The Battle of Edessa was a battle between the armies of the Roman Empire under the command of Emperor Valerian and Sassanid forces under Shahanshah Shapur I in 260. The Roman army was defeated and captured in its entirety by the Persian forces, including Valerian itself.

Prior to the battle, Shapur I had penetrated several times deeply into Roman territory conquering and plundering Antiochia in Syria in 253 or 256. After defeating the usurper Aemilianus and assuming the purple for himself, Valerian arrived in the eastern provinces as soon as he could (254 or 255) and gradually restored order. However, soon he had to confront a naval Gothic invasion on northern Asia Minor. The Goths ravaged Pontus and moved south into Cappadocia. An attempt from Valerian and his army in Antiocheia to intercept them, failed because of the plague. While his army was in that weakened state, Shapur invaded northern Mesopotamia in 260, probably in early spring.

mperor Valerian marched eastward to the Sassanid borders. According to Shapur's account, he met the main Persian army under command of the King Shapur I, between Carrhae and Edessa and was thoroughly defeated and captured with his entire army.

According to the Roman sources, which are not very clear, the Roman army was defeated and besieged by the Persian forces. Then Valerian tried to negotiate but he was captured and it is possible that his army surrendered after that. The prisoners included, according to Shapur's claims, many other high ranking officials, including a praetorian prefect.

Following Valerian's capture, Shapur raided Cilicia but he was finally repulsed by a Roman force that was rallied by Macrianus, Callistus and Odenathus of Palmyra. Macrianus proclaimed his sons Macrianus and Quietus, a emperors while in the Balkans, Ingenuus and Regalianus revolted too, only to be defeated by an army sent by Gallienus, the son of the captured Emperor Valerian.