Why didn't Rome conquer Persia?

throughout history persia has proven itself to be a land of mighty empires and unconquerable strength despite attempts to do just that even great imperial powers such as the ottoman empire have failed time after time to take persia even one of the mightiest empires to ever walk the earth never got around to conquering persia so with that being said why did the romans fall short of checking this challenge off their bucket list this video was sponsored by war planet online this is a free to download military real-time mmo strategy game and set on a real world map you can play this amazing game on mobile and pc you can truly play anywhere terminator 2 took over war planet online for an exclusive action-packed experience full of missions and rewards build your base and defend it as best as you can create an unbeatable and powerful army and help the resistance in the war against the machines do all that and you will save the world create your strategy and fight with your faction by playing in special events with a terminator storyline and amazing gifts join players from all over the world and fight merciless terminators and stop judgment day so click on my link in the description install war planets online and log into the game between october 19th and november 1st and 10 of you can win an official jaw dropping t800 skull box merchandise the roman empire surely did not lack ambition or vision from britannia to espana to palestine the romans were fast and furious with the expansion of their empire and the persian lands were not out of sight nor out of mind in fact rome was no stranger to war with the persians the parthians ran into the romans first as both empires were hoping to expand into the lands of the seleucid empire in western asia during the 3rd century bc the parthians moved their base into iran and from there were successful over the next century in subduing the selicids while the romans were also repelling the latter from their own territories in anatolia and expanding further towards the parthians this was fairly easy to do since the parthians themselves were rapidly expanding and by the end of the first century bc had already taken persia armenia and mesopotamia this simultaneous growth brought the contemporary roman republic into conflict with the parthians but initially there were some attempts made at diplomacy these attempts failed fairly quickly though and rome launched a disastrous invasion into mesopotamia a short stint of war ensued but the brewing civil war within the roman republic derailed their rivalry with the parthians and the latter even got involved in roman affairs after the assassination of julius caesar by supporting the cause of brutus and cassius for the rest of the roman republic's existence subsequent to the defeat of liberators in the war that followed caesar's assassination the parthians took a somewhat offensive stance against the romans and territorial struggles ensued the conflict soon spilled over into the newly established roman empire throughout the first century a.d most of this discord was focused around armenia despite a deal being written up in one a.d which would have made a roman protectorate in armenia recognized by the parthians at the start of the 2nd century under the reign of emperor trajan the romans took the offensive and attacked multiple parthian territories including mesopotamia and the disputed armenia which were both annexed and taken as provinces of the roman empire under trajan's successor though these provinces were returned to the respective rulers and the new emperor hadrian tried to focus direct roman control in a smaller region with the euphrates as the far limit still conflict in armenia remained an epidemic ironically at the same time an actual epidemic in parthia spread to the romans and triggered the antonine plague which lasted in rome for an entire generation later under emperor septimius severus the romans managed to secure northern mesopotamia but stopped around singara up until this point the romans hadn't necessarily avoided trying to conquer persia in fact they were actively at war with occupiers of persia at the time but due to the expansiveness of the parthians meanwhile the romans were kept mostly at bay and were only able to reach persia in short stints the parthians were a notable opponent and through a combined effort of the parthian defense and the shift under emperor hadrian to focus roman expansion outside of persia up through the 3rd century a.d the romans were unable to conquer the region still this was not the end of rome's conflict with a persian empire the following overthrow of the parthians and the establishment of the sassanian empire only marked a transfer of responsibility for the conflict especially since the sasanians came in with guns blazing ready to take on their neighbor to consolidate their own power and territory throughout the 3rd century a.d back and forth conflicts mostly over borderlands and long disputed territories continued on between the romans and sassanians regions such as that of armenia changed hands frequently and the rivalry now only escalated emperor aurelian decided that it was time to invade persia to defeat the sassanians but he was assassinated before he was able to do so in 282 under the new emperor by the name of probus there was another push to invade persia but he too was killed before anything could be done the next successor emperor karus finally pulled off the invasion and was successful in seizing the capital but his death in december of that year put an end to the offensive into persia the back and forth continued over the next few reigns nonetheless in the mid-4th century emperor julian launched a new invasion into persia and nearly re-took the capital yet again but fell short and eventually retreated before being killed in battle as he attempted to lead his men home his successor jovian then negotiated peace with the sasanians to ensure their ability to make it home to roman territory but this forced the romans to give up some of the lands they had previously gained to the east of the tigris and armenia soon fell back into sasanian hands although friction between the two empires remained into the 4th and 5th centuries actual warfare mostly came to an end as both sides became preoccupied with their own respective challenges and external threats rome in particular was under attack from eunuch atlantic and germanic tribes and it wasn't the first time that funds and troops had to be diverted from the persian front to suppress a different attacker this brought to light another factor that had played a role in rome's inability to take persia and that was the fact that both the parthians and sasanians were strong empires that required the romans to be in peak shape when fighting against them but due to the ambitious roman expansion over the centuries they had made more enemies than just in persia and they were unable to put full focus on conquering either the parthians or sassanians furthermore geography likely played a role in rome's shortcomings just as it would later on for the ottomans in persia the terrain of modern day iran and its iraqi border was not particularly easy to track and given how far the roman troops would have to journey to even get to the persian border it would be a vast effort to invade conquering more than just the capital as the romans had done a few times would have required energized and healthy troops which weren't easy to come by after such a long and tiring trip just to get there the persians on the other hand didn't have to undertake such a taxing journey and could easily ambush the romans if they pleased leaving the latter no time to recharge after crossing the border the lack of easy to access natural resources along the way just added to the challenge posed by the terrain as well additionally it was never as though the romans didn't want to conquer persia for hundreds of years they were at war with the empires of persia and they managed to seize the capital multiple times but the wars were very back and forth and the upper hand was never held by one side or the other for very long each time the warfare was mostly an even rivalry and the romans were unable to overpower the parthians or cecinians which kept them at bay from ever fully taking persia eventually as the western roman empire crumbled into an inevitable collapse the eastern roman empire known now as the byzantine empire took over the charge of warring with the sasanians but they too never fully captured persia so going back to the original question the answer is due to a multitude of factors but by no means was from a lack of interest geographic inconvenience internal rebellions and added external threats and the simple fact that both the parthians and sassanians were respectable opponents for the romans made conquering persia more or less impossible to accomplish the capture of the persian capital multiple times was a notable accomplishment for the romans but it nonetheless would not be enough to really take persia and it appears that nothing ever could be [Music] you

Channel: Knowledgia

Views: 583,943

Keywords: Why didn't Rome conquer Persia?, Why did the Romans never conquer Persia, Why didn't the Roman Empire conquer Persia, Did Rome try to conquer Persia?, Caesar plans for Persia, Did the Romans reach the Persian Gulf?, Romans in Persia, Roman Persian Wars, Rome vs Persia, Roman Parthian Wars, Byzantine Sassanid Wars, Trajan in mesopotamia, Roman conquest of Armenia, Roman conquest of Mesopotamia, Persian conquest of Armenia, Persian conquest of Mesopotamia, Aurelian, Crassus, Caesar

Id: 9yt3jXrvhL8

Length: 10min 59sec (659 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 30 2021