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Imperatore Dario I
Shogun
Joined: 02-Aug-2004
Location: Italy
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Topic: Rome a threat? Posted: 02-Dec-2004 at 14:24 |
I'm just curious, did the Sassanian Empire consider Rome a threat to its sovereignty, or was this all just a competition for power?
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Let there be a race of Romans with the strength of Italian courage.- Virgil's Aeneid
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Serge L
Baron
Joined: 03-Aug-2004
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Posted: 02-Dec-2004 at 14:47 |
I guess both empires just considered each other a nuisance, since neither could really menace the other's heart, essentially because of geographic distance.
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Cyrus Shahmiri
Administrator
King of Kings
Joined: 07-Aug-2004
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Posted: 02-Dec-2004 at 15:33 |
Not all the time, sometimes they were even good friends, for example Sassanid king Yazdegerd I was really one of best friends of Romans.
During Yazdergerd's reign, the Romans faced perilous dangers: the Ostrogoths were plundering the Balkans, the Franks were in rebellion, a civil war was raging, and eastern provinces were in revolt. Far from taking advantage of this situation, Yazdegerd returned Roman Christian captives whom the Persians had rescued after routing an invading Hunnic army. His good will was so well known that Emperor Arcadius, seeing that enemies were at the gate and his only son, Theodosius, was merely an infant, appointed Yazdegerd in his will as the child's guardian, "enjoining upon him earnestly to preserve the empire for Theodosius by all his power and foresight." The Persian king wrote to the senate, accepting the charge and threatening war against any who should attempt to enter into conspiracy against the child, and "loyally observing the behests of Arcadius, he adopted and continued without interruption a policy of profound peace with the Romans, and thus preserved the empire for Theodosius"
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YusakuJon3
Shogun
Joined: 04-Aug-2004
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Posted: 08-Dec-2004 at 20:20 |
As Cyrus said, hostilities were intermittent. However, the last
king of Sassanid Persia seems to have exhausted his men and resources
in the final contest against Byzantine Rome, in which he was making
headway towards recapturing the former satrapsies on Anatolia when the
Romans outmaneuvered him and struck a vital point at his rear. By
the time he had returned to the homeland to rebuild his shattered army,
the Arabs were well on their way.
I often wonder what would've happened had there been no Arabian
invasion. Could the Persians have regrouped and been able to
deliver a stronger blow against Byzantine? It is said that one of
the ambitions of some Sassanid rulers was to rebuild the old Achaemenid
empire and reclaim those territories in Modern Turkey they once held.
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"There you go again!"
-- President Ronald W. Reagan (directed towards reporters at a White House press conference, mid-1980s)
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Sabzevarian
Knight
Joined: 10-Aug-2004
Location: Canada
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Posted: 13-Dec-2004 at 04:44 |
I think you should ask the question the other way as
well. Things were looking pretty grim before Heraclius took control.
Though I think if they ever did take Constantinople, it would have
remained either under the Avars and Slavs, or taken back by rebel
Byzantines. Both empires were just too far away to threaten each
other's proper sovereignty.
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Imperatore Dario I
Shogun
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Posted: 15-Dec-2004 at 20:23 |
Originally posted by Cyrus Shahmiri
Not all the time, sometimes they were even good friends, for example Sassanid king Yazdegerd I was really one of best friends of Romans.
During Yazdergerd's reign, the Romans faced perilous dangers: the Ostrogoths were plundering the Balkans, the Franks were in rebellion, a civil war was raging, and eastern provinces were in revolt. Far from taking advantage of this situation, Yazdegerd returned Roman Christian captives whom the Persians had rescued after routing an invading Hunnic army. His good will was so well known that Emperor Arcadius, seeing that enemies were at the gate and his only son, Theodosius, was merely an infant, appointed Yazdegerd in his will as the child's guardian, "enjoining upon him earnestly to preserve the empire for Theodosius by all his power and foresight." The Persian king wrote to the senate, accepting the charge and threatening war against any who should attempt to enter into conspiracy against the child, and "loyally observing the behests of Arcadius, he adopted and continued without interruption a policy of profound peace with the Romans, and thus preserved the empire for Theodosius"
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That is interesting, and shocking! The Persians had such an oppertunity to drive the Romans completely out of the east, and they didn't take it? WOOT!
Sassanian Persia scares me.
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Let there be a race of Romans with the strength of Italian courage.- Virgil's Aeneid
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