Roman–Persian Wars

Roman-Persian Wars
Date 92 BC–627 AD Location Mesopotamia, Transcaucasus, Azerbaijan, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt Result Status quo ante bellum Territorial changes Roman acquisition of upper Mesopatamia; partition of the Transcaucasus
Belligerents
Roman Republic, succeeded by Roman Empire and Eastern Roman Empire later, plus allies¹	Parthian and Sassanid Persian empires and allies²
Commanders and leaders
Lucullus, Pompey, Crassus †, Mark Antony, Ventidius, Corbulo, Trajan, Avidius Cassius, Statius Priscus, Septimius Severus, Caracalla, Macrinus, Alexander Severus, Timesitheus, Gordian III, Philip, Valerian (POW), Ballista, Odaenathus, Carus, Numerian, Galerius, Constantius II, Julian †, Ardaburius, Hypatius, Patricius, Areobindus, Celer, Belisarius, Sittas, Al-Harith ibn Jabalah, Dagistheus, Bessas, Marcian, Justinian, Al-Mundhir ibn al-Harith, Maurice, John Mystacon, Philippicus, Comentiolus, Narses, Germanus †, Leontius, Domentziolus, Priscus, Heraclius, Theodore	Phraates III, Surena, Pacorus I †, Quintus Labienus †, Artabanus II, Vologases I, Vologases IV, Ardashir I, Shapur I, Narseh, Shapur II, Narseh †, Narseh, Yazdegerd II, Kavadh I, Mihran, Mihr-Mihroe (POW), Azarethes, Khosrau I, Al-Mundhir IV ibn al-Mundhir †, Khorianes †, Adarmahan, Tamkhusro †, Varaz Vzur, Mahbodh, Kardarigan, Bahram Chobin, Zatsparham †, Khosrau II, Shahrbaraz, Shahin, Shahraplakan †, Rhahzadh †
¹ Allies of the Romans: Armenia, Iberia, Albania, Commagene, Nabataeans, Osroene, Palmyra, Ghassanids, Lazica, Aksumite Empire, Khazars ² Allies of the Parthians/Sassanids: Osroene, Armenia, Iberia, Albania, Lakhmids, Lazica, Avars

The Roman-Persian Wars were a series of conflicts between the Greco-Roman world and two successive Iranian empires. They began when war broke out between the late Roman Republic and Parthia in 92 BC, and later carried over to the Roman and the Sassanid Empires. The bitter and lengthy conflicts concluded during a struggle between the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) and the Sassanid empires in 627 AD, followed from 632 AD by Arab invasions into Roman and Persian territories.

Although warfare between the Romans and the Iranians lasted for seven centuries, the frontier remained remarkably stable. The increasingly intense fortification of the Mesopotamian frontier zone at the centre, the barrier of the Syrian desert in the south and the mountainous terrain of the Transcaucasus in the north made it difficult for either side to make territorial gains unless it could effectively incapacitate its opponent's armies. The robust organisation of both empires and their well-matched military capabilities meant that only rarely was either side able to do so.

The resources expended during the Roman-Persians Wars ultimately proved catastrophic for both empires. The prolonged and escalating warfare of the 6th and 7th centuries left both empires exhausted and vulnerable in the face of the sudden emergence of the Rashidun Empire in Arabia. The advancing Muslim armies conquered the entire Sassanid Empire and deprived the Eastern Roman Empire of its Near Eastern and North African territories soon after the end of the last Roman-Persian war.

Historical background

According to James Howard-Johnston, "from the third century BC to the early seventh century AD, the rival players [in the East] were grand polities with imperial pretensions, which had been able to establish and secure stable territories transcending regional divides." The Romans and Parthians came into contact through their respective conquests of parts of the Seleucid Empire. During the third century BC, the Parthians migrated from the Central Asian steppe into northern Iran. Subdued for a time by the Seleucids, in the second century they broke away to establish an independent state which steadily expanded at the expense of their former rulers, conquering Iran and Mesopotamia. Ruled by the Arsacid dynasty, they re-established a large part of the Achaemenid Empire (the old Persian Empire), fended off several Seleucid attempts to regain their lost territories, and extended their rule deep into India. Meanwhile the Romans expelled the Seleucids from their territories in Anatolia in the early second century BC, after defeating Antiochus III the Great at Thermopylae and Magnesia. Finally, in 64 BC Pompey conquered the remaining Seleucid territories in Syria, extinguishing their state and advancing the Roman eastern frontier to the Euphrates, where it met the territory of the Parthians.

Roman-Parthian Wars

Further information: Roman-Parthian Wars

See also: Parthia § Conflicts with Rome

Roman Republic vs Parthia

Rome, Parthia and Seleucid Empire in 200 BC. Soon both the Romans and the Parthians would invade the Seleucid-held territories, and become the strongest states of their time.

Parthian enterprise in the West began in the time of Mithridates I, and were revived by Mithridates II, who conducted unsuccessful negotiations with Lucius Cornelius Sulla for a Roman-Parthian alliance (c. 105 BC). Roman-Parthian contact was restored, when Lucullus invaded Southern Armenia, and defeated Tigranes in 69 BC, but again no definite agreement was made. In 66/65 BC Pompey came to an agreement with Phraates III, and Roman-Parthian troops invaded Armenia, but soon a dispute arose over Euphrates boundary. Finally, Phraates asserted his control over Mesopotamia, except for the western district of Osroene, which became a Roman dependency.

In 53 BC, Crassus led an invasion of Mesopotamia, with catastrophic results; at the Battle of Carrhae, the worst Roman defeat since the Battle of Cannae, Crassus and his son, Publius, were killed by the Parthians under General Surena The following year, the Parthians raided Syria, and in 51 BC they mounted a major invasion, but their army was caught in an ambush near Antigonea by the Romans.

Armenia under Tigranes

During Caesar's civil war the Parthians made no move, but maintained relations with Pompey. After his defeat and death, a force under Pacorus I came to the aid of the Pompeian general Caecilius Bassus, who was besieged at Apamea Valley by the Caesarian forces. With the civil war over, Julius Caesar elaborated plans for a campaign against Parthia, but his assassination averted the war. During the ensuing Liberators' civil war, the Parthians actively supported Brutus and Cassius, sending a contingent which fought with them at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC. After that defeat, the Parthians invaded Roman territory in 40 BC in conjunction with Quintus Labienus, a Roman erstwhile supporter of Brutus and Cassius; they swiftly overran Syria, defeated Roman forces in the province, and advanced into Judaea, overthrowing the Roman client Hyrcanus II and installing his nephew Antigonus in his place. For a moment, the whole of the Roman East seemed to be either in Parthian hands or on the point of capture. However, the conclusion of the second Roman civil war was soon to bring about a revival of Roman strength in Asia. Mark Antony had already sent Ventidius to oppose Labienus who had invaded Anatolia. Soon Labienius was driven back to Syria by Roman forces, and, though his Parthians allies came to his support, he was defeated, taken prisoner and then put to death. After suffering a further defeat near the Syrian Gates, the Parthians withdrew from Syria. They returned in 38 BC, but were decisively defeated by Ventidius, and Pacorus was killed. In Judaea, Antigonus was ousted with Roman help by Herod in 37 BC. With Roman control of Syria and Judaea restored, Mark Antony led a huge army into Azerbaijan, but his siege train and its escort were isolated and wiped out, while his Armenian allies deserted. Failing to make progress against Parthian positions, the Romans withdrew with heavy casualties. In 33 BC Antony was again in Armenia, contracting an alliance with the Median king against both Octavian and the Parthians, but other preoccupations obliged him to withdraw, and the whole region passed under Parthian control.

Roman Empire vs Parthia

Parthia, its subkingdoms, and neighbors in 1 AD.

Under the threat of an impending war between the two powers, Gaius Caesar and Phraataces worked out a rough compromise in 1 AD. According to the agreement, Parthia undertook to withdraw its forces from Armenia, and to recognize a de facto Roman protectorate over the country. Nonetheless, Roman-Persian rivalry over control and influence in Armenia continued unabated for the next several decades. The decision of the Parthian king Artabanus II to place his son on the vacant Armenian throne triggered a war with Rome in 36 AD, which ended with Artabanus renunciating claims to a Parhian sphere of influence in Armenia. A new crisis was triggered in 58 AD when the Romans under Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo invaded Armenia after the Parthian king Vologases I forcibly installed his brother Tiridates on the throne there. Roman forces overthrew Tiridates and replaced him with a Cappadocian prince. The war came to an end in 63 AD, when the Romans agreed to allow Tiridates and his descendants to rule Armenia on condition that they received the kingship from the Roman emperor.

A later series of wars began in the second century AD, during which the Romans held the upper hand over Parthia. In 114 and 115 AD the Roman Emperor Trajan first invaded Armenia and Mesopotamia, annexed them as Roman provinces, and then captured the Parthian summer capital, Ctesiphon, before sailing downriver to the Persian Gulf. However, in that year uprisings erupted in the occupied Parthian territories, while a major Jewish revolt broke out in Roman territory, severely stretching Roman military resources. Parthian forces began attacking key Roman positions and the Roman garrisons at Seleucia, Nisibis and Edessa were expelled by the local inhabitants. Trajan subdued the rebels in Mesopotamia, but having installed the Parthian prince Parthamaspates on the throne there as a client ruler he withdrew his armies, and proceeded to Syria, where he set up his headquarters at Antioch. Trajan died in 117 AD, before he could reorganize the effort to consolidate Roman control over the Parthian provinces.

File:Ctesiphon, Iraq (2117465493).jpg

The ruins of Ctesiphon, the Parthian and Sassanid capital.

Trajan's Parthian War put in motion a "shift of emphasis in the 'grand strategy of the Roman empire'", but his successor, Hadrian, decided that it was in Rome's interest to re-establish the Euphrates as the limit of its direct control, and willingly returned to the status quo ante, surrendering the territories of Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Adiabene back to their previous rulers and client-kings. Once again, at least for another half century, Rome was to avoid active intervention east of the Euphrates.

War over Armenia broke out again in 161 AD, when Vologases IV defeated the Romans there, captured Edessa and ravaged Syria. In 163 AD a Roman counter-attack under Statius Priscus defeated the Parthians in Armenia and installed a favored candidate on the Armenian throne. The following year Avidius Cassius began an invasion of Mesopotamia, winning battles at Dura-Europos and Seleucia and sacking Ctesiphon in 165 AD. An epidemic, possibly of smallpox, which was sweeping Parthia at the time now spread to the Roman army, leading to their withdrawal. In 195-197 AD another Roman offensive under the emperor Septimius Severus led to the Roman acquisition of northern Mesopotamia, as far as the areas around Nisibis and Singara. A final war against the Parthians was launched by the emperor Caracalla, who sacked Arbela in 216 AD, but after his assassination his successor Macrinus was defeated by the Parthians near Nisibis and was obliged to make a payment of reparations for the damage done by Caracalla in exchange for peace.

Roman-Sassanid Wars

Further information: Byzantine-Sassanid Wars

Early Roman-Sassanid conflicts

Rock-face relief at Naqsh-e Rustam of Shapur I (on horseback) with Philip the Arab and (perhaps) Emperor Valerian.

The conflict was renewed shortly after the overthrow of Parthian rule and Ardashir I's foundation of the Sassanid empire. Ardashir raided Mesopotamia and Syria in 230, and demanded the cession of all the former territories of the Achaemenid Empire. After fruitless negotiations, Alexander Severus set out against Ardashir in 232; Ardashir was finally repulsed, and Alexander Severus celebrated a triumph in Rome. In 238-240, towards the end of his reign, Ardashir attacked again, taking several cities in Syria and Mesopotamia, including Carrhae and Nisibis. The struggle resumed and intensified under Ardashir's successor Shapur I; he invaded Mesopotamia but his forces were defeated at a battle near Resaena in 243; Carrhae and Nisibis were retaken by the Romans under Timesitheus. Encouraged by this success, the emperor Gordian III advanced down the Euphrates but was repelled near Ctesiphon at the Battle of Misiche in 244.

In the early 250s, the emperor Philip was involved in a struggle over the control of Armenia. Shapur had the Armenian king murdered, and re-opened hostilities against Rome; he defeated the garrison troops at the Battle of Barbalissos, and then probably took and plundered Antioch. Some time between 258 and 260, Shapur captured the emperor Valerian I after defeating his army at the Battle of Edessa, but his subsequent advance into Anatolia was stopped, when the army of Palmyra defeated the Persians, causing them to retreat to their homeland.

Map of the Roman-Persian frontier after the division of Armenia in 384. The frontier remained stable throughout the 5th century.

In 283 the emperor Carus launched a successful invasion of Persia, sacking its capital, Ctesiphon; the Romans would probably have extended their conquests, if Carus had not died in December of the same year. After a brief period of peace during Diocletian's early reign, the Persians renewed hostilities, invading Armenia and defeating the Romans not far from Carrhae in 296 or 297. In 298, however, Galerius crushed the Persians in battle, capturing the Persian treasury and the royal harem, an utter disgrace for the Persian monarch. The resulting peace settlement saw the Romans gain the area between the Tigris and the Greater Zab. The Roman victory was the most decisive for many decades: all the territories that had been lost, all the debatable lands, and control of Armenia were now in Roman hands.

The arrangements of 299 proved long-lasting. It was Shapur II who broke the long peace between the two empires in mid 330s, and mounted a series of offensives against the Romans with little lasting effect. Shapur launched a new campaign in 359, and provoked a major offensive in 363 by the Roman Emperor Julian. Despite victory at the Battle of Ctesiphon, Julian was unable to take the Persian capital; he was killed the same year at the Battle of Samarra. The Romans were forced to hand over their former possessions east of the Tigris, as well as Nisibis and Singara; Armenia was also soon conquered by Shapur. In 384, a definitive peace treaty was signed by Shapur III and Theodosius I, which divided Armenia between the two states. With both empires preoccupied by barbarian threats from the north, a largely peaceful period followed, interrupted only by two brief wars, the first in 421-422, and the second in 440.

Anastasian War

Main article: Anastasian War

War broke out, when the Roman emperor Anastasius I refused to provide financial support to the Persian king, Kavadh I, who tried to gain the money by force. In 502 Kavadh quickly captured the unprepared city of Theodosiopolis, and then besieged Amida. The siege of the fortress-city proved to be a far more difficult enterprise than Kavadh expected; the defenders repelled the Persian assaults for three months before they were finally beaten. In 503 the Romans attempted an ultimately unsuccessful siege of the Persian-held Amida while Kavadh invaded Osroene, and laid siege to Edessa with the same results. Finally in 504, the Romans gained the upper hand with the renewed investment of Amida leading to the hand-over of the city. That year an armistice was agreed as a result of an invasion of Armenia by the Huns from the Caucasus. Negotiations between the two powers took place, but it was not until November 506 that a treaty was finally agreed. Procopius states that peace was agreed for seven years. In 505 Anastasius ordered the building of a great fortified city at Dara. The dilapidated fortifications were also upgraded at Edessa, Batnac and Amida. Although no further large-scale conflict took place during Anastasius' reign, tensions continued, especially while work continued at Dara; Anastasius pursued the project despite the Persian reactions, and the walls were completed by 507/508.

Roman and Persian Empires in 500 AD, also showing their neighbors, many of whom were dragged into wars between the great powers.

Iberian War

Main article: Iberian War

In 524/525 Kavadh proposed Justin I to adopt his son, Khosrau, but the negotiations soon broke down. It was not until 530, however, that full-scale warfare on the main eastern frontier broke out. Tensions between the two powers were further heightened by the defection of the Iberian king Gourgen to the Romans in 524/525. By 526-527, overt Roman-Persian fighting had broken out in the Transcaucasus region and upper Mesopotamia. The early years of war favored the Persians: by 527 the Iberian revolt had been crushed, a Roman offensive against Nisibis and Thebetha in that year was unsuccessful and forces trying to fortify Thannuris and Melabasa were prevented from doing so by Persian attacks. Attempting to remedy the deficiencies revealed by these Persian successes, the new Roman emperor, Justinian I, reorganized the eastern armies. In 528 Belisarius tried unsuccessfully to protect Roman workers in Thannuris, undertaking the construction of a fort right on the frontier.

Plan of the Battle of Dara

In 530 the Romans defeated the Persians at Dara and Satala. In 531 Belisarius was defeated by Persian and Lakhmid forces at the Battle of Callinicum, but, during the summer of the same year, the Romans captured cities in Armenia, and effectively repulsed Persian offensives. Immediately after the failure at Callinicum, which resulted in the dismissal of Belisarius, unsuccessful negotiations between the Perians and the Romans took place. Negotiations re-opened in spring 532 and the two sides finally came to an agreement; the Eternal Peace, which lasted less than eight years, was signed in September 532. Both powers agreed to return all occupied territories and the Romans to make a one-off payment of 110 centenaria (11,000 lbs of gold). The Romans recovered the Lazic forts, Iberia remained in Persian hands, but the Iberians who had left their country were allowed to remain in Roman territory or to return to their native land.

Justinian vs Khosrau I

See also: Lazic War

Roman and Sassanid Empires during Justinian's reign

Roman (Byzantine) Empire   Acquisitions by Justinian

Sassanid Empire   Sassanid Vassals

In 540 AD, the Persians broke the "Treaty of Eternal Peace" and Khosrau I invaded Syria; he extorted large sums of money from the cities of Syria and Mesopotamia, and systematically looted the key cities. Belisarius was quickly recalled by Justinian to the East to deal with the Persian threat; the Roman general took the field and waged an inconclusive campaign against Nisibis in 541 AD. In 542 AD Khosrau launched another offensive in Mesopotamia, and unsuccessfully attempted to capture Sergiopolis. He soon withdrew in the face of an army under Belisarius, en route sacking the city of Callinicum. Attacks on a number of Roman cities were repulsed and Persian forces were defeated and captured at Dara by John Troglita. In 543 AD, the Romans fielded a force of 30,000 troops, and launched an offensive against Dvin, but were defeated by a small Persian force at Anglon. In 544 AD Khosrau besieged Edessa without success and was eventually bought off by the defenders. In the wake of the Persian retreat, Roman envoys proceeded to Ctesiphon for negotiations. A five-year truce was agreed in 545, secured by Roman payments to the Persians.

The Eastern Roman-Persian border at the time of Justinian's death in 565 AD, with Lazica in Eastern Roman (Byzantine) hands.

In early 548 AD, king Gubazes of Lazica, having found Persian protection oppressive, asked Justinian to restore the Roman protectorate. The emperor seized the chance, and in 548/549 AD combined Roman and Lazic forces won a series of victories against Persian armies, but failed in repeated attempts to take the fort of Petra; the city was finally subjected in 551 AD. That year the truce which had been established in 545 AD was renewed outside Lazica for a further five years, with the Romans paying 2,000 lbs of gold each year. The Romans failed to completely expel the Sassanids from Lazica, and in 554 AD Mihr-Mihroe launched a new attack, and captured the fortress of Telephis, which was commanded by general Martin. In 557 AD Khosrau, who had now to deal with the White Huns, renewed the truce, this time without excluding Lazica; negotiations continued for a definite peace treaty. Finally, in 561 AD, the envoys of Justinian and Khosrau put together a 50-year peace. The Persians agreed to evacuate Lazica, and received an annual subsidy of 30,000 nomismata annually. Both sides agreed not to build new fortifications near the frontier and to ease restrictions on diplomacy and trade between the two empires.

War for the Caucasus

The Sassanid empire and its neighbors (including the Eastern Roman Empire in 600 AD

Further information: Roman-Persian War of 572-591

War erupted when the Armenians revolted against Sassanid rule early in 572 AD. Justin II brough them under his protection, while Roman troops under Justin's nephew, Marcian, raided Arzanene and invaded Persian Mesopotamia where they defeated local forces. Marcian's sudden dismissal, and the arrival of troops under Khosrau resulted in a ravaging of Syria, the failure of the Roman siege of Nisibis and the fall of Dara. At a cost of 45,000 solidi, a one-year truce (later in the year extended to five years) was arranged, though the Persians still sought to restore control in Armenia. In 576 AD, Khosrau I attempted to combine aggression in Armenia with discussion of a permanent peace. He failed however to take Theodosiopolis, and after a confrontation near Melitene the Persian royal baggage was captured. The Romans exploited Persian disarray by invading deep into Persian territory, and raiding Atropatene. Sassanid confidence revived, when Tamkhusro defeated the Romans in Persian Armenia, where their actions had alienated local inhabitants. In the spring of 578 AD the Persians raided Roman Mesopotamia, but the Roman general Maurice retaliated by invading Arzanene; he also took and garrisoned the stronghold of Aphumon, and sacked Singara in Persian Mesopotamia. Khosrau I died early the next year, defeated after so many victories.

File:Persianermani.gif

Persian Armenia (387-591)

During the 580s, the war continued with victories on both sides. In 582 AD, Maurice defeated Tamkhusro, who was killed, but the Roman general did not follow up his victory; he had to hurry to Constantinople to pursue his imperial ambitions.

In 589 AD the Persians captured Martyropolis through treachery, but in the same year the stalemate was shattered when the Persian general Bahram Chobin, having been dismissed and humiliated by Hormizd IV, raised a rebellion. Hormizd was overthrown in a palace coup in 590 AD and replaced by his son Khosrau II, but Bahram pressed on with his revolt regardless and the defeated Khosrau was soon forced to flee for safety to Roman territory, while Bahram took the throne as Bahram VI. With support from Maurice, Khosrau raised a rebellion against Bahram, and in 591 AD the combined forces of his supporters and the Romans restored Khosrau II to power. In exchange for their help, Khosrau not only returned Dara and Martyropolis but also agreed to cede the western half of Iberia and more than half of Persian Armenia to the Romans.

Climax

See also: Siege of Constantinople (626)

The Sassanid Empire at its greatest extent ca. 610 AD. The shaded area (Phrygia/Lydia) indicates vassal kingdoms under Sassanid military control.

During Maurice’s Balkan campaigns, he and his family were murdered by Phocas in November 602. Khosrau II used the pretext to attack the Eastern Roman Empire, and reconquer the province of Mesopotamia. The war initially went the Persians' way, partly because of Phocas' brutal repression and the succession crisis that ensued as the general Heraclius sent his nephew Nicetas to attack Egypt, enabling his son Heraclius the younger to claim the throne in 610 AD. Phocas was eventually deposed by Heraclius, who sailed to Constantinople from Carthage with an icon affixed to the prow of his ship. By this time the Persians had conquered Mesopotamia and the Caucasus, and in 611 AD they overran Syria and entered Anatolia. A major counter-attack led by Heraclius in 613 AD was decisively defeated outside Antioch, and the Roman position collapsed; the Persians devastated parts of Asia Minor, and captured Chalcedon on the Bosporus. Over the following decade the Persians were able to conquer Palestine and Egypt (by mid-621 AD the whole province was in their hands) and to devastate Anatolia, while the Avars and Slavs took advantage of the situation to overrun the Balkans, bringing the Roman Empire to the brink of destruction.

Cherub and Heraclius receiving the submission of Khosrau II; plaque from a cross (Champlevé enamel over gilt copper, 1160-1170, Paris, Louvre).

During these years, Heraclius strove to rebuild his army, slashing non-military expenditure, devaluing the currency and melting down, with the backing of Patriarch Sergius, Church plate to raise the necessary funds to continue the war. On April 5, 622, Heraclius left Constantinople, entrusting the city to Sergius and general Bonus as regents of his son. He assembled his forces in Asia Minor, probably in Bithynia, and, after he revived their broken morale, he launched a new counter-offensive, which took on the character of a holy war. The Roman army proceeded to Armenia, inflicted a defeat on an army led by a Persian-allied Arab chief, and then won a victory over the Persians. On March 25, 624 Heraclius left again Constantinople, and after he celebrated with his family Easter in Nicomedia on April 15, he campaigned in the Caucasus, winning a series of victories in Azerbaijan and Armenia against Khosrau and his generals. In 626 AD the Avars and Slavs besieged Constantinople, supported by a Persian army commanded by Shahrbaraz, but the siege ended in failure (the victory was attributed to the icons of the Virgin which were led in procession by Sergius about the walls of the city), while a second Persian army under Shahin suffered another crushing defeat at the hands of Heraclius' brother Theodore.

The assassination of Khosrau II, in a Mughal manuscript of ca 1535, Persian poems are from Ferdowsi's Shahnameh

Late in 627 AD Heraclius launched a winter offensive into Mesopotamia, where, despite the desertion of the Turkish contingent which had accompanied him, he defeated the Persians at the Battle of Nineveh. Continuing south along the Tigris he sacked Khosrau's great palace at Dastagird and was only prevented from attacking Ctesiphon by the destruction of the bridges on the Nahrawan Canal. Discredited by this series of disasters, Khosrau was overthrown and killed in a coup led by his son Kavadh II, who at once sued for peace, agreeing to withdraw from all occupied territories. In 629 AD Heraclius restored the True Cross to Jerusalem in a majestic ceremony.

Aftermath

The devastating impact of this last war, added to the cumulative effects of a century of almost continuous conflict, left both empires crippled. When Kavadh II died only months after coming to the throne, Persia was plunged into several years of dynastic turmoil and civil war. The Sassanids were further weakened by economic decline, heavy taxation from Khosrau II's campaigns, religious unrest, and the increasing power of the provincial landholders. The Roman Empire was also severely affected, with its financial reserves exhausted by the war, the Balkans now largely in the hands of the Slavs, Anatolia devastated by repeated Persian invasions and the empire's hold on its recently regained territories in the Caucasus, Syria, Mesopotamia, Palestine and Egypt loosened by many years of Persian occupation. Neither empire was given any chance to recover, as within a few years they were struck by the onslaught of the Arabs (newly united by Islam), which, according to Howard-Johnston, "can only be likened to a human tsunami." According to George Liska, the "unnecessarily prolonged Byzantine-Persian conflict opened the way for Islam." The Sassanid Empire rapidly succumbed to these attacks and was completely destroyed. During the Byzantine-Arab Wars, the exhausted Roman Empire's recently regained southern provinces were also lost during the Muslim conquest of Syria, Egypt and North Africa, reducing the empire to a territorial rump consisting of Anatolia and a scatter of islands and footholds in the Balkans and Italy. These remaining lands were thoroughly impoverished by frequent attacks, marking the transition from classical urban civilization to a more rural, medieval form of society. However, unlike Persia the Roman Empire (in its medieval form usually termed the Byzantine Empire) ultimately survived the Arab assault, holding onto its residual territories and decisively repulsing two Arab sieges of its capital in 674-678 and 717-718.

Strategies and military tactics

Parthian cataphract fighting a lion (British Museum, London).

Timeline of the Roman–Persian Wars
Roman–Parthian Wars
BC
69	First Roman-Parthian contacts, when Lucullus invades southern Armenia.
66–65	Dispute between Pompey and Phraates III over Euphrates boundary.
53	Roman defeat at the Battle of Carrhae.
42–37	A great Pompeian–Parthian invasion of the Levant and Anatolia is defeated.
36–33	Mark Antony's unsuccessful campaign against Parthia. Subsequent campaign in Armenia successful, but followed by withdrawal. Parthians take control of whole region.
20	Settlement with the Parthians by Augustus and Tiberius; return of the captured Roman standards.
AD
36	Defeated by the Romans, Artabanus II renounces his claims to Armenia.
58–63	Roman invasion of Armenia; arrangements made with Parthians over its kingship.
114–117	Major campaign of Trajan against Parthia. Trajan's conquests later abandoned by Hadrian.
161–165	After initial Parthian successes, war over Armenia (161–163) ended by a Roman victory. Avidius Cassius sacks Ctesiphon in 165.
195–197	An offensive under the emperor Septimius Severus leads to the Roman acquisition of northern Mesopotamia.
216–217	Caracalla launches a new war against the Parthians. His successor Macrinus, however, is defeated by them near Nisibis in 217.
Roman–Sasanian Wars
230–232	Ardashir I raids Mesopotamia and Syria, but is eventually repulsed by Alexander Severus.
238–244	Ardashir's invasion of Mesopotamia and Persian defeat at the Battle of Resaena. Gordian III advances along the Euphrates but is repelled near Ctesiphon at the Battle of Misiche in 244.
253	Roman defeat at the Battle of Barbalissos.
c. 258–260	Shapur I defeats and captures Valerian at Edessa.
283	Carus sacks Ctesiphon.
296–298	Roman defeat at Carrhae in 296 or 297. Galerius defeats the Persians in 298.
363	After an initial victory outside Ctesiphon, Julian is killed at the Battle of Samarra.
384	Shapur III and Theodosius I divide Armenia between them.
421–422	Roman retaliation against Bahram's persecution of Christian Persians.
440	Yazdegerd II raids Roman Armenia.
502–506	Anastasius I refuses to support the Persians financially, triggering the Anastasian War. Ends with a seven-year peace treaty.
526–532	Iberian War. Romans victorious at Dara and Satala but defeated at Callinicum. Ends with the treaty of "Perpetual Peace".
540–561	Lazic War begins after Persians break the "Eternal Peace" by invading Syria. Ends with the Roman acquisition of Lazica and the signing of a fifty-year peace treaty.
572–591	War for the Caucasus breaks out when Armenians revolt against Sasanian rule. In 589, the Persian general Bahram Chobin raises a rebellion against Hormizd IV. Restoration of Khosrow II, Hormizd's son, by Roman and Persian forces and restoration of Roman rule in northern Mesopotamia (Dara, Martyropolis) followed by expansion into Iberia and Armenia.
602	Khosrow II conquers Mesopotamia after Maurice is assassinated.
611–623	Persians gradually conquer Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Rhodes and enter Anatolia.
626	Unsuccessful Avar–Persian–Slav siege of Constantinople
627	Persian defeat at Nineveh.
629	The Persians assassinate Khosrow II and agree to withdraw from all occupied territories. Heraclius restores the True Cross to Jerusalem.

When the two great powers of the time, Rome and Parthia, first came into collision, it seemed as if Parthia had the potential to push its frontier to the Aegean and the Mediterranean. The Romans repulsed, however, the great invasion of Syria under Pacorus and Labienus, and gradually managed to take advantage of the weaknesses of the Parthian military system, which, according to George Rawlinson, was adapted for national defense but ill-suited for conquests. The Romans, on the contrary, were always modifying and evolving their system, and, from Trajan's times, they re-orientated their "grand strategy", and took on the offensive against the Parthians. From their part, the Parthians, like the Sassanids in the late third and fourth centuries, generally shunned sustained defense of Mesopotamia, when Romans invaded. The Iranian heartland would be indeed preserved, as the Roman expeditions exhausted their offensive impetus by the time they reached lower Mesopotamia, and their extended line of communications through territory not sufficiently pacified exposed them to revolts and counterattacks.

From the fourth century AD, the Persian Sassanids would become stronger and adopt the role of agressors; they considered much of the land added to the Roman empire in Parthian and early Sassanid times rightfully to belong to the Iranian sphere. Everett Wheeler argues that "the Sassanids, administratively more centralized than the Parthians, formally organized defense of their territory, although they lacked a standing army until Khosrau I." In general the Romans regarded the Sassanids as a more serious threat than the Parthians; on the other side, the Sassanids regarded the Roman Empire as the enemy par excellence.

Militarily, the Sassanids continued the Parthians' heavy dependence on the combination of cataphracts (the heavy armored cavalry was provided by the aristocracy) and light-horse archers, adding a power force of war elephants obtained from India, but the traditional Persian weakness in the arm of infantry still applied, and their quality was inferior to the average Roman legion. This Persian heavy cavalry inflicted several defeats on the Roman foot-soldiers (against Crassus in 53 BC, Mark Antony in 36 BC, Valerian in 260 AD etc.). The need to counter this threat led to the introduction of cataphractarii into the Roman army; as a result, the growth in importance of heavily armed cavalry was a feature of both Roman and Persian armies after the third century AD, and until the end of the wars. As far as siege warfare is concerned, the Romans had achieved and maintained a high degree of sophistication, and had developed a range of siege machines. On the other hand, the Parthians were inept at besieging; their cavalry armies were more suited to the hit-and-run tactics that destroyed Antony's siege train in 36 BC. The situation changed with the rise of Sassanids, when Rome encountered an enemy equally skilled in siegecraft, who made use of artillery, machines captured from the Romans, embankments, and siege towers.

Towards the end of the 1st century AD, Rome organized the protection of its eastern frontiers through a line of fortifications, the limes system, which, reorganized by Diocletian, lasted till the Muslim conquests of the 7th century. Just as the Romans, so the Sassanids constructed defensive walls on the edge of lands facing their opponents. According to R.N. Frye, it was under Shapur II that the Persian system was extended, probably in imitation of Diocletian's activities in building the limes of the Syrian and Mesopotamian frontiers of the Roman empire. Just as the Romans settled the limitanei on their frontiers, so Shapur settled Arabs in Iraq as a permanent defense force against other Arabs of the desert, especially those allied with Rome. Shapur also built a line of fortifications in the west on the model of the Roman system of limes, which must have impressed the Sassanids.

In addition to these innovations, there were a number of buffer states at the beginning of Sassanid rule. These became absorbed into the central state in the course of time, and by the seventh century even the buffer state the Arab Lakhmids of Al-Hirah was gone. According to Frye, in the third century AD such client states played an important role in Roman-Sassanid relations, perhaps comparable to Palmyra on the Roman side. In both empires, the client states were taken over by the central government, and in their place the fortified cities of the frontier (such as Dara), and the limes were organized into a defense system. In general, according to recent studies and assessments, the Sassanids surpassed the Parthians in terms of siegecraft and defense system, and developed a high degree of sophistication in terms of military engineering and organization. According to the conclusions of a recent research:

At the time when the Western Roman Empire is collapsing and even the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire under great external pressure, the Sasanian Persian Empire musters the manpower to build and garrison a monument of greater scale (the Great Wall of Gorgan) than anything comparable in the west. The Persians seem to match, or more than match, their Late Roman rivals in army strength, organisational skills, engineering and water management. Archaeology is beginning to paint a clearer picture of an ancient super power at its apogee.

Assessments

The Roman-Persian Wars have been characterized as "futile", and "both depressing and tedious to contemplate with." Roman historian Cassius Dio had in a prophetic way commented on this "never-ending cycle of armed confrontations," saying that "it is shown by the facts themselves that [Severus'] conquest has been a source of constant wars and great expense to us. For it yields very little and uses up vast sums; and now that we have reached out to peoples who are neighbor of the Medes and the Parthians rather than of ourselves, we are always, one might say, fighting the battles of those peoples." In the long series of wars between the two powers, the frontier in upper Mesopotamia remained more or less constant. Historians point out that the stability of the frontier over the centuries is remarkable, although Nisibis, Singara, Dara and other cities of upper Mesopotamia changed hands from time to time, and the possession of these frontier cities gave one empire a trade advantage over the other. As William Bayne Fisher states:

One has the impression that the blood spilled in the warfare between the two states brought as little real gain to one side or the other as the few meters of land gained at terrible cost in the trench warfare of the First World War.

"How could it be a good thing to hand over one's dearest possessions to a stranger, a barbarian, the ruler of one's bitterest enemy, one whose good faith and sense of justice were untried, and, what is more, one who belonged to an alien and heathen faith?"

Agathias (Histories, 4.26.6, translated by Averil Cameron) about the Persians, a judgment typical of the Roman view.

Both sides attempted to justify their respective military goals, in both active and reactive ways. Roman claim for world domination was accompanied by a sense of mission and pride in Western civilization, and by ambitions to become a guarantor of peace and order. Roman sources reflect long-standing prejudices with regard to the Eastern powers' different customs, religious structures, languages and forms of government. John F. Haldon underscores that "although the conflicts between Persia and East Rome revolved around issues of strategic control around the eastern frontier, yet there was always a religious-ideological element present." From the time of Constantine on, Roman emperors appointed themselves as the protectors of christians of Persia. This attitude created intense suspicions on the loyalties of Christians living in Sassanid Iran, and often led to Roman-Persian tensions or even military confrontations. A characteristic of the final phase of the conflict, when what had began in 611-612 as a war of raid was soon to be trasformed into a war of conquest, was the pre-emince of the Cross as a symbol of imperial victory, and of the strongly religious element in the Eastern Roman imperial propaganda; Heraclius himself cast Khosrau as the enemy of God, and authors of the sixth and seventh centuries were fiercely hostile to Persia. This tradition of a a "pro-Roman" historical scholarship prevailed for centuries, and it was not until recently that modern scholars adopted a broader approach, and tried to illuminate the much less-known Persian position.

See also

• Roman relations with the Parthians and Sassanids

References

Primary Sources

• Agathias, Histories. Book 4.
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Further reading

• Blockley, Roger C. (1992). East Roman Foreign Policy. Formation and Conduct from Diocletian to Anastasius (ARCA 30). Leeds: BRILL. ISBN 0-905-20583-9.
• Börm, Henning (2007). Prokop und die Perser. Untersuchungen zu den Römisch-Sasanidischen Kontakten in der Ausgehenden Spätantike. Leeds: Steiner (Franz). ISBN 9-783-515-09052-0.
• Greatrex, Geoffrey B. (1998). Rome and Persia at War, 502-532. Rome: Francis Cairns. ISBN 0-905-20593-6.
• Isaac, Benjamin (1998). "The Eastern Frontier". In Averil Cameron, Peter Garnsey (ed.). The Cambridge Ancient History: The Late Empire, A.D. 337-425 XIII. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-30200-5.
• Kaegi, Walter E. (2003). Heraclius, Emperor of Byzantium. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-81459-6.
• Kettenhofen, Erich (1982). Die Römisch-persischen Kriege des 3. Jahrhunderts. n. Chr. Nach der Inschrift Sāhpuhrs I. an der Ka’be-ye Zartošt (ŠKZ). Beihefte zum Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients B 55. Wiesbaden.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Millar, Fergus (1982). The Roman Near East, 31 B.C.-A.D. 337. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
• Mitchell, Stephen B. (2006). A History of the Later Roman Empire, AD 284-641. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 1-405-10857-6.
• Potter, David S. (2004). The Roman Empire at Bay: Ad 180-395. London und New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-10058-5.
• Whitby, Michael (1988). The Emperor Maurice and his Historian. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-198-22945-3.

External links

• Alemani, Agustí. "Sixth Century Alania: between Byzantium, Sasanian Iran and the Turkic World" (PDF). Ēran ud Anērān. Transoxiana Webfestschrift Series I. Retrieved 2008-05-06.
• "Rome and Parthia at War". History Articles - Classical Europe and Mediterranean. All Empires - Online History Community. Retrieved 2008-05-16.
• "Sassanids vs Byzantines". History Articles - Medieval Europe. All Empires - Online History Community. Retrieved 2008-05-16.