Hormizd II, was the eighth Persian

Persian people

The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians and themselves part of...

 king of the Sassanid Empire

Sassanid Empire

The Sassanid Empire , known to its inhabitants as Ērānshahr and Ērān in Middle Persian and resulting in the New Persian terms Iranshahr and Iran , was the last pre-Islamic Persian Empire, ruled by the Sasanian Dynasty from 224 to 651...

, and reigned for seven years and five months, from 302 to 309. He was the son of Narseh

Narseh

Narseh was the seventh Sassanid King of Persia , and son of Shapur I ....

 (293–302).

Almost nothing is known of his reign. After his death his oldest son Adarnases (Adur-Narseh), who had a cruel disposition, was killed by the grandees after a very short reign; another son, Hormizd

Hormizd (Constantinople)

Hormizd was a Sassanid Persian prince, the third son of King Hormizd II and brother-in-law of King Shapur II. Imprisoned by him, he was freed by his wife in 323 and escaped to Constantinople, where Emperor Constantine I helped him and gave him a palace near the shore of the Marmara Sea This...

, was held prisoner, while the throne was reserved for the child of his concubine, Shapur II

Shapur II

Shapur II the Great was the ninth King of the Persian Sassanid Empire from 309 to 379 and son of Hormizd II. During his long reign, the Sassanid Empire saw its first golden era since the reign of Shapur I...

. Another version has it that Shapur II was the son of Hormizd II's first wife, and that while still pregnant she was made to wear a crown over her pudenda so that the baby would be born as a king.

His son Hormizd

Hormizd (Constantinople)

Hormizd was a Sassanid Persian prince, the third son of King Hormizd II and brother-in-law of King Shapur II. Imprisoned by him, he was freed by his wife in 323 and escaped to Constantinople, where Emperor Constantine I helped him and gave him a palace near the shore of the Marmara Sea This...

 escaped from prison in 323 with the help of his wife, and found refuge at the court of Constantine the Great (324–337) (Zosimus

Zosimus

Zosimus was a Byzantine historian, who lived in Constantinople during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I . According to Photius, he was a comes, and held the office of "advocate" of the imperial treasury.- Historia Nova :...

 ii. 27; John of Antioch

John of Antioch

John of Antioch was Patriarch of Antioch and led a group of moderate Eastern bishops during the Nestorian controversy. He is sometimes confused with John Chrysostom, who is occasionally also referred to as John of Antioch. John gave active support to his friend Nestorius in the latter's dispute...

, fr. 178; Zonaras

Joannes Zonaras

Ioannes Zonaras was a Byzantine chronicler and theologian, who lived at Constantinople.Under Emperor Alexios I Komnenos he held the offices of head justice and private secretary to the emperor, but after Alexios' death, he retired to the monastery of St Glykeria, where he spent the rest of his...

 13–5). In 363, Hormizd served against Persia in the army of the Roman emperor Julian

Julian the Apostate

Julian "the Apostate" , commonly known as Julian, or also Julian the Philosopher, was Roman Emperor from 361 to 363 and a noted philosopher and Greek writer....

 (361–363); in turn his son, of the same name, later served as proconsul (Ammianus Marcellinus

Ammianus Marcellinus

Ammianus Marcellinus was a fourth-century Roman historian. He wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from Antiquity...

26. 8. 12).