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Blah blah Sassanids blah. |
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The Parthian nobility reacted against growing Roman influences around the turn of the millenium. Throughout the next century there was a strong expansion of national culture and a dissolution in central authority. In 114 AD Trajan temporarily occupied Mesopotamia, and with the end of Hadrian's 40-year peace the two powers were at almost constant hostilities. Mesopotamia was occupied again, but the Parthians recovered and pillaged the Roman provinces. Shortly thereafter, though, the province of Persia rose up in revolt, and defeated the last Parthian emperor in 224. The new dynasty, the Sasanids, restored central authority. In this period Zoroastrianism developed into an organized religion with close ties to the new state. Various sects of Christianity also spread throughout Iran, and Manichaeism developed from the two religions; these were initially tolerated but later persecuted as the Romans followed the opposite route. Conflicts with Rome, and later the ByzantineEmpire?, continued intermittently. The Byzantines reached their lowest point under Phocas, with the Sasanids occupying the whole of the eastern Meditteranean. In 610, though, Heraclius took the thrown and began a succesful counter-attack, expelling the Persians and invading Media and Assyria. Unable to stop his advance, Khosrows II was assassinated and the Sasanid empire fell into anarchy. Weakened by their quarrels, neither empire was prepared to deal with the onslaught of the Arabs, newly unified under the banners of IsLam and anxious to expand their faith. By 650 they had conquered all of Persia, Syria, and Egypt. |
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