SAPOR II, King of Persia. – Of the Sassanid dynasty (310-79), of which he is the most famous member. Son of Hormizd II, he is known in history for his religious fanaticism, inherited from his predecessors, who, of priestly origin, always dreamed of establishing Mazdaism as the official religion of the State.
But Sapor surpassed them all in the fierce repression of every infiltration of foreign religions, especially Christianity. For him the religious unity of Persia or Iran also had a political significance, so that he sought to force the Christians, suspected of sympathizing with the Roman Empire, the hereditary enemy of the Sassanids, to embrace the official religion. At Seleucia he had Bishop Simon Bar Sabbae hanged together with about a hundred members of the clergy. Besides the clergy, Sapor also persecuted the monasteries. The see of Seleucia remained vacant for twenty years. After various military attempts by Constantius II and Julian, in 363 Jovian was forced to come to terms with Sapor, abandoning Nisibis and Armenia into Persian hands, where Sapor quickly established Zoroastrianism.