Roman-Persian Wars
| Roman-Persian Wars | |||||||||
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| Combatants | |||||||||
| Roman Republic Roman Empire Eastern Roman Empire | Persian Empire projected through Parthian and Sassanid dynasties | ||||||||
| Commanders | |||||||||
| Lucullus Pompey Crassus Mark Antony Trajan Valerian I Julian Justinian I Belisarius Heraclius | Surena Shapur I Kavadh I Khosrau I Khosrau II</br>Shahrbaraz Rhahzadh | ||||||||
The Roman-Persian Wars were a series of conflicts between the Roman world and the Persian Empire that started during the late Roman Republic in 92 BC and was carried over to the Eastern Roman Empire lasting until 627. It would mark the longest war between two entities in all of history, and it remains so today.
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Origins
The conflict lasted for over six centuries. The Persian Empire was projected through the Parthian and later, Sassanid dynasties. For Ancient Rome, the conflict encompassed the Roman Republic, Roman Empire, and Eastern Roman Empire. The two empires were relatively equal in power. Roman desire for territory to expand their Empire and systems, and for buffer zones between them and various kingdoms, barbarians, other empires, and those strongly unwilling to submit to them urged their attentions to the East. The Persian Empire had previously been seen as the ever present rival to Western civilization in the Greco-Persian Wars. Each side was never able to dominate the other. Towns, fortifications, and provinces were sacked, captured, destroyed, and changed sides frequently. Each side did not have enough strength and logistics to maintain strategic offensives with grand results, but were not weak enough to be defeated or subdued. All of the energy exuded over the six centuries amounted to nothing for either side as the Muslim Arabs colonized the territories of the Near East by conquering the war-exhausted Persians in the Muslim conquests soon after the end of the conflict with the Romans.
Ancient Roman-Parthian Period
The first military action was Lucullus' invasion of the Kingdom of Armenia in 92 BC, allowing further unprovoked penetration into Mesopotamia by Pompey. In the Battle of Carrhae (53 BC), Roman commander Crassus fought an army of Parthian horsemen under Surena. Crassus was killed, his command mostly annihilated, and the rest captured resulting in a decisive Parthian victory. Julius Caesar was planning Eastern operations larger in scope than Crassus, but fell to assassin daggers before his plans could come to fruition. Mark Antony gave realization to Caesar's plans and carried them out in 36 BC launching an invasion into Persia, but lacking the fallen leader's skill, lost half of his men in the mountains of northwest Persia and during his winter retreat through Armenia. Emperor Augustus negotiated a peace with the Persian Empire which lasted for about a century until the conflict resumed during Trajan's reign. Trajan's armies reached the Persian Gulf in 115. He captured Ctesiphon in Mesopotamia in 116. Ctesiphon was captured five times throughout the conflict and remained an important focus of power since it was the Parthian and Sassanid capital. Emperor Julian the Apostate was killed in a rear-guard action during a difficult retreat north after his army of 90,000 was unable to take the city in the Battle of Ctesiphon (363). Shapur I, "King of Kings" of Persia, launched numerous offensives into Roman territory. He plundered Antiochia and captured Emperor Valerian I after crushing his army in 259 in the Battle of Edessa.
Byzantine-Sassanid period
When the Parthian dynasty ended, there was no reduction in the conflict since the Sassanids were even more aggressive and stronger than their predecessors due to their more centralized state. As the Western Roman Empire fell to barbarian control, the Byzantine empire continued the conflict against the Persian Empire.
Anastasian War
Emperor Anastasius I led the Romans against the Persian forces under King Kavadh I during the war that lasted 502-506. Eager for Persian expansion, Persian king Kavadh I entered the Roman territory of Armenia in summer 502. He quickly captured the unprepared cities of Theodosiopolis and Martyropolis without resistance. The fortress-city of Amida was taken only through siege, immobilizing the Persians during autumn and winter. Theodosiopolis was recaptured by the Romans. In early 503, Amida finally fell and the year saw much warfare without decisive results. The Romans attempted an ultimately unsuccessful siege of the Persian-held Amida while Kavadh layed 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. However, this surrender was far from decisive and the Persians were far from beaten. But no more fighting occurred during the next two years since an invasion of Armenia by the Huns from the Caucasus caused an armistice. In late 506, a truce was finally agreed upon on terms such as the Romans paying subsidies to the Persians for the maintenance of the fortifications in the Caucasus and Martyropolis being restored to the Romans again.
Iberian War
The war was fought from 526 to 532 between the Eastern Roman Empire and Persian Empire over the country of Iberia. After the Anastasian War, a seven-year truce was agreed on, yet it lasted for nearly twenty years. Kavadh I tried to force the Christian Iberians to become Zoroastrians even though they were already under Persian rule. The Roman side could not keep from interfering against the Persians. By 526, indecisive fighting broke out in the Transcaucasus region and upper Mesopotamia. Following emperor Justin I’s death in 527, Justinian I ascended to the imperial throne. Kavadh tried to make peace with the new emperor by attempting to have Justinian adopt his son Khosrau I. Justinian refused and sent his generals Sittas and Belisarius into Persia in which they were initially defeated. However, Belisarius proved to be an able and effective commander. In 530, he led the Romans to victory over the much larger Persian force through his superior generalship in the battle of Dara. Belisarius’s forces faced two consecutive defeats in the same year and 531 causing his dismissal. Kavadh died shortly afterwards and the Eternal Peace agreement, which lasted 10 years, was signed on September 532 on the terms of all Roman land lost under Justinian's rule to be returned and the Romans to pay heavy tributes in exchange for peace. The country of Iberia remained in Persian hands. The newly ascended Persian king Khosrau I was interested in stabilizing his internal position for the time being.
Persian invasion 540-545
As the Byzantine general Belisarius was winning his campaigns in the west, in 540, the Persians broke The Treaty Of Eternal Peace and invaded Syria, and attacked and destroyed the great city of Antioch. They also attacked the key cities of Mesopotamia and Byzantine Armenia. Belisarius was quickly recalled by Justinian I to the East to deal with the Persian conquest, while the Goths in Italy, who were in touch with the Persian King, rose in rebellion. Belisarius took the field and waged a brief, inconclusive campaign against them. He eventually managed to negotiate a truce in 545(aided with the payment of the large sum of 5,000 pounds of gold), in which the Persians agreed not to attack Byzantine territory for the next five years.Justinian then sent his general back to Italy with an inadequate force.
Lazic War
The Lazic War lasted from 542 to 562, with the fighting lasting until 557 due to a five-year truce. The Fifty Years Peace finally brought an official end to the war in 562. The war was fought between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Persian Empire for control over the kingdom of Lazica in the country of Colchis. The Romans sought the kingdom of Lazica as a barrier against Persian advance from Iberia to the Black Sea. The kingdom was a satellite state of the Persian Empire, but was also devoted to the Christian faith. Persian Emperor Khosrau I intended to either convert the inhabitants to Persian religion or replace them with Persian inhabitants so the Lazic king, Gubazes II, sought Emperor Justinian I for protection. Among the battles, the Lazic capital Archaeopolis was attacked three times by the Persians with the final one being a successful capture, but they were repulsed by the combined force of Byzantine and Lazic forces which occupied it until the end of the war. As the five-year truce was coming to an end, Khosrau I sent an ambassador to Constantinople to renew the truce, due to a general stalemate and weariness. What amounted was a more permanent peace and various treaties, such as Lazica was to remain under Roman rule, the Persians were to prevent any peoples from coming toward Roman territory from the Caucasus, and both sides were to not impede on each others tribes or neighbor nations, as well as refraining from border fortifications and easing the strictness on diplomacy and trade between the two empires. A beneficial military outcome for the Romans was preventing the Persian Empire from gaining access to the Black Sea.
The last campaign
In 591 The Persian King Hormizd IV was murdered by a usurper, Vahram Cho'bin. His son, Khosrau II, appealed to the Roman Emperor Maurice for aid and in return agreed to cede territories including much of Transcaucasia. In 602 Maurice was murdered by the usurper Phocas, and Khosrau seized the excuse to attack the Byzantine Empire. The war initially went the Persians' way, partly because of Phocas' brutal repression and the succession crisis that ensued as Heraclius the General sent his nephew Nicetas to attack Egypt, enabling his son Heraclius the younger to claim the throne in 610. In 624, however, Heraclius counterattacked through Transcaucasia and following the failure of a combined Persian-Avar-Slavic attack on the Roman capital of Constantinople was able to gain the advantage. The last action of the centuries' long conflict was the second Battle of Nineveh between Rhahzadh who commanded the army of Khosrau II "the Victorious" and between Heraclius. The culmination of this counterattack was a defeat of the Sassanid army on the plains of northern Mesopotamia on December 12, 627. Persia accepted Heraclius' peace terms the following year. This brought victory over the Georgians and Persians and ensured Romano-Byzantine predominance in western and eastern Georgia as it was before this war began and until the Arab invasion of the Caucasus.
References
- John Warry, Warfare in the Classical World. New York, Barnes & Noble Books: 2000
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Categories
Ancient history | Wars of the Roman Republic | Wars of the Roman Empire | Wars of Persia