Person · 4069–4139 AM · 309 CE — 379 CE
Shapur II
the seventy-year shahanshah, Rava's contemporary
He reigned his whole life—309–379: crowned before birth. The Talmud remembers him beside Rava: "Shabur the king" sent gifts, his mother Ifra Hormizd sent money for a great commandment, and Rava explained to the court why Jews do not fear the night. Toward the end of his reign began the persecutions the Babylonian communities remember.
On the timeline
4090 · 330 CEAbaye and Rava: Pumbedita and Debate as Method4216 · 456 CEThe Persian Persecutions of Babylonian Jewry
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Bava Batra 8a; Taanit 24b — Ifra Hormizd and Shapur's court in Rava's day
Documents of the period
- Ammianus Marcellinus — the wars and years of Shapur II
Basis: documents and evidence.