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Rome and Persia in the Middle of the Third Century AD (230–266)

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Rome and Persia in the Middle of the Third Century AD (230–266) CHAPTER 3 Rome and Persia in the Middle of the Third Century AD (230–266) Lukas de Blois From about 230 to 266 AD a momentous struggle was going on at the eastern borders of the Roman Empire. The Persian wars waged by Severus Alexander (231–234), Gordian III (242–244), and the emperors and vassal kings who reigned between 252 and 268 should be counted among the main causes of the problems Roman emperors had to face in the middle decades of the third cen- tury. The issues I want to discuss in this contribution are: why did this long and dangerous conflict arise, what was the character and aim of Persian actions, and what was the impact of these Persian wars on Roman imperial power? In 80.3.1–4 Cassius Dio, writing about Severus Alexander’s later years, tells us: The situation in Mesopotamia became still more alarming and inspired a more genuine fear in all, not merely the people in Rome, but the rest of mankind as well. For Artaxerxes (i.e. Ardashir I, AD 226–241), a Persian, after conquering the Parthians in three battles and killing their king, Artabanus, made a campaign against Hatra, in the endeavour to capture it as a base for attacking the Romans. He actually did make a breach in the wall, but when he lost a good many soldiers through an embuscade, he moved against Media. Of this country, as also of Parthia, he acquired no small portion, partly by force and partly by intimidation, and then marched against Armenia. Here he suffered a reverse at the hands of the natives, some Medes, and the sons of Artabanus, and either fled, as some say, or, as others assert, retired to prepare a larger expedition. He accordingly became a source of fear to us; for he was encamped with a large army so as to threaten not only Mesopotamia but also Syria, and he boasted that he would win back everything that the ancient Persians had once held, as far as the Greek Sea, claiming that all this was his rightful inheritance from his forefathers. The danger lies not in the fact that he seems to be of any particular consequence in himself, but rather in the © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���6 | doi ��.��63/97890043�6750_004 Lukas de Blois - 9789004326750 Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 10:23:51AM via free access 34 de Blois fact that our armies are in such a state that some of the troops are actu- ally joining him and others are refusing to defend themselves.1 This is no report from hindsight, by a later author who knew what Persian wars could be like. It is, rather, a chapter written by a contemporary senator, who was well acquainted with the emperor Severus Alexander.2 In this passage there are two important interconnected issues: Ardashir and his growing army are a source of fear to Rome as soon as they come near Syria and Mesopotamia, and Ardashir wants to reconquer parts of the Roman Empire that had once belonged to the Achaemenid Empire.3 Apparently, Dio’s perception of the rising conflict is that Persia was the agressor. At the end of this passage Dio adds that the Persians were of no great consequence in themselves, but had a good chance to win because the quality of the Roman army of the East was very poor, which fits neatly with Dio’s negative attitude towards the Roman soldiery, but also testifies to his underestimating of quantity and quality of the forces the Sassanians could mobilize.4 Another contemporary author, Herodian, tells us in 6.2.1: . in his (i.e. Alexander’s) tenth year unexpected letters came from the governors of Syria and Mesopotamia with information that Artaxerxes (i.e. Ardashir), king of the Persians, had defeated the Parthians, bro- ken up their eastern kingdom and killed Artabanus, the previous great king who wore the double crown. He had also gained complete control over the neighbouring barbarians and reduced them to tributary status. He was causing unrest by refusing to be contained by the river Tigris and was crossing the banks which were the boundary of the Roman empire. Mesopotamia was overrun and Syria threatened. 1 Cassius Dio 80. 3–4. Translations of passages in the works of Cassius Dio and Herodian were borrowed from editions in the Loeb Classical Library. 2 See Cassius Dio 80. 5. 1: Severus Alexander honored Dio in various ways, especially by appointing him to be consul for the second time, as his colleague, and taking upon himself personally the responsibility of meeting the expenditures of Dio’s second consulship. 3 The first Sasanian king. He put down the Parthian Arsacid dynasty between 224 and 226, and ruled from those years up to 241. See Josef Wiesehöfer, ‘Das Reich der Sasaniden’, in Klaus- Peter Johne, Udo Hartmann and Thomas Gerhardt (eds.), Die Zeit der Soldatenkaiser (Berlin 2008), I, 536–537. 4 Lukas de Blois, ‘Emperor and Empire in the Works of Greek-speaking Authors of the Third Century A.D.’, in W. Haase and H. Temporini (eds.), Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt II 34, 4 (Berlin/New York 1998), 3411–3412. Lukas de Blois - 9789004326750 Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 10:23:51AM via free access Rome and Persia Middle of the Third Century AD 35 This looks like a summary of events, in which details have been left out, and which focuses upon a later phase of the struggle, when mutual distrust had resulted in open violence. In 6.2.2 the author says: Believing that the entire mainland facing Europe contained by the Aegean Sea and the Propontis Gulf . belonged to him by ancestral right, he was intending to recover it for the Persian empire. Severus Alexander, unlike Dio not underestimating the Persian threat, seems to have reacted in full force. If we may believe Herodian 6.3.1, in 230–231 the whole Roman Empire was in a state of complete upheaval because the emperor and his helpers were gathering together a large army to match the reported size of the barbarian invasion. From Italy and all the Roman provinces special lev- ies were recruited for the army. Aside from Dio and Herodian there is not much evidence that Ardashir and his successor Shapur I (241–270) wished to conquer large parts of the Roman Empire, as far as the Aegean Sea. The only indication one could think of is the composition of the reliefs at Naqsh-i-Rustam, where Sassanian representa- tions were carved into the rock beneath much older Achaemenid royal tombs and sculptures.5 Continuity may be suggested here. Still, it is not very plau- sible that the first Sassanian king had such far-reaching intentions. About 230 Ardashir was still busy to stabilize his power in his own realm. In a number of petty wars he was removing many local princes who were anyhow related to the Arsacid family, appointing new satraps and viceroys in their places, quite a few of whom were related to himself.6 Dio’s remark about Persian pretensions to restore the old Achaemenid Empire sounds like Roman war propaganda.7 5 See David S. Potter, Prophecy and History in the Crisis of the Roman Empire (Oxford 1990), 372– 376; Josef Wiesehöfer, Das antike Persien von 550 v.Chr. bis 650 n.Chr. (Munich/Zürich 1994), 51–52, 208, and 215–216; Udo Hartmann, Das Palmyrenische Teilreich (Stuttgart 2001), 67. 6 See Hartmann 2001, op. cit. (n. 5), 65; David S. Potter, The Roman Empire at Bay, A.D. 180– 395 (London/New York 2004), 222; Richard N. Frye, ‘The Sassanians’, in Cambridge Ancient History XII2 (Cambridge 2005), 465–467; Wiesehöfer 2008, op. cit. (n. 3), 536. Ardashir not only defeated the Parthians and many local rulers, but—unlike his Parthian predecessors— the Sassanian ruler removed many local princes and appointed members of his own family in their places, as his lieutenants. See Frye, op. cit. 467. 7 See Cassius Dio 80. 4. 1; Herodian 6. 2. 2; Zonaras 12. 15. That the Persians wanted to restore the old Achaemenid empire was a Roman propagandistic view; the aims of the Persian king were much more restricted. See John Drinkwater, “The ‘catastrophe’ of 260”, Rivista storica dell’antichità 19 (1989), 126; Potter 1990, op. cit. (n. 5), 372–376; Potter 2004, op. cit. (n. 6), 223–225; Erich Kettenhofen, ‘Einige Überlegungen zur sasanidischen Politik gegenüber Rom Lukas de Blois - 9789004326750 Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 10:23:51AM via free access 36 de Blois Ardashir’s strategy was quite different: he tried to eliminate Arsacid remnants in Armenia, and conquer places such as Hatra, which invading Romans—or Arsacids from Armenia—would be needing as a base and storage facility, if they should set out to conquer Southern Mesopotamia, the Parthian and Persian Empire’s main agrarian and trading area, which was their most important tax territory.8 According to Stefan Hauser, Ardashir was just attempting to restore the Arsacid Parthian Empire as it had been before the wars of Lucius Verus and Septimius Severus.9 This may very well be right, but it cannot be proven. In his article in the same volume, Benjamin Isaac still adheres to the opinion that Persian demands were consistently more militant than the Parthian ones had been.10 The main reason for the ensuing war between the Romans and Persians is explicitly mentioned by Dio: distrust among Roman rulers and their governors about the growing military force that Ardashir was gathering.
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