Roman+Persian+Wars

The **Roman–Persian Wars** were a series of conflicts between states of the [|Greco-Roman world] and two successive [|Iranic empires] : the Parthian and the Sassanid. Battles between the [|Parthian Empire] and the [|Roman Republic] began in 92 BC; wars began under the late Republic, and continued through the [|Roman] and [|Sassanid empires]. They were ended by the [|Arab Muslim invasions], which struck the Sassanid and [|Byzantine East Roman] empires with shattering effect shortly after the end of the last war between them. Although warfare between the Romans and the Parthians/Sassanids lasted for seven centuries, the frontier remained largely stable. A game of [|tug of war] ensued: towns, fortifications, and provinces were continuously sacked, captured, destroyed, and traded. Neither side had the logistical strength or manpower to maintain such lengthy campaigns far from their borders, and thus neither could advance too far without risking stretching their frontiers too thin. Both sides did make conquests beyond the border, but the balance was almost always restored in time. The line of stalemate shifted in the 2nd century AD: it had run along the northern [|Euphrates] ; the new line ran east, or later northeast, across [|Mesopotamia] to the northern [|Tigris]. There were also several substantial shifts further north, in [|Armenia] and the [|Caucasus]. The expense of resources during the Roman–Persian Wars ultimately proved catastrophic for both empires. The prolonged and escalating warfare of the 6th and 7th centuries left them exhausted and vulnerable in the face of the sudden emergence and expansion of the [|Caliphate], whose forces invaded both empires only a few years after the end of the last Roman–Persian war. Benefiting from their weakened condition, the [|Arab Muslim armies] swiftly [|conquered] the [|entire Sassanid Empire], and [|deprived the Eastern Roman Empire] of its [|territories in the Levant] , [|the Caucasus] , [|Egypt] , and the [|rest of North Africa]. Over the following centuries, most of the [|Eastern Roman Empire] came under Muslim rule. [ [|hide] ] *  [|1 Historical background]
 * == Contents ==
 * [|2 Roman–Parthian Wars]
 * [|2.1 Roman Republic vs. Parthia]
 * [|2.2 Roman Empire vs. Parthia]
 * [|3 Roman–Sassanid Wars]
 * [|3.1 Early Roman–Sassanid conflicts]
 * [|4 Byzantine–Sassanid Wars]
 * [|4.1 Anastasian War]
 * [|4.2 Iberian War]
 * [|4.3 Justinian vs. Khosrau I]
 * [|4.4 War for the Caucasus]
 * [|4.5 Climax]
 * [|5 Aftermath]
 * [|6 Strategies and military tactics]
 * [|7 Assessments]
 * [|8 Historiography]
 * [|9 See also]
 * [|10 Citations and notes]
 * [|11 References]
 * [|11.1 Primary sources]
 * [|11.2 Secondary sources]
 * [|12 Further reading]
 * [|13 External links] ||

[ [|edit] ] 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". [|[1]] The Romans and Parthians came into contact through their respective conquests of parts of the [|Seleucid Empire]. During the 3rd century BC, the Parthians migrated from the [|Central Asian] steppe into northern [|Iran]. Although subdued for a time by the Seleucids, in the 2nd century they broke away and established an independent state that steadily expanded at the expense of their former rulers, conquering [|Persia] and [|Mesopotamia]. Ruled by the [|Arsacid dynasty], the Parthians fended off several Seleucid attempts to regain their lost territories, and extended their rule deep into [|India] (see [|Indo-Parthian Kingdom] ). [|[2]] Meanwhile the Romans expelled the Seleucids from their territories in [|Anatolia] in the early 2nd 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. [|[2]]

[ [|edit] ] Roman Republic vs. Parthia
Parthian enterprise in the [|West] began in the time of [|Mithridates I] and was revived by [|Mithridates II], who negotiated unsuccessfully with [|Lucius Cornelius Sulla] for a Roman–Parthian alliance (c. 105 BC). [|[3]] When [|Lucullus] invaded [|Southern Armenia] and led an attack against [|Tigranes] in 69 BC, he corresponded with [|Phraates III] to dissuade him from intervening. Although the Parthians remained neutral, Lucullus considered attacking them. [|[4]] In 66–65 BC, Pompey reached agreement with Phraates, and Roman–Parthian troops invaded [|Armenia], but a dispute soon arose over the Euphrates boundary. Finally, Phraates asserted his control over Mesopotamia, except for the western district of [|Osroene], which became a Roman dependency. [|[5]] The Roman general [|Marcus Licinius Crassus] led an invasion of Mesopotamia in 53 BC with catastrophic results; he and his son [|Publius] were killed at the [|Battle of Carrhae] by the Parthians under [|General Surena] ; this was the worst Roman defeat since the [|Battle of Cannae]. [|[6]] The Parthians raided Syria the following year, and mounted a major invasion in 51 BC, but their army was caught in an ambush near [|Antigonea] by the Romans, and they were driven back. [|[7]] [|Armenia] under [|Tigranes] The Parthians largely remained neutral during [|Caesar's civil war], fought between forces supporting [|Julius Caesar] and forces supporting [|Pompey] and the traditional faction of the [|Roman Senate]. However, they maintained relations with Pompey, and after his defeat and death, a force under [|Pacorus I] assisted the Pompeian general [|Q. Caecilius Bassus], who was besieged at [|Apamea] Valley by Caesarian forces. With the civil war over, Julius Caesar prepared a campaign against Parthia, but his assassination averted the war. The Parthians supported [|Brutus] and [|Cassius] during the ensuing [|Liberators' civil war] and sent a contingent to fight on their side at the [|Battle of Philippi] in 42 BC. [|[8]] After the Liberators' defeat, the Parthians invaded Roman territory in 40 BC in conjunction with the Roman [|Quintus Labienus], a former supporter of Brutus and Cassius. They swiftly overran the Roman province of Syria and advanced into [|Judaea], overthrowing the Roman client [|Hyrcanus II] and installing his nephew [|Antigonus]. For a moment, the whole of the Roman East seemed lost to the Parthians or about to fall into their hands. However, the conclusion of the second [|Roman civil war] soon revived Roman strength in [|Asia]. [|[9]] [|Mark Antony] had sent [|Ventidius] to oppose Labienus, who had invaded Anatolia. Soon Labienus was driven back to Syria by Roman forces, and, although reinforced by the Parthians, was defeated, taken prisoner, and killed. 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. [|[10]] With Roman control of Syria and Judaea restored, Mark Antony led a huge army into [|Atropatene], 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. Antony was again in Armenia in 33 BC to join with the [|Median] king against [|Octavian] and the Parthians. Other preoccupations obliged him to withdraw, and the whole region came under Parthian control. [|[11]]

[ [|edit] ] Roman Empire vs. Parthia
Parthia, its subkingdoms, and neighbors in 1 AD  With tensions between the two powers threatening renewed war, [|Gaius Caesar] and [|Phraataces] worked out a compromise in 1 AD. According to the agreement, Parthia undertook to withdraw its forces from Armenia and to recognize a // [|de facto] // Roman protectorate there. Nonetheless, Roman–Persian rivalry over control and influence in Armenia continued unabated for the next several decades. [|[12]] 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 when Artabanus abandoned claims to a Parthian sphere of influence in Armenia. [|[13]] War erupted in 58 AD, after the Parthian King [|Vologases I] forcibly installed his brother [|Tiridates] on the Armenian throne. [|[14]] Roman forces overthrew Tiridates and replaced him with a [|Cappadocian] prince, triggering an [|inconclusive war]. This came to an end in 63 AD after the Romans agreed to allow Tiridates and his descendants to rule Armenia on condition that they receive the kingship from the Roman emperor. [|[15]] A fresh series of conflicts began in the 2nd century AD, during which the Romans consistently held the upper hand over Parthia. The Emperor [|Trajan] invaded Armenia and Mesopotamia during 114 and 115 and annexed them as Roman provinces. He captured the Parthian capital, [|Ctesiphon], before sailing downriver to the [|Persian Gulf]. [|[16]] However, uprisings erupted in 115 AD in the occupied Parthian territories, while a major [|Jewish revolt] broke out in Roman territory, severely stretching Roman military resources. Parthian forces attacked 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 as a client ruler, he withdrew his armies and returned to Syria. Trajan died in 117, before he was able to reorganize and consolidate Roman control over the Parthian provinces. [|[17]] Trajan's Parthian War initiated 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. Hadrian returned to the // [|status quo ante] //, and surrendered the territories of Armenia, Mesopotamia, and [|Adiabene] to their previous rulers and client-kings. [|[18]] The ruins of Ctesiphon, one of the Parthian and Sassanid capitals [|War over Armenia] broke out again in 161, when [|Vologases IV] defeated the Romans there, captured Edessa and ravaged Syria. In 163 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] invaded Mesopotamia, winning battles at [|Dura-Europos] and Seleucia and sacking Ctesiphon in 165. An epidemic which was sweeping Parthia at the time, possibly of [|smallpox], spread to the Roman army and forced its withdrawal; [|[19]] this was the origin of the [|Antonine Plague] that raged for a generation throughout the Roman Empire. In 195–197, a Roman offensive under the Emperor [|Septimius Severus] led to Rome's acquisition of northern Mesopotamia as far as the areas around [|Nisibis], [|Singara] and the 2nd sacking of Ctesiphon. [|[20]] A final war against the Parthians was launched by the Emperor [|Caracalla], who sacked [|Arbela] in 216. After his assassination, his successor, [|Macrinus], was defeated by the Parthians near [|Nisibis]. In exchange for peace, he was obliged to pay for the damage caused by Caracalla. [|[21]]

[ [|edit] ] Early Roman–Sassanid conflicts
Rock-face relief at [|Naqsh-e Rustam] of Iranian[// [|discuss] //] emperor Shapur I (on horseback) capturing Roman emperor Valerian (kneeling) and Philip the Arab (standing) Conflict resumed 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]. [|[22]] After fruitless negotiations, [|Alexander Severus] set out against Ardashir in 232 and finally repulsed him. [|[23]] In 238–240, towards the end of his reign, Ardashir attacked again, taking several cities in Syria and Mesopotamia, including [|Carrhae] and Nisibis. [|[24]] The struggle resumed and intensified under Ardashir's successor [|Shapur I], who invaded Mesopotamia. His forces were defeated at a [|battle] near [|Resaena] in 243 and the Romans regained Carrhae and Nisibis. [|[25]] Encouraged by this, the Roman Emperor [|Gordian III] advanced down the Euphrates but was repelled near [|Ctesiphon] at the [|Battle of Misiche] in 244. [|[26]] In the early 250s, the emperor [|Philip the Arab] was involved in a struggle over the control of Armenia. Shapur had the Armenian king murdered and re-opened hostilities against the Romans, defeating them at the [|Battle of Barbalissos], and then probably taking and plundering [|Antioch]. [|[27]] Between 258 and 260, Shapur captured the Emperor [|Valerian I] after defeating his army at the [|Battle of Edessa], and advanced into Anatolia. However, defeats at the hands of Roman forces there and attacks from [|Odaenathus] of [|Palmyra] forced the Persians to withdraw from Roman territory. [|[28]] [|Julian's] unsuccessful campaign in 363 resulted in the loss of the Roman territorial gains under the peace treaty of 299. The Emperor [|Carus] launched a successful invasion of Persia in 283, sacking Ctesiphon, now the Sassanid capital, for the 3rd time. The Romans would probably have extended their conquests if Carus had not died in December of that year. [|[29]] After a brief peace early in [|Diocletian] 's reign, the Persians renewed hostilities when they invaded Armenia and defeated the Romans outside Carrhae in either 296 or 297. [|[30]] However, [|Galerius] crushed the Persians in the [|Battle of Satala] in 298, capturing the treasury and the royal [|harem], an utter disgrace for the Persian monarch. The resulting peace settlement gave the Romans control of the area between the [|Tigris] and the [|Greater Zab]. This was the most decisive Roman victory for many decades; all the territories that had been lost, all the debatable lands, and control of Armenia lay in Roman hands. [|[31]] The arrangements of 299 lasted until the mid-330s, when [|Shapur II] began a series of offensives against the Romans. Despite a string of victories in battle, his campaigns achieved little lasting effect: three Persian sieges of Nisibis were repulsed, and while Shapur succeeded in taking Amida and Singara, both cities were soon regained by the Romans. [|[30]] Following a lull during the 350s while Shapur fought off nomad attacks on Persia's northern frontier, he launched a new campaign in 359 and again captured Amida. This provoked a major offensive in 363 by the Roman Emperor [|Julian], who advanced down the Euphrates to Ctesiphon. [|[32]] Julian won the [|Battle of Ctesiphon] but was unable to take the Persian capital and retreated along the Tigris. Harried by the Persians, Julian was killed in a [|skirmish]. With the Roman army stuck on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, Julian's successor [|Jovian] made peace, agreeing to major concessions in exchange for safe passage out of Sassanid territory. The Romans surrendered their former possessions east of the Tigris, as well as Nisibis and Singara, and Shapur soon conquered Armenia. [|[33]] In 384 or 387, a definitive peace treaty was signed by [|Shapur III] and [|Theodosius I], which divided Armenia between the two states. Meanwhile, the northern territories of the Roman Empire were [|invaded] by Germanic, Alanic, and Hunnic peoples, while Persia's northern borders were threatened first by a number of Hunnic peoples and then by the [|Hephthalites]. With both empires preoccupied by these threats, a largely peaceful period followed, interrupted only by two brief wars, the [|first in 421–422] and the second in 440. [|[34]]

[ [|edit] ] Byzantine–Sassanid Wars
For more details on this topic, see [|Byzantine–Sassanid Wars].

[ [|edit] ] Anastasian War
Main article: [|Anastasian War] Map of the Roman–Persian frontier after the division of Armenia in 384. The frontier remained stable throughout the 5th century. War broke out when the Persian King [|Kavadh I] attempted to gain financial support by force from the [|Byzantine Roman Emperor] [|Anastasius I]. [|[35]] In 502 AD, he quickly captured the unprepared city of [|Theodosiopolis] [|[36]] and besieged [|Amida]. The siege of the fortress-city proved to be far more difficult than Kavadh expected; the defenders repelled the Persian assaults for three months before they were beaten. [|[37]] 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. [|[38]] Finally in 504, the Romans gained control through the renewed [|investment] of Amida, which led to the fall of the city. That year an armistice was reached as a result of an invasion of Armenia by the [|Huns] from the [|Caucasus]. Although the two powers negotiated, it was not until November 506 that a treaty was agreed to. [|[39]] In 505, Anastasius ordered the building of a great fortified city at [|Dara]. At the same time, the dilapidated fortifications were also upgraded at Edessa, [|Batnae] and Amida. [|[40]] Although no further large-scale conflict took place during Anastasius' reign, tensions continued, especially while work proceeded at Dara. This was because the construction of new fortifications in the border zone by either empire had been prohibited by a treaty concluded some decades earlier. Anastasius pursued the project despite Persian objections, and the walls were completed by 507–508. [|[41]]

[ [|edit] ] Iberian War
Main article: [|Iberian War] Roman and Persian Empires in 477, as well as their neighbors, many of whom were dragged into wars between the great powers[// [|discuss] //] In 524–525 AD, Kavadh proposed that [|Justin I] adopt his son, [|Khosrau], but the negotiations soon broke down. [|[42]] Tensions between the two powers erupted into conflict when [|Caucasian Iberia] under [|Gourgen] defected to the Romans in 524–525. [|[43]] Overt Roman–Persian fighting had broken out in the [|Transcaucasus] region and upper Mesopotamia by 526–527. [|[44]] 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. [|[45]] Attempting to remedy the deficiencies revealed by these Persian successes, the new Roman emperor, [|Justinian I], reorganized the [|eastern armies]. [|[46]] Plan of the [|Battle of Dara] In 530 a major Persian offensive in Mesopotamia was defeated by Roman forces under [|Belisarius] at [|Dara], while a second Persian thrust in the Caucasus was defeated by Sittas at [|Satala]. Belisarius was defeated by Persian and [|Lakhmid] forces at the [|Battle of Callinicum] in 531. In the same year the Romans gained some forts in Armenia, while the Persians had captured two forts in eastern Lazica. [|[47]] Immediately after the failure at [|Callinicum] the Persians and Romans negotiated without success. [|[48]] The two sides re-opened talks in spring 532 and finally signed the Eternal Peace in September 532, which lasted less than eight years. Both powers agreed to return all occupied territories, and the Romans agreed to make a one-time payment of 110 //centenaria// (11,000 lb of gold). Iberia remained in Persian hands, and the Iberians who had left their country were given the choice of remaining in Roman territory or returning to their native land. [|[49]]

[ [|edit] ] 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 || The Persians broke the "Treaty of Eternal Peace" in 540 AD, probably in response to the Roman reconquest of much of the former western empire, which had been facilitated by the cessation of war in the East. Khosrau I invaded and devastated Syria, extorting large sums of money from the cities of Syria and Mesopotamia, and systematically looting other cities including [|Antioch], whose population was deported to Persian territory. [|[50]] Belisarius, recalled from the campaigns in the West to deal with the Persian threat, waged an inconclusive campaign against Nisibis in 541. Khosrau launched another offensive in Mesopotamia in 542 when he attempted to capture [|Sergiopolis]. [|[51]] He soon withdrew in the face of an army under Belisarius, sacking the city of Callinicum en route. [|[52]] Attacks on a number of Roman cities were repulsed, and Persian forces were defeated at Dara. [|[53]] In 543, the Romans launched an offensive against [|Dvin] but were defeated by a small Persian force at [|Anglon]. Khosrau besieged Edessa in 544 without success and was eventually bought off by the defenders. [|[54]] In the wake of the Persian retreat, Roman envoys proceeded to Ctesiphon for negotiations. [|[55]] A five-year truce was agreed to in 545, secured by Roman payments to the Persians. [|[56]] The Eastern Roman–Persian border at the time of Justinian's death in 565, with Lazica in Eastern Roman (Byzantine) hands Early in 548, 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 combined Roman and Lazic forces won a series of victories against Persian armies, although they failed to take the key garrison of [|Petra]. The city was finally subjugated in 551, but in the same year a Persian offensive led by [|Mihr-Mihroe] occupied eastern Lazica. [|[57]] The truce that had been established in 545 was renewed outside Lazica for a further five years on condition that the Romans pay 2,000 lb of gold each year. [|[58]] In Lazica the war dragged on inconclusively for several years, with neither side able to make any major gains. [|[59]] Khosrau, who now had to deal with the [|White Huns], renewed the truce in 557, this time without excluding Lazica; negotiations continued for a definite peace treaty. [|[60]] Finally, in 561, 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] // (//solidi//). [|[61]] Both sides agreed not to build new fortifications near the frontier and to ease restrictions on diplomacy and trade. [|[62]]

[ [|edit] ] War for the Caucasus
For more details on this topic, see [|Byzantine–Sassanid War of 572–591]. War broke out again when Armenia and Iberia revolted against Sassanid rule in 571 AD, following clashes involving Roman and Persian proxies in Yemen and the Syrian desert, and Roman negotiations for an alliance with the [|Turks] against Persia. [|[63]] [|Justin II] brought Armenia under his protection, while Roman troops under Justin's cousin [|Marcian] raided [|Arzanene] and invaded Persian Mesopotamia, where they defeated local forces. [|[64]] 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. [|[65]] At a cost of 45,000 // [|solidi] //, a one-year truce in Mesopotamia (eventually extended to five years) [|[66]] was arranged, but in the Caucasus and on the desert frontiers the war continued. [|[67]] In 575, Khosrau I attempted to combine aggression in Armenia with discussion of a permanent peace. He invaded Anatolia and sacked Sebasteia, but after a clash near [|Melitene] the Persian army suffered heavy losses while fleeing across the Euphrates under Roman attack. [|[68]] The Sassanid Empire and its neighbors (including the Eastern Roman Empire) in 600 AD  The Romans exploited Persian disarray, and general [|Justinian] invaded deep into Persian territory and raiding [|Atropatene]. [|[68]] Khosrau sought peace, but abandoned this initiative after [|Tamkhusro] won a victory in Armenia, where Roman actions had alienated local inhabitants. [|[69]] In the spring of 578 the war in Mesopotamia resumed with Persian raids on Roman territory. The Roman general [|Maurice] retaliated by raiding Persian Mesopotamia, capturing the stronghold of [|Aphumon], and sacking Singara. Khosrau again opened peace negotiations but he died early in 579 and his successor [|Hormizd IV] preferred to continue the war. [|[70]] The Roman-Persian frontier in the 4th to 7th centuries During the 580s, the war continued inconclusively with victories on both sides. In 582, Maurice won a battle at Constantia over Adarmahan and 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. [|[71]] Another Roman victory at [|Solachon] in 586 likewise failed to break the stalemate. [|[72]] The Persians captured [|Martyropolis] through treachery in 589, but that 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 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 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. [|[73]]

[ [|edit] ] Climax
Byzantine and Sassanid Empires in 600 CE  See also: [|Byzantine-Sassanid War of 602-628] and [|Siege of Constantinople (626)] Late Roman silver coin showing the words //Deus adiuta Romanis// In 602 the Roman army [|campaigning in the Balkans] mutinied under the leadership of [|Phocas], who succeeded in seizing the throne, and then killed Maurice and his family. Khosrau II used the murder of his benefactor as a pretext for war. [|[74]] In the early years of the war the Persians enjoyed overwhelming and unprecedented success. They were aided by Khosrau's use of a pretender claiming to be Maurice's son, and by the revolt against Phocas of the Roman general Narses. [|[75]] In 603 Khosrau defeated and killed the Roman general Germanus in Mesopotamia and laid siege to Dara. Despite the arrival of Roman reinforcements from Europe he won another victory in 604, while Dara fell after a nine-month siege. Over the following years the Persians gradually overcame the fortress cities of Mesopotamia by siege, one after another. [|[76]] At the same time they won a string of victories in Armenia and systematically subdued the Roman garrisons in the Caucasus. [|[77]] Phocas was deposed in 610 by [|Heraclius], who sailed to Constantinople from [|Carthage]. [|[78]] Around the same time the Persians completed their conquest of Mesopotamia and the Caucasus, and in 611 they overran Syria and entered Anatolia, occupying [|Caesarea]. [|[79]] Having expelled the Persians from Anatolia in 612, Heraclius launched a major counter-offensive in Syria in 613. He was decisively defeated outside Antioch by [|Shahrbaraz] and [|Shahin] and the Roman position collapsed. [|[80]] Over the following decade the Persians were able to conquer [|Palestine] and [|Egypt], [|[81]] and to devastate Anatolia. [|[82]] Meanwhile, the [|Avars] and [|Slavs] took advantage of the situation to overrun the [|Balkans], bringing the Roman Empire to the brink of destruction. [|[83]] During these years, Heraclius strove to rebuild his army, slashing non-military expenditures, devaluing the currency and melting down Church plate, with the backing of [|Patriarch Sergius], to raise the necessary funds to continue the war. [|[84]] In 622, Heraclius left Constantinople, entrusting the city to Sergius and general Bonus as regents of his son. He assembled his forces in Asia Minor and, after conducting exercises to revive their morale, he launched a new counter-offensive, which took on the character of a [|holy war]. [|[85]] In the Caucasus he inflicted a defeat on an army led by a Persian-allied Arab chief, and then won a victory over the Persians under Shahrbaraz. [|[86]] Following a lull in 623, while Heraclius negotiated a truce with the Avars, he resumed his campaigns in the East in 624 and routed an army led by Khosrau at [|Ganzak] in Atropatene. [|[87]] In 625 he defeated the generals Shahrbaraz, Shahin and [|Shahraplakan] in Armenia, and in a surprise attack that winter he stormed Shahrbaraz's headquarters and attacked his troops in their winter billets. [|[88]] Supported by a Persian army commanded by Shahrbaraz, the Avars and Slavs unsuccessfully besieged Constantinople in 626, [|[89]] while a second Persian army under Shahin suffered another crushing defeat at the hands of Heraclius' brother Theodore. [|[90]] The assassination of [|Khosrau II], in a [|Mughal] manuscript of c. 1535. [|Persian] poems are from [|Ferdowsi] 's [|Shahnameh]. Meanwhile, Heraclius formed an alliance with the [|Turks], who took advantage of dwindling strength of the Persians to [|ravage their territories] in the Caucasus. [|[91]] Late in 627, Heraclius launched a winter offensive into Mesopotamia, where, despite the desertion of the Turkish contingent that 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. [|[92]] Heraclius restored the [|True Cross] to [|Jerusalem] with a majestic ceremony in 629. [|[93]]

[ [|edit] ] Aftermath
See also: [|Muslim conquests], [|Islamic conquest of Persia] , and [|Byzantine–Arab Wars] 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]. [|[94]] The Roman Empire was also severely affected, with its financial reserves exhausted by the war, and the Balkans now largely in the hands of the Slavs. [|[95]] Additionally, Anatolia was devastated by repeated Persian invasions; the Empire's hold on its recently regained territories in the Caucasus, Syria, Mesopotamia, Palestine and Egypt was loosened by many years of Persian occupation. [|[96]] ||  ||  || Right:Byzantine Empire by 650: By this point the Sassanid Empire had fallen as well as Byzantine Syria, Palestine and Egypt to the Arab [|Caliphate]. || 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". [|[97]] According to George Liska, the "unnecessarily prolonged Byzantine–Persian conflict opened the way for Islam". [|[98]] The Sassanid Empire rapidly succumbed to these attacks and was completely destroyed. During the Byzantine–Arab Wars, the exhausted Roman Empire's recently regained eastern and southern provinces of [|Syria], [|Armenia] , [|Egypt] and [|North Africa] were also lost, reducing the Empire to a territorial rump consisting of Anatolia and a scatter of islands and footholds in the Balkans and Italy. [|[99]] 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 the form of 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]. [|[100]] The Roman Empire also lost its territories in [|Crete] and [|southern Italy to the Arabs] in [|later conflicts], though these too were [|ultimately recovered].
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9a/626Byzantium.svg/200px-626Byzantium.svg.png width="200" height="93" align="center" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:626Byzantium.svg"]]
 * Left: Byzantine Empire by 626 under Heraclius; striped areas are lands still threatened by the Sassanids.

[ [|edit] ] Strategies and military tactics
[|Avidius Cassius] sacked Ctesiphon in 165 AD. || [|Gordian III] advanced down the Euphrates but was repelled near [|Ctesiphon] at the [|Battle of Misiche] in 244. || In 298 [|Galerius] defeated the Persians. || In 589 the Persian general [|Bahram Chobin] raised a rebellion against [|Hormizd IV]. Restoration of [|Khosrau II], Hormizd's son, to power by Roman and Persian forces — Restoration of Roman rule in northern Mesopotamia ( [|Dara] , [|Martyropolis] ) and expansion into [|Iberia] and [|Armenia]. || When the Roman and Parthian Empires first collided, it appeared that Parthia had the potential to push its frontier to the [|Aegean] and the Mediterranean. However, under Pacorus and Labienus, the Romans repulsed the great invasion of Syria and were gradually able 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 conquest. The Romans, on the other hand, were continually modifying and evolving their "grand strategy" from Trajan's time onwards, and were by the time of Pacorus able to take the offensive against the Parthians. [|[101]] Like the Sassanids in the late 3rd and 4th centuries, the Parthians generally avoided any sustained defense of Mesopotamia against the Romans. However, the [|Iranian plateau] never fell, as the Roman expeditions had always 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. [|[102]] From the 4th century AD onwards, the Persian Sassanids grew in strength and adopted the role of aggressor. They considered much of the land added to the Roman Empire in Parthian and early Sassanid times to rightfully belong to the Persian sphere. [|[103]] 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". [|[102]] In general the Romans regarded the Sassanids as a more serious threat than the Parthians, while the Sassanids regarded the Roman Empire as the enemy //par excellence.// [|[104]] Militarily, the Sassanids continued the Parthians' heavy dependence on the combination of light-horse archers and [|cataphracts], the [|heavy armored cavalry] provided by the aristocracy. They added a contingent of [|war elephants] obtained from the [|Indus Valley], but their [|infantry] quality was inferior to that of the Romans. [|[105]] The Persian heavy cavalry inflicted several defeats on the Roman foot-soldiers, including those led by Crassus in 53 BC, [|[106]] Mark Antony in 36 BC, and Valerian in 260 AD. The need to counter this threat led to the introduction of//cataphractarii// into the Roman army; [|[107]] as a result, heavily armed cavalry grew in importance in both the Roman and Persian armies after the 3rd century AD, and until the end of the wars. [|[103]] The Romans had achieved and maintained a high degree of sophistication in siege warfare, 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 the Sassanids, when Rome encountered an enemy equally skilled in siegecraft, who made use of [|artillery], machines captured from the Romans, embankments, and [|siege towers]. [|[108]] 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 lasted till the Muslim conquests of the 7th century after improvements by Diocletian. [|[109]] Like the Romans, the Sassanids constructed defensive walls opposite the territory of their opponents. According to R. N. Frye, it was under Shapur II that the Persian system was extended, probably in imitation of Diocletian's construction of the //limes// of the Syrian and Mesopotamian frontiers of the Roman Empire. The Roman border units were known as // [|limitanei] //, and they faced the [|Lakhmids] in [|Iraq], who frequently aided the Persians in their contests with the Romans. Shapur intended 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 impressed the Sassanids. [|[110]] By the beginning of Sassanid rule, a number of buffer states existed between the empires. These were absorbed by the central state over time, and by the 7th century the last buffer state, the Arab Lakhmids of [|Al-Hirah], was annexed to the Sassanid Empire. Frye notes that in the 3rd century AD such client states played an important role in Roman–Sassanid relations, but both empires gradually replaced them by an organized defense system run by the central government, and based on the //limes// and the fortified frontier cities, such as Dara. [|[111]] Recent studies and assessments comparing the Sassanids and Parthians have reaffirmed the superiority of Sassanid siegecraft, [|military engineering] and organization, [|[112]] as well as ability to build defensive works. [|[113]]
 * ~ ****Roman–Persian Wars** Timeline** ||
 * || ** [|Roman–Parthian Wars] ** ||
 * 69 BC || First Roman-Parthian contacts, when [|Lucullus] invaded [|Southern Armenia] . ||
 * 66–65 BC || Dispute between [|Pompey] and [|Phraates III] over [|Euphrates] boundary ||
 * 53 BC || Roman defeat at the [|Battle of Carrhae] ||
 * 42–37 BC || A great Parthian invasion of [|Syria], and other Roman territories was decisively defeated by [|Mark Antony] and [|Ventidius] ||
 * 36–33 BC || [|Unsuccessful campaign] of Mark Antony against Parthia. Subsequent campaign in Armenia successful, but followed by withdrawal — the whole region passed under Parthian control. ||
 * 20 BC || Settlement with the Parthians by [|Augustus] and [|Tiberius] — Return of the standards captured at Carrhae. ||
 * 36 AD || Defeated by the Romans, [|Artabanus II] renounced his claims to Armenia. ||
 * 58–63 AD || [|Roman invasion of Armenia] — arrangement with the Parthians over the kingship of Armenia. ||
 * 114–117 AD || Major campaign of [|Trajan] against Parthia — Trajan's conquests later abandoned by [|Hadrian] . ||
 * 161–165 AD || War over Armenia (161–163) ended by a Roman victory after initial Parthian successes
 * 195–197 AD || An offensive under the emperor [|Septimius Severus] led to the Roman acquisition of northern Mesopotamia. ||
 * 216–217 AD || [|Caracalla] launched a new war against the Parthians — His successor [|Macrinus] was defeated by the Parthians near [|Nisibis] . ||
 * || ** [|Roman–Sassanid Wars] ** ||
 * 230–232 AD || [|Ardashir I] raided Mesopotamia and Syria, but was finally repulsed by [|Alexander Severus] . ||
 * 238–244 AD || Ardashir's invasion of Mesopotamia, and Persian defeat at the [|Battle of Resaena].
 * 253 AD || Roman defeat at the [|Battle of Barbalissos] . ||
 * c. 258–260 AD || [|Shapur I] defeated and captured [|Valerian I] at [|Edessa] . ||
 * 283 AD || [|Carus] sacked [|Ctesiphon] . ||
 * 296–298 AD || Roman defeat at [|Carrhae] in 296 or 297.
 * 363 AD || After an initial victory at the [|Ctesiphon], [|Julian] was killed at the [|Battle of Samarra] . ||
 * 384 AD || [|Shapur III] and [|Theodosius I] divided Armenia between the two states. ||
 * 421–422 AD || Roman reaction to [|Bahram] 's persecution of [|Christian] Persians. ||
 * 440 AD || [|Yazdegerd II] raided Roman Armenia. ||
 * 502–506 AD || [|Anastasian War] : It broke out when [|Anastasius I] refused to financially support the Persians, and ended with a 7-year peace-treaty. ||
 * 526–532 AD || [|Iberian War] : Roman victories at [|Dara] and [|Satala], and defeat at [|Callinicum] — end of the war with the "Treaty of Eternal Peace". ||
 * 540–561 AD || [|Lazic War] : It broke out when the Persians broke the "Treaty of Eternal Peace" invading Syria — end of the war in 561 with the signing of a 50-year peace and the Roman acquisition of [|Lazica] . ||
 * 572–591 AD || [|War for the Caucasus] : It broke out when the Armenians revolted against Sassanid rule.
 * 602 AD || After [|Maurice] 's assassination, Khosrau II conquered Mesopotamia. ||
 * 611–623 AD || The Persians conquered Syria, [|Palestine], [|Egypt] , [|Rhodes] , and entered [|Anatolia] . ||
 * 626 AD || Unsuccessful [|Avar] -Persian [|siege of Constantinople] ||
 * 627 AD || Persian defeat at [|Nineveh] . ||
 * 629 AD || Heraclius restored the [|True Cross] to [|Jerusalem], after the Persians agreed to withdraw from all occupied territories. ||

[ [|edit] ] Assessments
The Roman–Persian Wars have been characterized as "futile" and both too "depressing and tedious to contemplate". [|[114]] Prophetically, [|Cassius Dio] noted their "never-ending cycle of armed confrontations" and observed 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." [|[115]] 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 Frye states: [|[111]] > 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. Both sides attempted to justify their respective military goals in both active and reactive ways. The Roman quest 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 reveal long-standing prejudices with regard to the Eastern powers' 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. [|[117]] This attitude created intense suspicions of the loyalties of Christians living in Sassanid Iran, and often led to Roman–Persian tensions or even military confrontations. [|[118]] A characteristic of the final phase of the conflict, when what had begun in 611–612 as a war of raid was soon to be transformed into a war of conquest, was the pre-eminence of the Cross as a symbol of imperial victory, and of the strongly religious element in the Roman imperial propaganda; Heraclius himself cast Khosrau as the enemy of God, and authors of the 6th and 7th centuries were fiercely hostile to Persia. [|[119]] This tradition of a "pro-Roman" historical scholarship prevailed for centuries, and it was not until recently that scholars adopted a broader approach, and attempted to illuminate the lesser-known Persian position. [|[120]]
 * "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. [|[116]] ||

[ [|edit] ] Historiography
The Humiliation of Valerian by Shapur ( [|Hans Holbein the Younger], 1521, pen and black ink on a chalk sketch, [|Kunstmuseum Basel] ) The sources for the history of Parthia and the wars with Rome are scant and scattered. The Parthians followed the Achaemenid tradition and favored oral [|historiography], which assured the corruption of their history once they had been vanquished. The main sources of this period are thus [|Roman] ( [|Tacitus], [|Marius Maximus] , and [|Justin] ) and [|Greek historians] ( [|Herodian] , [|Cassius Dio] and [|Plutarch] ). The 13th book of the [|Sibylline Oracles] narrates the effects of the Roman–Persian Wars in Syria from the reign of Gordian III to the domination of the province by Odaenathus of Palmyra. With the end of Herodian's record, all contemporary chronological narratives of Roman history are lost, until the narratives of [|Lactantius] and [|Eusebius] at the beginning of the 4th century, both from a Christian perspective. [|[121]] The principal sources for the early Sassanid period are not contemporary. Among them the most important are the Greeks [|Agathias] and [|Malalas], the Persians [|Tabari] and [|Ferdowsi] , the Armenian [|Agathangelos] , and the Syriac Chronicles of Edessa and Arbela, most of whom depended on late Sassanid sources, especially [|Khwaday-Namag]. The [|Augustan History] is neither contemporary nor reliable, but it is the chief narrative source for Severus and Carus. The trilingual (Greek, Parthian, and Middle Persian) inscriptions of Shapur are primary sources. [|[122]] These were isolated attempts at approaching written historiography however, and by the end of the 4th century AD, even the practice of carving rock reliefs and leaving short inscriptions was abandoned by the Sassanids. [|[123]] For the period between 353 and 378, there is an eyewitness source to the main events on the eastern frontier in the //Res Gestae// of [|Ammianus Marcellinus]. For the events covering the period between the 4th and the 6th century, the works of [|Sozomenus], [|Zosimus] , [|Priscus] , and [|Zonaras] are especially valuable. [|[124]] The single most important source for Justinian's Persian wars up to 553 is [|Procopius]. His continuators [|Agathias] and [|Menander Protector] offer many important details as well. [|Theophylact Simocatta] is the main source for the reign of Maurice, [|[125]] while [|Theophanes], [|Chronicon Paschale] and the poems of [|George of Pisidia] are useful sources for the last Roman–Persian war. In addition to Byzantine sources, two Armenian historians, [|Sebeos] and [|Movses], contribute to the coherent narrative of Heraclius' war and are regarded by Howard-Johnston as "the most important of extant non-Muslim sources". [|[126]]