall and left intact. The actual battles between the Romans and Sasanians also have offered remarkable material for art historians; both armies built extensive underground trenches, breaches, and mines that have preserved military equipment and skeletons of soldiers. After the conquest, the city was abandoned altogether transitioning into “clear zone” between the Romans and Sasanians; nothing was built over it and no later building programs obscured the architectonic features of the city, hence the popular name “Pompeii of the desert.”