Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

54 1 Political goals
during the course of the third century was based on and reinforced by the
euphoric successful foundation of the Sasanian Empire and moreover facilitated
by the deep ‘crisis’ Rome faced during this period, a crisis that forced
the Western power into a defensive position and led to the primary goal of
preserving its own possessions. However, as soon as the political, economic
and social problems of the Roman Empire receded, the Romans similarly
exploited phases of instability within the Sasanian Empire and embarked
on numerous military offensives against the territories held by their Eastern
opponent in order to underline their claim to world domination, which
continued to exist up to the fall of the Roman Empire. Evidently, the imperial
prestige on both sides significantly fostered the emergence of conflicts
between the two powers.
Herodian vi.2.1–2
(1) For thirteen years he [sc. Severus Alexander] reigned in this way, and so far
as it was up to him, irreproachably. In the fourteenth year, 6 however, he was
suddenly sent reports by the governors in Syria and Mesopotamia informing him
of the following: the Persian king Ardaˇsīr [I] 7 had defeated the Parthians and had
dissolved their rule in the East. He had put to death Artabanos, 8 who used to be
called Great King and had worn two diadems. 9 Moreover, Ardaˇsīr had conquered
all of the barbaric areas around and was forcing them to pay tribute. He was still
not satisfied and was not staying within the borderline of the river Tigris but
crossing its banks and thus the borders of the Roman Empire. He was overrunning
Mesopotamia and threatening Syria. (2) He was determined to re-conquer for
Persia the whole territory across from Europe and cut off by the Aegean Sea and
the Sea of Marmara, which as a whole is called Asia, because he viewed this as
his inheritance, arguing that the whole area, as far as Ionia and Caria, had been
administered by Persian satraps from the time of Cyrus, who was the first to transfer
power from the Medes to the Persians, to the time of Darius, the last of the Persian
kings, whose power the Macedonian Alexander destroyed. He claimed that it was
now his task to renew this empire for the Persians just as they had possessed it in
the past.
Herodian composed his history of the Roman Empire, which covers the
time period between 180 and 238, in the third century. Although the author,
who wrote in the Greek language, favoured the rhetorical and literary
6 The number of years is historically not correct. It should be the tenth year of the reign of Severus
Alexander (= 232), whose dies imperii was 13 March 222.
7 Herodian calls the first Sasanian king Ardaˇsīr I (224–40) by his Greek name ‘Artaxerxes’; for reasons
of consistency the translations of the sources use the conventional names of the respective rulers.
8 This is the last Arsacid ruler Artabanos IV (213–24).
9 On the iconography of this Parthian ruler with ‘two diadems’ see Gall 1980: 241–50.