The Nisibis War

The Nisibis War PDF

Author: John S. Harrel

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2016-02-29

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 1473848318

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This study of the Roman Empire’s combat with its rivals to the east examines the evolution of ancient military strategy and tactics. During the Perso-Roman wars of 337-363, Roman forces abandoned their traditional reliance on a strategic offensive to bring about a decisive victory. Instead, the Emperor Constantius II adopted a defensive strategy and conducted a mobile defense based upon small frontier forces defending fortified cities. These forces were then supported by limited counteroffensives by the Field Army of the East. These methods successfully checked Persian assaults for twenty-four years. However, when Julian became emperor, his access to greater resources tempted him to abandon mobile defense in favor of a major invasion aimed at regime change in Persia. Although he reached the Persian capital, he failed to take it. In fact, he was defeated in battle and killed. The Romans subsequently resumed and refined the mobile defense, allowing the Eastern provinces to survive the fall of the Western Empire. In this fascinating study, John Harrel applies his personal experience of military command to a strategic, operational, tactical and logistical analysis of these campaigns and battles, highlighting their long-term significance.

Roman Soldier vs Parthian Warrior

Roman Soldier vs Parthian Warrior PDF

Author: Si Sheppard

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2020-07-23

Total Pages: 81

ISBN-13: 1472838270

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In 53 BC, Roman and Parthian forces collided in a confrontation that would reshape the geopolitical map and establish a frontier between East and West that would endure for the next 700 years. From the initial clash at Carrhae through to the battle of Nisibis more than 250 years later, Roman and Parthian forces fought a series of bloody campaigns for mastery of the Fertile Crescent. As Roman forces thrust ever deeper into the East, they encountered a civilization unlike any they had crossed swords with before. Originating in the steppes of Central Asia, the Parthians ruled a federated state stretching from the Euphrates to the Indus. Although Rome's legions were masters of the battlefield in the Mediterranean, the Parthians refused to fight by the rules as Rome understood them. Harnessing the power of the composite bow and their superior manoeuvrability, the Parthians' mode of warfare focused exclusively on the horse. They inflicted a bloody defeat on the legions at Carrhae and launched their own invasion of Roman territory, countered only with great difficulty by Rome's surviving forces. The Parthians were eventually thrown out, but neither side could sustain a permanent ascendancy over the other and the conflict continued. Packed with stunning artwork, including battlescenes, maps and photographs, this title examines the conflict through the lens of three key battles, revealing a clash between two armies alien to each other not only in culture but also in their radical approaches to warfare.

New History

New History PDF

Author: Zosimus

Publisher: DigiCat

Published: 2022-05-29

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13:

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New History is a historical narrative by Zosimus. The author was a Greek historian known for condemning Constantine's rejection of the traditional polytheistic religion.

The Many Faces of War in the Ancient World

The Many Faces of War in the Ancient World PDF

Author: Graham Wrightson

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2015-09-10

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 1443882402

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This volume on different aspects of warfare and its political implications in the ancient world brings together the works of both established and younger scholars working on a historical period that stretches from the archaic period of Greece to the late Roman Empire. With its focus on cultural and social history, it presents an overview of several current issues concerning the “new” military history. The book contains papers that can be conveniently divided into three parts. Part I is composed of three papers primarily concerned with archaic and classical Greece, though the third covers a wide range and relates the experience of the ancient Greeks to that of soldiers in the modern world – one might even argue that the comparison works in reverse. Part II comprises five papers on warfare in the age of Alexander the Great and on its reception early in the Hellenistic period. These demonstrate that the study of Alexander as a military figure is hardly a well-worn theme, but rather in its relative infancy, whether the approach is the tried and true (and wrongly disparaged) method of Quellenforschung or that of “experiencing war,” something that has recently come into fashion. Part III offers three papers on war in the time of Imperial Rome, particularly on the fringes of the Empire. Covering a wide chronological span, Greek, Macedonian and Roman cultures and various topics, this volume shows the importance and actuality of research on the history of war and the diversity of the approaches to this task, as well as the different angles from which it can be analysed.

Sources for the History of the School of Nisibis

Sources for the History of the School of Nisibis PDF

Author: Adam H. Becker

Publisher: Translated Texts for Historian

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13:

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The Aramaic-speaking Christian community of late antique and early Islamic period Mesopotamia developed a school culture that persisted for several centuries. Not unlike the Rabbinic academies, the East-Syrian schools were innovative as centres of learning where study was formally institutionalized, in contrast to the informal study circles of the past. This school culture played an important role in the early translation of Greek philosophical texts into Arabic in the 'Abbasid period. The most influential and prominent of these schools was the School of Nisibis, and this volume provides an annotated translation of the major sources for the School. A polemical document composed by Simeon of Bet Arsham, a theological enemy of the School, describes the foundation of the School as a significant step in the supposed spread of 'Nestorianism' throughout the Sasanian Empire. The more extensive East-Syrian Cause of the Foundation of the Schools offers a history of learning from God's creation of the world to the time of the text's composition at the School of Nisibis in the late sixth century CE, recasting patriarchal, Israelite, 'pagan' and Christian history as a long series of schools. The last two chapters of the Ecclesiastical History describe the lives of the two most important head exegetes at the School. These sources have never been translated into English and this is the first time that any of them has received close historical, linguistic and thematic analysis.

Siege Warfare and Military Organization in the Successor States (400-800 AD)

Siege Warfare and Military Organization in the Successor States (400-800 AD) PDF

Author: Leif Inge Ree Petersen

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2013-09-15

Total Pages: 850

ISBN-13: 9004254463

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Siege Warfare and Military Organization in the Successor States is the first study to comprehensively treat an aspect of Byzantine, Western, early Islamic, Slavic and Steppe military history within the framework of common descent from Roman military organization to 800 AD. This not only encompassed the army proper, but also a greater complex of client management, private military retinues, labor obligations and civilian conscription in urban defense that were systematically developed by the Romans around 400, and survived to be adopted and adapted by all successors. The result was a common post-Roman military culture suitable for more restrained economic circumstances but still able to maintain, defend and attack city walls with skills rivalling those of their Roman forebears.

Rome and Persia at War

Rome and Persia at War PDF

Author: Peter Edwell

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-10-25

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 1317061276

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This book focuses on conflict, diplomacy and religion as factors in the relationship between Rome and Sasanian Persia in the third and fourth centuries AD. During this period, military conflict between Rome and Sasanian Persia was at a level and depth not seen mostly during the Parthian period. At the same time, contact between the two empires increased markedly and contributed in part to an increased level of conflict. Edwell examines both war and peace – diplomacy, trade and religious contact – as the means through which these two powers competed, and by which they sought to gain, maintain and develop control of territories and peoples who were the source of dispute between the two empires. The volume also analyses internal factors in both empires that influenced conflict and competition between them, while the roles of regional powers such as the Armenians, Palmyrenes and Arabs in conflict and contact between the two "super powers" receive special attention. Using a broad array of sources, this book gives special attention to the numismatic evidence as it has tended to be overshadowed in modern studies by the literary and epigraphic sources. This is the first monograph in English to undertake an in-depth and critical analysis of competition and contact between Rome and the early Sasanians in the Near East in the third and fourth centuries AD using literary, archaeological, numismatic and epigraphic evidence, and one which includes the complete range of mechanisms by which the two powers competed. It is an invaluable study for anyone working on Rome, Persia and the wider Near East in Late Antiquity.

Ancient Arms Race: Antiquity's Largest Fortresses and Sasanian Military Networks of Northern Iran

Ancient Arms Race: Antiquity's Largest Fortresses and Sasanian Military Networks of Northern Iran PDF

Author: Eberhard Sauer

Publisher: Oxbow Books

Published: 2023-02-16

Total Pages: 1426

ISBN-13: 1789254639

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Which ancient army boasted the largest fortifications, and how did the competitive build-up of military capabilities shape world history? Few realise that imperial Rome had a serious competitor in Late Antiquity. Late Roman legionary bases, normally no larger than 5ha, were dwarfed by Sasanian fortresses, often covering 40ha, sometimes even 125-175ha. The latter did not necessarily house permanent garrisons but sheltered large armies temporarily – perhaps numbering 10-50,000 men each. Even Roman camps and fortresses of the Early and High Empire did not reach the dimensions of their later Persian counterparts. The longest fort-lined wall of the late antique world was also Persian. Persia built up, between the fourth and sixth centuries AD, the most massive military infrastructure of any ancient or medieval Near Eastern empire – if not the ancient and medieval world. Much of the known defensive network was directed against Persia’s powerful neighbours in the north rather than the west. This may reflect differences in archaeological visibility more than troop numbers. Urban garrisons in the Romano-Persian frontier zone are much harder to identify than vast geometric compounds in marginal northern lands. Recent excavations in Iran have enabled us to precision-date two of the largest fortresses of Southwest Asia, both larger than any in the Roman world. Excavations in a Gorgan Wall fort have shed much new light on frontier life, and we have unearthed a massive bridge nearby. A sonar survey has traced the terminal of the Tammisheh Wall, now submerged under the waters of the Caspian Sea. Further work has focused on a vast city and settlements in the hinterland. Persia’s Imperial Power, our previous project, had already shed much light on the Great Wall of Gorgan, but it was our recent fieldwork that has thrown the sheer magnitude of Sasanian military infrastructure into sharp relief.

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