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 Parthian invasion of Syria and other Roman territories decisively defeated by Mark Antony and Ventidius. |
| 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 standards captured at Carrhae. |
| 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
|
|
| 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 at Battle of 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 "Eternal 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 Khosrau 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 | Khosrau II conquers Mesopotamia after Maurice is assassinated. |
| 611–623 | Persians conquer Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Rhodes and enter Anatolia. |
| 626 | Unsuccessful Avar–Persian–Slav siege of Constantinople |
| 627 | Persian defeat at Nineveh. |
| 629 | After the Persians agree to withdraw from all occupied territories, Heraclius restores the True Cross to Jerusalem. |
The Roman–Persian Wars were a series of conflicts between states of the Greco-Roman world and two successive Iranian empires: the Parthian and the Sassanid. Battles between the Parthian Empire and the Roman Republic began in 54 BC; wars began under the late Republic, and continued through the Roman and Sassanid Persian empires. Several buffer states, vassal kingdoms, and allied nations also played major role. The wars were ended by the Arab Muslim invasions, which led to the demise of the Sassanid Empire and huge territorial losses for the Byzantine East Roman empire, 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 continually 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 its frontiers too thin. Both sides did make conquests beyond the border, but in time the balance was almost always restored. 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 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, more of the Eastern Roman Empire came under Muslim rule.
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