Manuscript of Persia and the Persian Question (Continued) [‎48v] (96/690)

Ts^vt. ^ ■
Emperor Valerian was personally engaged in their execution. It is
well known that in 260 a.d. the Roman Emperor, in attempting to
relieve Edc^sa was taken prisoner by King Shapur, who for seven
years kept him in captivity (it is said in the castle at Shuler),
treating him, if we are to believe a somewhat questionable legend,
with extreme cruelty and indignity, and perpetrating his insults
even upon the monarch’s corpse. In the Shah Nameh of the Persian
epic poet, Firdusi, occurs an interesting passage, in which the con
queror is said to have enlisted the engineering skill of a Roman
prisoner, who was captured on the same occasion, to b\ild, or perhaps
to rebuild the (broken) bund and bridge, the freedom of the captive
being the reward of success. The Roman’s name is given as Bara-
nush, or Varanus, and with the spoil taken in the Emperor’s camp
the cost may very likely have been defrayed. I cannot, however,
ascertain fhat there is any other historical basis than this very
vicarious connection for the association of Valerian’s own name with
these works. There is no independent ground for believing that
he was possessed of an aptitude for hydraulics; nor would a captive
sovereign as a rule be of much service if converted into a civil
engineer. Valerian’s name is also attached to the first dam or
Bund-i-Kaisar, over the G^rg^r Canal; but upon no superior foun
dation.
Having described the character and features of the various
masonry and water works at Shuster, let me now endeavour to
explain the purpose which, severally or in combination, they were
intended to serve. Of such explanations as have been furnished by
earlier writers, and of which some are incorrect and others impos
sible, that of Rawlinson is based at once upon the most
exhaustive knowledge and the most accurate examination . 1 There
are, however, I think, sufficient reasons w r hy it cannot be implicitly
accepted. It rests upon the assumption that Ardeshir or his son
Shapur, before any dam existed upon the Karun, or the latter had as
yet been utilised for irrigation purposes, cut the artificial canal of
the Qfrgfr ^—a colossal work—for no reason whatever except, pos
sibly, the strategical advantage that might thence be derived, and
that the level of the main river being thus lowered, and the town
deprived of water,^th^ bed of the former was then paved, the big
bund^ built, the G^rgfr dammed, and the tunnel pierced in order to
supply the city and its suburbs. I venture to suggest a different
order of events, more compatible both with probability and with
the natural features.
Tradition, with probable justice, assigns either to Ardeshir or to
Shapur the construction of the first great public works upon the
Karun. We may believe that either the father or the son. recosr-
, v “V G- . -S' > b
(1) Journal of the Ji’njigi' iffwvWy, vol. ix., p. 73-6.