Iran - Andrew Burke [11]
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THE PARTHIAN TAKEOVER
The Parthians had settled the area between the Caspian and Aral Seas many centuries before. Under their great king Mithridates (171–138 BC), they swallowed most of Persia and then everywhere between the Euphrates in the west and Afghanistan in the east, more or less re-creating the old Achaemenid Empire. They had two capitals, one at what is now Rey, the other at Ctesiphon, in present-day Iraq.
Expert horsemen and archers, the Parthians spent much energy fighting with Rome for control of Syria, Mesopotamia and Armenia – territories the Romans felt were rightly theirs. This largely ended, however, after the Roman general Crassus, who had defeated Spartacus 20 years earlier and was now one of three men controlling Rome, wrongly concluded his armies had the measure of their Parthian counterparts. In 53 BC Crassus saw his armies routed at Carrhae, in modern-day Turkey (he was then captured, had molten gold poured down his throat to mock his greed, and eventually lost his head). Extended periods of peace followed, though the Romans and Parthians were only ever an ambitious leader away from a fight.
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The modern term ‘parting shot’ derives from the ancient ‘Parthian shot’. As Parthian horsemen rode away from their enemy they would turn in their saddles and fire arrows at their pursuers. This was the ‘Parthian shot’.
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More enlightened than later dynasties, the Parthians oversaw significant progress in architecture and the arts, though little remains today.
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THE SASSANIANS & THE SECOND PERSIAN EMPIRE
Like the Achaemenids before them, the Sassanian rise from small-time dynasty to empire was nothing short of staggering. Beginning in their home province of Fars in AD 224, Ardashir I (r 224–41) led a push that saw the Sassanians replace the ailing Parthians in Persia and within 40 years become a renewed threat to the Roman Empire.
Between 241 and 272 Ardashir’s son, Shapur I, added Bactria to the empire and fought repeatedly with the Romans. In one of the most celebrated of all Persian victories, Shapur’s armies defeated the Romans at Edessa in 260 and took the Roman emperor Valerian prisoner. You can still see the city of Bishapur, where Valerian was kept until he died, and bas-reliefs depicting the victory at Naqsh-e Rostam.
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Those Roman soldiers fortunate enough to survive the carnage at Carrhae reported that the Parthians fought under dazzlingly bright flags. It was Europe’s first glimpse of silk.
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The Sassanians re-formulated Zoroastrianism into a state religion incorporating elements of Greek, Mithraic and ancient animist faiths. They then indulged in sporadic bursts of repression against other religions, including newly emerging Christianity. The Sassanians spoke their own language, Pahlavi, the root of modern Farsi. Several fire temples and other important and imposing structures remain from the Sassanid period. Among the most impressive are the largely intact Ardashir’s Palace at Firuz Abad; the crumbling adobe city at Kuh-e Khajeh; the city of Bishapur and the giant Statue of Shapur I Click here in a nearby cave; and the Arg-e Bam, where investigations following the 2003 earthquake have revealed the outer walls and several other structures were built by the Sassanians. The Sassanian capital was at Ctesiphon in modern Iraq.
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In 387 the Persian and Byzantine empires agree to solve their long-running dispute over control of Armenia by carving it up; it was one of the first (and ultimately unsuccessful) examples of partition.
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The Sassanians developed small industries, promoted urban development and encouraged trade across the Persian Gulf but eventually they, too, were weakened by seemingly never-ending conflict with Byzantium. Ironically it was in its last years that the empire was at its largest, when Khusro II (590-628) recaptured parts of Egypt, Syria, Palestine and Turkey. However, after Khusro was murdered by his son in 628, at least