The RomanPersian Wars have been characterized as "futile" and too "depressing and tedious to contemplate". [39] His successor Numerian was forced by his own army to retreat, being frightened by the belief that Carus had died of a strike of lightning. [158] Towards the end of the 1st centuryAD, Rome organized the protection of its eastern frontiers through the limes system, which lasted until the Muslim conquests of the 7th century after improvements by Diocletian. [31] Encouraged by this success, the emperor Gordian III advanced down the Euphrates but was defeated near Ctesiphon in the Battle of Misiche in 244. [12] After the Liberators' defeat, the Parthians invaded Roman territory in 40BC in conjunction with the Roman Quintus Labienus, a former supporter of Brutus and Cassius. With support from Maurice, Khosrau raised a rebellion against Bahram, and in 591 the combined forces of his supporters and the Romans defeated Bahram at the Battle of Blarathon and restored Khosrau II to power. According to the agreement, Parthia undertook to withdraw its forces from Armenia and to recognize a de facto Roman protectorate there. [53] 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. 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. With the civil war over, Julius Caesar prepared a campaign against Parthia, but his assassination averted the war. Although warfare between the Romans and Persians continued over seven centuries, the frontier, aside from shifts in the north, remained largely stable. Roman Republic, succeeded by Roman Empire and Eastern Roman Empire later, Parthian Empire, succeeded by Sasanian Empire. Byzantine Empire (orange) by 650. Although the two powers negotiated, it was not until November 506 that a treaty was agreed to. However, unlike Persia, the Roman Empire ultimately survived the Arab assault, holding onto its residual territories and decisively repulsing two Arab sieges of its capital in 674678 and 717718. [22], War over Armenia broke out again in 161, when Vologases IV defeated the Romans there, captured Edessa and ravaged Syria. [42], The arrangements of 299 lasted until the mid-330s, when Shapur II began a series of offensives against the Romans. [28], The struggle resumed and intensified under Ardashir's successor Shapur I; he invaded Mesopotamia and captured Hatra, a buffer state which had recently shifted its loyalty but his forces were defeated at a battle near Resaena in 243; Carrhae and Nisibis were retaken by the Romans. 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. [2] The Romans had achieved and maintained a high degree of sophistication in siege warfare and had developed a range of siege machines. The Sasanians, and to a lesser extent the Parthians, practiced mass deportations to new cities as a tool of policy, not just the prisoners-of-war (such as those of the Battle of Edessa), but also the cities they captured, such as the deportation of the Antioch's people to Weh Antiok Khosrow, which led to the decline of the former. [92] In Lazica the war dragged on inconclusively for several years, with neither side able to make any major gains. [154] Elephants were employed (e.g. In the early 250s, Philip was involved in a struggle over the control of Armenia; Shapur conquered Armenia and killed its king, defeated the Romans at the Battle of Barbalissos in 253, then probably took and plundered Antioch. [56] Although no further large-scale conflict took place during Anastasius' reign, tensions continued, especially while work proceeded at Dara. 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". Continuing south along the Tigris, he sacked Khosrau's great palace at Dastagird and was prevented from attacking Ctesiphon only by the destruction of the bridges on the Nahrawan Canal. [98] At a cost of 45,000solidi, a one-year truce in Mesopotamia (eventually extended to five years)[99] was arranged, but in the Caucasus and on the desert frontiers the war continued. [41] Following a lull during the 350s while Shapur fought off nomad attacks on Persia's eastern and then northern frontiers, he launched a new campaign in 359 with the aid of the eastern tribes which he had meanwhile defeated, and after a difficult siege again captured Amida (359).

[126] Supported by a Persian army commanded by Shahrbaraz, together with the Avars and Slavs, the three unsuccessfully besieged Constantinople in 626,[127] while a second Persian army under Shahin suffered another crushing defeat at the hands of Heraclius' brother Theodore. as siege towers) where the terrain was unfavorable for machines. [162] There was some minor Sasanian naval action in 62023, and the only major Byzantine navy's action was during the Siege of Constantinople (626). 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. The Roman general Maurice retaliated by raiding Persian Mesopotamia, capturing the stronghold of Aphumon, and sacking Singara. As Frye states:[158]. Other preoccupations obliged him to withdraw, and the whole region came under Parthian control. [106] Another Roman victory at Solachon in 586 likewise failed to break the stalemate. [69] In 528 Belisarius tried unsuccessfully to protect Roman workers in Thannuris, undertaking the construction of a fort right on the frontier. He invaded Anatolia and sacked Sebasteia, but to take Theodosiopolis, and after a clash near Melitene the army suffered heavy losses while fleeing across the Euphrates under Roman attack and the Persian royal baggage was captured. [125] 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. 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". Despite victory[46][47] at the Battle of Ctesiphon before the walls Julian was unable to take the Persian capital and retreated along the Tigris. Despite a string of victories in battle, culminating in the overthrow of a Roman army led by Constantius II at Singara (348), his campaigns achieved little lasting effect: three Persian sieges of Nisibis, in that age known as the key to Mesopotamia,[43] were repulsed, and while Shapur succeeded in 359 in successfully laying siege to Amida and taking Singara, both cities were soon regained by the Romans. [108], 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. [80] He soon withdrew in the face of an army under Belisarius, sacking the city of Callinicum en route. The Emperor Trajan invaded Armenia and Mesopotamia during 114 and 115 and annexed them as Roman provinces. [159] Like the Romans, the Sasanians constructed defensive walls opposite the territory of their opponents. By this point the Sasanian Empire had fallen to the Arab Muslim. Trajan died in 117, before he was able to reorganize and consolidate Roman control over the Parthian provinces. [18] Roman forces overthrew Tiridates and replaced him with a Cappadocian prince, triggering an inconclusive war. Khosrau launched another offensive in Mesopotamia in 542 when he attempted to capture Sergiopolis. They swiftly overran the Roman province of Syria and advanced into Judea, overthrowing the Roman client Hyrcanus II and installing his nephew Antigonus. Belisarius was defeated by Persian and Lakhmid forces at the Battle of Callinicum in 531, which resulted in his dismissal. 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. [91] The Romans failed to completely expel the Sasanians from Lazica, and in 554 AD Mihr-Mihroe launched a new attack, dislodging a newly-arrived Byzantine army from Telephis. According to Michael Whitby (2000), 310, "the eastern armies preserved the Roman military reputation through to the end of the 6th century by capitalizing on available resources and showing a capacity to adapt to a variety of challenges". The Persians agreed to evacuate Lazica and received an annual subsidy of 30,000nomismata (solidi). [51] In 502AD, he quickly captured the unprepared city of Theodosiopolis[52] and besieged the fortress-city of Amida through the autumn and winter (502503). The Parthians followed the Achaemenid tradition and favored oral historiography, which assured the corruption of their history once they had been vanquished. [123] 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. [14] 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. According to Reno E. Gabba, the Roman army was reorganized over time after the impact of the Battle of Carrhae (Gabba [1966], 5173). In the same year Lazica switched its allegiance to Persia and Khosrau led an army to secure the kingdom. [11], 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. Ardashir (r. 226241) raided Mesopotamia and Syria in 230 and demanded the cession of all the former territories of the Achaemenid Empire. [63] Although no further large-scale conflict took place during Anastasius' reign, tensions continued, especially while work continued at Dara. [143] The combined forces of horse archers and heavy cavalry inflicted several defeats on the Roman foot-soldiers, including those led by Crassus in 53BC,[144] Mark Antony in 36BC, and Valerian in 260AD. Battles between the Parthian Empire and the Roman Republic began in 54BC;[1] wars began under the late Republic, and continued through the Roman (later Byzantine) and Sasanian empires. [163] 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. [62], In 505 Anastasius ordered the building of a great fortified city at Dara. [132] The Byzantine Empire was also severely affected, with its financial reserves exhausted by the war and the Balkans now largely in the hands of the Slavs. Hadrian returned to the status quo ante, and surrendered the territories of Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Adiabene to their previous rulers and client-kings. 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. An epidemic which was sweeping Parthia at the time, possibly of smallpox, spread to the Roman army and forced its withdrawal;[23] this was the origin of the Antonine Plague that raged for a generation throughout the Roman Empire. Both powers agreed to return all occupied territories, and the Romans agreed to make a one-time payment of 110 centenaria (11,000lb of gold). According to James Howard-Johnston, "from the third centuryBC to the early seventh centuryAD, 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". [55] In 505, Anastasius ordered the building of a great fortified city at Dara. [174], The principal sources for the early Sasanian period are not contemporary. The Roman victory was the most decisive for many decades: many cities east of the Tigris were given to the Romans including Tigranokert, Saird, Martyropolis, Balalesa, Moxos, Daudia, and Arzan. [131], The devastating impact of this last war, added to the cumulative effects of a century of almost continuous conflict, left both empires crippled. This came to an end in 63AD after the Romans agreed to allow Tiridates and his descendants to rule Armenia on condition that they receive the kingship from the Roman emperor. [88] In 551 AD, general Bessas who replaced Dagistheus put Abasgia and the rest of Lazica under control, and finally subjected Petra after fierce fighting, demolishing its fortifications. [49] With both empires preoccupied by barbarian threats from the north, in 384 or 387, a definitive peace treaty was signed by Shapur III and Theodosius I dividing Armenia between the two states. Procopius states that peace was agreed for seven years,[61] and it is likely that some payments was made to the Persians. In 195197, 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 third sacking of Ctesiphon. ", Ambivalence toward Byzantine rule on the part of, Foss (1975), 74647; Howard-Johnston (2006), xv, Haldon (1997), 6162; Howard-Johnston (2006), 9. [83] The Edessenes paid five centenaria to Khosrau, and the Persians departed after nearly two months. 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. [155] Recent assessments comparing the Sasanians and Parthians have reaffirmed the superiority of Sasanian siegecraft, military engineering, and organization,[156] as well as ability to build defensive works.[157]. During the ByzantineArab 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. Both sides did make conquests beyond the border, but in time the balance was almost always restored. Gordian either died in the battle or was murdered by his own men; Philip became emperor, and paid 500,000 denarii to the Persians in a hastily negotiated a peace settlement. "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? [58] 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. Further wars of annexation followed under Lucius Verus and Septimius Severus.

War broke out when the Persian King Kavadh I attempted to gain financial support by force from the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I; the emperor refused to provide it and the Persian king tried to take it by force. [33] Between 258 and 260, Shapur captured Emperor Valerian after defeating his army at the Battle of Edessa. The Romans surrendered their former possessions east of the Tigris, as well as Nisibis and Singara, and Shapur soon conquered Armenia, abandoned by the Romans. 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. [70] Damaging raids on Syria by the Lakhmids in 529 encouraged Justinian to strengthen his own Arab allies, helping the Ghassanid leader Al-Harith ibn Jabalah turn a loose coalition into a coherent kingdom. [38], The Emperor Carus launched a successful invasion of Persia in 283, sacking the Sasanian capital Ctesiphon for the third time. Militarily, the Sasanians continued the Parthians' heavy dependence on cavalry troops: a combination of horse-archers and cataphracts; the latter were heavy armored cavalry provided by the aristocracy. Failing to make progress against Parthian positions, the Romans withdrew with heavy casualties. That year an armistice was agreed to as a result of an invasion of Armenia by the Huns from the Caucasus. Frye notes that in the 3rd centuryAD such client states played an important role in RomanSasanian relations, but both empires gradually replaced them by an organized defense system run by the central government and based on a line of fortifications (the limes) and the fortified frontier cities, such as Dara. In the following year he captured Bezabde and Singara, and repelled the counter-attack of Constantius II. 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 Sasanian territory. [44] But the enormous cost of these victories weakened him, and he was soon deserted by his barbarian allies, leaving him vulnerable to the major offensive in 363 by the Roman Emperor Julian, who advanced down the Euphrates to Ctesiphon[45] with a major army. Anastasius pursued the project despite Persian objections, and the walls were completed by 507508. [25], Conflict resumed shortly after the overthrow of Parthian rule and Ardashir I's foundation of the Sasanian Empire. [6], 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 RomanParthian alliance (c.105BC). [150] Use of complex torsion equipment was rare, since traditional Persian expertise in archery reduced their apparent benefits. 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 36BC. At the same time, the dilapidated fortifications were also upgraded at Edessa, Batnae and Amida. The main sources of this period are thus Roman (Tacitus, Marius Maximus, and Justin) and Greek historians (Herodian, Cassius Dio and Plutarch). [96] 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. Soon Labienus was driven back to Syria by Roman forces, and, although reinforced by the Parthians, was defeated, taken prisoner, and killed. [129] 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.

[122] In 622, Heraclius left Constantinople, entrusting the city to Sergius and general Bonus as regents of his son. Nonetheless, RomanPersian rivalry over control and influence in Armenia continued unabated for the next several decades. [179], Series of wars between ancient Greco-Roman and Iranian states. "[164] In the long series of wars between the two powers, the frontier in upper Mesopotamia remained more or less constant. [7] When Lucullus invaded Southern Armenia and led an attack against Tigranes in 69BC, he corresponded with Phraates III to dissuade him from intervening. GreatrexLieu (2002), II, 152; Louth (2005), 113, Treadgold (1997), 224; Whitby (2000), 9596, Howard-Johnston (2006), 9: "[Heraclius'] victories in the field over the following years and its political repercussions saved the main bastion of Christianity in the Near East and gravely weakened its old Zoroastrian rival. Despite the arrival of Roman reinforcements from Europe, he won another victory in 604, while Dara fell after a nine-month siege. [97] 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. The situation changed with the rise of the Sasanians, when Rome encountered an enemy equally capable in siege warfare. [113] 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. By the beginning of Sasanian rule, a number of buffer states existed between the empires. Benefiting from their weakened condition, the Rashidun armies swiftly conquered the entire Sasanian Empire, and deprived the Eastern Roman Empire of its territories in the Levant, the Caucasus, Egypt, and the rest of North Africa.

[57], . [79] Belisarius, recalled from the campaigns in the West to deal with the Persian threat, waged an inconclusive campaign against Nisibis in 541. The Persians assassinate Khosrow II and agree to withdraw from all occupied territories. The Sasanians and the Roman Empire, "An Overview of the Sassanian Persian Military", "Excavations In Iran Unravel Mystery Of "Red Snake", "The Political History of Iran under the Sassanians", "The Army in the Late Roman East: The Persian Wars and the Defense of the Byzantine Provinces", "ByzantineIranian Relations Encyclopaedia Iranica", An Overview of the Sassanian Persian Military, "Death Underground: Gas Warfare at Dura-Europos", "Early Chemical Warfare Dura-Europos, Syria", "Buried Soldiers May Be Victims of Ancient Chemical Weapon", Excavations In Iran Unravel Mystery Of "Red Snake", http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/deportations, "LacusCurtius Cassius Dio's Roman History", "Eutropius: Abridgement of Roman History", "Joshua the Stylite, Chronicle composed in Syriac in AD 507 (1882) pp. The Persians were weakened by internal strife proceeding from dynastic disputes and the Romans probably would have extended their conquests had Carus not died in December of that year. In 540, the Persians broke the "Treaty of Eternal Peace" and Khosrau I invaded Syria, destroying the great city of Antioch and deporting its population to Weh Antiok Khosrow in Persia; as he withdrew, he extorted large sums of money from the cities of Syria and Mesopotamia and systematically looted the key cities. [26] After fruitless negotiations, Alexander Severus set out against Ardashir in 232 and finally repulsed him after one column of his army marched successfully into Armenia, while two other columns operated to the south and failed, mostly on account of physical hardship; the emperor celebrated a triumph in Rome. [73], The Persians broke the "Treaty of Eternal Peace" in 540AD, 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. The Sasanians mainly used mounds, rams, mines, and to a lesser degree siege towers, artillery,[149][150] and also chemical weapons, such as in Dura-Europos (256)[151][152][153] and Petra (550-551). [169] 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. [104][105] During the 580s, the war continued inconclusively with victories on both sides. [41] However, Galerius crushed the Persians in the Battle of Satala in 298, capturing the treasury and the royal harem. [50], The Anastasian War ended the longest period of peace the two powers ever enjoyed. [136] The Sasanian Empire rapidly succumbed to these attacks and was completely conquered. The resulting peace settlement gave the Romans control of the area between the Tigris and the Greater Zab. From the time of Constantine on, Roman emperors appointed themselves as the protectors of Christians of Persia. [36] After a brief period of peace during Diocletian's early reign, Narseh renewed hostilities with the Romans invading Armenia, and defeated Galerius not far from Carrhae in 296 or 297. [103], In 580, Hormizd IV abolished the Caucasian Iberian monarchy, and turned Iberia into a Persian province ruled by a marzpan (governor). Finally, in 64BC 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. They added a contingent of war elephants obtained from the Indus Valley, but their infantry quality was inferior to that of the Romans. [176], 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. [89] In the same year a Persian offensive led by Mihr-Mihroe occupied eastern Lazica. The Sasanians were further weakened by economic decline, heavy taxation from Khosrau II's campaigns, religious unrest, and the increasing power of the provincial landholders. 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. [16] The decision of the Parthian King Artabanus III to place his son on the vacant Armenian throne triggered a war with Rome in 36AD, which ended when Artabanus III abandoned claims to a Parthian sphere of influence in Armenia. Over the following years the Persians gradually overcame the fortress cities of Mesopotamia by siege, one after another. [124] Following a lull in 623, while he negotiated a truce with the Avars, Heraclius resumed his campaigns in the East in 624 and routed an army led by Khosrau at Ganzak in Atropatene.