Roman-Parthian Wars
| Roman–Parthian Wars | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Roman-Persian Wars | |||||||||
 Parthia, shaded yellow, alongside the Seleucid Empire (blue) and the Roman Republic (purple) c. 200 BC |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
Roman Republic, succeeded by  Roman Empire and client states |
Parthian Empire and clients | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Lucullus, Pompey, Crassus †, Mark Antony, Publius Ventidius Bassus Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo Trajan, Lucius Verus, Statius Priscus Avidius Cassius Septimius Severus Julia Domna |
Phraates III, Surena, Orodes II, Pacorus I †, Phraates IV Artabanus III Vologases I Tiridates I of Armenia Osroes I Sinatruces II † Vologases IV |
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The Roman–Parthian Wars (66 BC – 217 AD) were a series of conflicts between the Parthian Empire and the Roman Republic and Roman Empire. It was the first series of conflicts in what would be 719 years of Roman–Persian Wars.
Early incursions by the Roman Republic against Parthia were repulsed, notably at the Battle of Carrhae (53 BC). During the Roman Liberators' civil war of the 1st Century BC, the Parthians actively supported Brutus and Cassius, invading Syria, and gaining territories in the Levant. However, the conclusion of the second Roman civil war brought a revival of Roman strength in Western Asia.
In 113 AD, the Roman Emperor Trajan made eastern conquests and the defeat of Parthia a strategic priority, and successfully overran the Parthian capital, Ctesiphon, installing Parthamaspates of Parthia as a client ruler. Hadrian, Trajan's successor, reversed his predecessor's policy, intending to re-establish the Euphrates as the limit of Roman control. However, in the 2nd century, war over Armenia broke out again in 161, when Vologases IV defeated the Romans there. A Roman counter-attack under Statius Priscus defeated the Parthians in Armenia and installed a favored candidate on the Armenian throne, and an invasion of Mesopotamia culminated in the sack of Ctesiphon in 165.
In 195, another Roman invasion of Mesopotamia began under the Emperor Septimius Severus, who occupied Seleucia and Babylon, and then sacked Ctesiphon yet again in 197. Parthia ultimately fell not to the Romans, but to the Sassanids under Ardashir I, who entered Ctesiphon in 226. Under Ardashir and his successors, Persian-Roman conflict continued between the Sassanid Empire and Rome.
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