Battle of Ctesiphon (363) - The Battle

The Battle

Seeing Julian successfully march into his dominions, Shapur ordered his governors to undertake a scorched earth policy until he reached the Sassanid capital, Ctesiphon, with the main Persian army. However after a few minor skirmishes and sieges Julian arrived with his undefeated army before Shapur II to the walls of Ctesiphon on May 29. Outside the walls a Persian army under Spahbod Merena was formed up for battle across the Tigris.

Julian's subordinate commanders were nervous, as the Persian army featured cataphracts in the centre and the formidable clibanarii on the wings. There were also war elephants and masses of infantry to the rear. However, Julian had already shown himself to be both a competent and confident general and did not share his subordinates’ worries. Instead, he drew up his army in a crescent formation, designed to achieve envelopment of Shapur's forces, and crossed the river to engage the enemy.

The wings of the Romans advanced swiftly and battle was joined. Contrary to expectations, the battle was a stunning tactical victory for the Romans, losing only 75 men to the Persians' 2,500 men. One of the Christian sources and not one friendly to the pagan Julian, Socrates Scholasticus, even states that Julian's victories up to this point in the campaign had been so great that they caused Shapur to offer Julian a large portion of the Persian domains if he and his legions would withdraw from Ctesiphon. But Julian rejected this offer out of desire for the glory of taking the Persian capital and defeating Shapur in battle which would earn him the honorific of Parthicus. However, Julian lacked the equipment to lay siege to the strongly fortified Ctesiphon, and the main Sassanid army, commanded by Shapur and far larger than the one just defeated, was closing in quickly. Also critical was the failure of Procopius to arrive with the 30,000 detachment of the Roman army that could have aided Julian in crushing Shapur's approaching force as he had intended. For as previously captured Satraps had testified after being fairly treated by Julian, the capture or death of Shapur would have compelled the Persian city to open its gates to the new Roman conqueror. While Julian was in favor of advancing further into Persian territory, he was overruled by his officers. Roman morale was low, disease was spreading, and there was very little forage around.