[5] The initial war began when the Roman Emperor Gordian III invaded the Sasanian Empire in 243 AD.

[10] However, some recent sources speculate that the Sasanian victory must not be invented and reject Philip's plot as the ultimate reason of Gordian's death.

[12][13] Some sources mention a cenotaph of the murdered emperor at Zaita, near Circesium of Osroene (some 400 km north of Misiche).

[4] The third tradition, reported in 6th century by John Malalas and three more eastern historians in 9th to 12th century, specifies that Gordianus crushed his thigh falling off his horse in battle and died of his injury, Malalas further specifying that he died on the way back Gordian's successor, Philip the Arab, was proclaimed emperor of Rome and made peace with Shapur.

The next major clash between the two empires took place in 252, when Shapur defeated a large Roman force at the Battle of Barbalissos and successfully invaded Syria and part of Anatolia.