190 
SHAPOOR II. 
only five years; having been killed by the effects of a sudden 
whirlwind common in these countries, which tearing away the 
cordage of the tent under which he slept, the pole struck him 
in its fall; at once deprived him of life, and the kingdom of a 
sovereign worthy to have been the successor of the great and 
good Shapoor. He was succeeded by his brother, Baharam IV. 
surnamed Kermanshah, to whose filial piety this commemorative 
sculpture is attributed; and who, it is said, acquired that cogno¬ 
men from having filled the station of viceroy over the province 
of Kerman during the reign of his brother. If so, there must 
have been something that particularly endeared the remembrance 
of that delegated rule, since we are also told that he built and 
named the city of Kermanshah, to perpetuate its memory. He 
reigned about fifteen years, and then lost his life by the random 
shot of an arrow, while endeavouring to quell a tumult in his 
army. The reputation of his father, the great Shapoor II., had 
been so successfully emulative of the military fame of his re¬ 
nowned ancestor Shapoor I., whose warlike achievements cover 
the sculptured rocks of the city of Shahpour in Fars, (a place 
which that monarch founded, after his conquest over the Em¬ 
peror Valerian, and adorned with trophies of the event,) that it 
could not fail to excite a similar ambition in Baharam, to per¬ 
petuate, in like manner, the image of his father. A fraternal 
affection not common amongst Asiatic princes, appears to have 
actuated him to make his brother and immediate predecessor 
the partner in this bas-relief. 
Shapoor II., equally brave with Shapoor I., is a much more 
interesting personage than that fierce conqueror; the history of 
the former being filled with romantic circumstances, and instances 
of the many virtues, royal and domestic, which adorned his 
