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Death by molten gold isn’t just a grisly Game of Thrones invention. In the third century, a Roman emperor named Valerian is alleged to have died when his rival poured liquid gold down his throat. Valerian’s gruesome death was nearly as bad as the horrific executions in Henry VIII’s time, and that's really saying something. Unfortunately for Valerian, his execution was only one part of his humiliating captivity in the hands of the Persians.
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If you watched Game of Thrones, one of the images
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you will probably never forget is Khal Drogo killing Viserys Targaryen by pouring molten gold over his head
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As fantastical as that might seem, it was not a literary creation of George R. R. Martin
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In fact, a Roman emperor is alleged to have died in precisely that way
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So today, we're going to take a look at the Roman emperor who might have died by having molten gold poured down
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his throat. When Valerian became emperor in 253 CE, Rome was smack dab in the middle of what is today called
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the crisis of the third century. In a period of just 50 years, the empire
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would be ruled by a staggering total of nearly 30 different emperors
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It sounds like a lot, and it is. But many of those emperors only lasted a few months
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before being assassinated by their rivals or even their own troops. In fact, the whole crisis began exactly in that manner, when Emperor Severus Alexander
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was assassinated by his own soldiers in 235 CE. The crisis had a litany of causes, including barbarian invasions, civil wars, peasant revolts
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economic stagnation, plagues, natural disasters, and general problems with controlling the military, who by that point were mostly mercenaries
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Compared to how most of the other emperors from this period fared, Valyrian's
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Seven years of rule might seem like a stunning success. And it was
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That is, until he was captured by Rome's greatest enemy, the Persians
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Things went just a touch downhill for him after that. Emperor Valyrian's chief rival for power in the region
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was King Shapur I of Persia. As Rome attempted to expand in the Middle East
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Shapur pushed them back, first killing Roman emperor Gordian III at the Battle of Misahi
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and then defeating his successor to capture the city of Antioch. But Shapur's greatest victory came in 260 CE, when he captured Emperor Valyrian at the Battle of Idissa
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Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius was an early Christian writer who was 20 years old when Valyrian died
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He wrote a description of the emperor's treatment at the hands of the Persians. And the picture he paints is not a very pretty one
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For according to Lactantius, after Valyrian's capture, he wasted the remainder of his days
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in the vilest condition of slavery Lactantius wrote that King Shapur even humiliated Valyrian by using him as a human footstool The king of the Persians who had made him prisoner
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whenever he chose to get into his carriage or to mount on horseback, commanded the Roman to stoop
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and present his back. Shapur knew how to dunk on a guy, as if using a person
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as a human ottoman isn't degrading enough. Every time the king trod on the emperor
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he smiled and said, this is true, and not what the Romans delineate on board or plaster
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mocking the emperor's fall from power. What he meant was that while the Romans may have made grand
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and imposing statues of their emperor, the reality was a heck of a lot less impressive
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And while the Romans themselves weren't about to carve a statue of Valyrian's humiliation
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Valyrian did become a popular subject in Persian and European art for centuries after the emperor's death
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In the 16th century, over a thousand years later, Hans Holbein was still drawing the Roman with the Persian king's foot on his back
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While it is often said that any publicity is good publicity, as long as they spell your
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name right, something tells me Valyrian would have liked everyone to forget this bit
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During Valyrian's humiliation, his son, Gallienus, ruled Rome. And while you might expect that a son would put out all the stops to rescue his father
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from such a horrible fate, he didn't. In fact, Gallienus was so weak that he never attempted to rescue his one and only dad
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Instead, he had his hands full trying to suppress a revolt in Rome's western provinces
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where a rival, Postumus, had declared himself emperor of the Gallic Empire
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Lactantius wasn't buying that excuse, though. He paints a picture of a despondent Valyrian lamenting his abject and servile state
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and then Lactantius turns the knife. Neither, indeed, was he ever demanded back
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Apparently, Gullianus was too busy to even write a letter to Shapur, or he was too embarrassed
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about his father's purported footstool status. Either way, it probably would have made for a very awkward Father's Day if Valyrian had
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ever made it back. Luckily for Gullianus, he didn't. If you're wondering whether the Persians had any cognitive dissonance over their king's
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treatment of Valyrian, they didn't. In fact, they made cameos to celebrate Valyrian's humiliation, showing the emperor helpless against
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Shapur, who was able to subdue and capture the Roman by simply grabbing his arm
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During the Roman emperor captivity Shapur could have executed Valyrian at any time And according to some historians that might have actually been what really happened Lactantius however claimed that the king wanted to ensure
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that the Roman name remained long the scoff and derision of the barbarians
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As a result, Shapur subjected the humiliated emperor to a barrage of insults
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One thing's for sure, whether it really happened or Lactantius just made it all up
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Valyrian's name certainly did long remain the scoff and derision of the barbarians
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Season 1 of Game of Thrones proved it doesn't get much worse than having molten gold poured
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over your head. That is, except if the gold is poured down your throat. That might have been
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exactly what happened to Valyrian when King Shapur got tired of insulting him. So, what exactly
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happens when molten gold is forced down your throat? Nothing good, as you might imagine. It can
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rupture your organs, burn your lungs, and choke you. When modern investigators recreated the death
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using molten lead instead of gold, which is obviously kind of pricey. Within 10 seconds
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it had congealed and filled the entire throat. While the molten gold story is imaginative and
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conveys more than a bit of irony, it might not be true. Even Lactantius hedged a little on the
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historical accuracy of the whole tale. He even postulated an alternate cause of death in which
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Valerian was flayed alive. And his skin, stripped from the flesh, was dyed with vermilion
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stuffed with straw and placed in the temple of the gods of the barbarians
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According to this version of the story, Valyrian's stuffed red corpse then stood as a symbol of Persian triumph
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and a reminder to the Romans to not be too confident about their strength
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Everyone loves a story where they come out on top, and the Persians really loved stories about King Shapur sticking it to Roman emperors
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In fact, they loved it so much, his triumph over Valyrian was carved into the rocks at
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Naqsa Rostam in Faraz, Iran. The famous relief actually shows two of the Roman emperors humiliated by Shapur
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In the image, the king seizes Valyrian by his bare hands, while a second Roman emperor
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Philip, bows to Shapur. According to Persian legend, Philip owed his throne to the Persians after paying them a
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ransom to let him return to Rome. The carvers of the relief wanted to make the Romans look weak
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and feeble compared to the mighty Persian king, and they did a pretty good job
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So while Loctantius tales of Valerian demise are certainly memorable and entertaining enough to make the cut for a show like Game of Thrones this is definitely a case where you have to consider the source before you
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decide if you believe them. You see, Bactatius had his own reasons for not liking Valerian
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As emperor, Valerian gleefully persecuted Christians, executing bishops and priests, and sending others off in chains as forced laborers. He martyred two future saints
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Pope Sixtus II, and St. Lawrence of Rome. That being the case, Lactantius may have exaggerated
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his tales of Valerian's torture to further shame the emperor, and to demonstrate that those who
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persecute Christians get what is coming to them. One small clue that lends credence to this theory
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is that his book was titled The Manner in Which the Persecutors Died. Furthermore, in that book
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he wrote, God punished Valerian in a new and extraordinary manner, that it might be a lesson
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to future ages that the adversaries of heaven always receive the just recompense of their inequities
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So take it with a grain of salt or a bowl of molten gold. Many historians posit the idea that it served Lactantius
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to write an account of Valerian meeting an ungodly, gruesome end. After all, Lactantius was a staunch early Christian
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and Valerian was ruthless in his persecution of believers in Christ. However, Lactantius's contemporaries
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might have adopted his story so readily for a completely different reason
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namely because it painted Persia as barbarically as possible. In the long conflict between Rome and Persia
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propagandists were motivated to treat whatever side they weren't on as the epitome of wickedness
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Roman writers, hearing Lactantius' version of what happened to Valyrian, might have also added to and spread the story
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And from there, a gruesome legend was born. Even if Lactantius exaggerated
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the Persians definitely didn't treat Valyrian like an honored guest. At the very minimum, they did imprison and execute him, after all
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However, there's no real need to feel bad for the Romans either. They were known for their own gruesome forms of torture
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including crucifixion and throwing people to wild animals. You know, just for fun
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Ultimately, King Shapur's reign turned Persia into a superpower on par with Rome
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Things stayed rocky for the Romans, though. After Valyrian's grisly death, his son took over as emperor
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but was soon assassinated by his own troops. In the middle of the 3rd century, over a dozen Roman emperors were murdered or died in battle
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and it wouldn't be until the ascension of the emperor Diocletian in 284 CE that the ruling crisis would come to an end