Charles’s Reviews > The Eagle and The Lion: Rome, Persia, and an Unwinnable Conflict > Status Update

The first 20-years of the 7th Century were a bad time for the Romans. The established Emperor Maurice was deposed, and the Sassanian king of kings Khusru II took advantage of the ensuing civil wars. Whole provinces of the Empire in the east were seized and even threaten Constantinople. The winner of the civil war Hereclius ceded territory for time to rebuild Roman armies.

At the close of the 6th Century two stable Empires existed side-by-side, each strong and neither dominating. Temporary advantage seesawed between them without altering the balance of power.

In the Fifth Century, the Western empire fell, but the Eastern remained intact with some of the richest provinces of the Empire.

The Sassanians and the Eastern emperors maintained the status quo with only brief skirmishes. Both empires were preoccupied with civil wars, and pressure from barbarians from the north and the east.

The quick rise and fall of Roman emperors in the late 3rd and 4th Centuries coincided with Sasanian succession rivalries. To legitimize their position, both the Emperor and the King of Kings du jour used military victories. Expeditions from both sides crossed the borders and sieges of the hardened Roman eastern frontier was the state of relations between the two empires.

An assertive Sasanian empire facing a weak Roman empire took the opportunity for successful wars. The Roman empire was divided by two, at times three 'emperors' and pressured by Germans on the Rhine and Danube frontiers. Barbarians penetrated into Italy and Greece. Most Roman cities in most provinces raised and strengthened their walls in the 3rd century.

The Sassanian Empire under Shapir I reorganized the army similar to Roman lines. Engineers for sieges, heavy cavalry, and heavy infantry appeared. Sassanian armies were able to penetrate the Roman Empire, take cities and face Legionary armies in the field head-to-head. The Roman Empire under pressure from barbarians in the north, and a succession of emperors struggled to cope with Sapir's incursions.

200-240 CE, Rome entered another period of civil war, where the army and murder created a rapid succession of emperors. Civil wars left Rome weaker at the same time as a Parthian civil war that created the Sasanian dynasty. The new dynasty, went to war with Rome to legitimize, establish, and enrich itself.

Two centuries starting with Trajan and ending with Septimius Severus where Rome muscularly treats Parthia, invading several times, but not being able to maintain a physical presence to far east of the old frontier.

Rome and Parthia had different cultures, political systems, and traditions. They were rivals for power in the lands of the former Seleucid Empire. Neither society was closed to the other. The rivalry was cautious in the 1st Century CE, but not in the 2nd.

The battle of Carrhae was not a good first start. Two dissimilar Military doctrines on the Parthians home geography, the result was predictable.