The Roman Army: A Social and Institutional History - Karatunov.net

H i s t o r i c a l Ba c k g r o u n d 47
problem with Parthia was its territorial extent, together with the fact that, like
the Roman Empire, it was a composite entity comprising many different peoples
and dependent kingdoms. Much of Rome’s wealth and political energy was
devo ted to attem pts to stabi l i ze the eastern fron ti er, but the Romans never
achieved more than pushing the boundaries a little further east and then securing
them for a while, and in this respect Trajan, Severus, and Diocletian were
successful. None of the Roman emperors achieved lasting peace on the eastern
frontier because they could never subdue the whole of Parthia. An attempt to
do so would have been the ancient equivalent of the disasters incurred by more
recent western rulers from Charles XII of Sweden through Napoleon to Hitler,
who all invaded but signally and catastrophically failed to conquer Russia.
At around the same time that the attacks of the tribesmen intensified in the
western half of the Empire, in the east the Parthian rulers entered into a revolutionary
phase during which the royal house of the Parthian Arsacids, founded
by Arsaces about five centuries earlier, was obliterated and replaced by the Persian
Sassanids, founded by the energetic Iranian prince Ardashir. The Parthians
h ad been ste ad i ly we a kening at the end of the second cen tu ry ad , a situ a ti on
that was welcome to Rome, but in the third century the new dynasty of Ardashir
proved strong and aggressive, and therefore a perceived threat to the security of
the eastern provinces. A Roman expedition under the Emperor Valerian in ad
260 ended with the capture and surrender of the emperor himself and his army.
In the same year all the other frontiers were breached or fell, and Roman terri
tory was invaded . Rome was now thre a ten ed on two long and import a n t
fronts and was not dealing with either threat successfully. The Empire began to
disintegrate. Breakaway states were formed, one in the east under the Palmyrene
ruler Odenathus and another in the west where the military leaders declared independence
and formed the Empire of the Gauls (Imperium Galliarum). This
division was made in an effort to protect themselves from attacks that the central
government under Valerian’s son Gallienus was in no position to halt. After
only a few years, the Empire was reunited under the strong leadership of Aurelian,
but significantly Rome ceased to be the single center from which emanated
all control. The city was too far away from the war zones, and communications
were too slow to cope with the rapidly changing, fluid situations on and beyond
the fron ti ers . The em perors requ i red several different bases in ad d i ti on to
Rome, where they could assemble troops and also carry on the government of
the Empire . Regi onal cen ters began to appe a r, de s i gn ed to accom m od a te the
em peror or his dep uti e s , t h eir bodyg u a rd s , and the more mobile mounted
troops, within easy reach of the theaters of war. Imperial headquarters were set
up in northern Italy at Milan, in northern Gaul at Trier, on the Danube at Carnu
n tu m , and in the east at An ti och , a m ong other citi e s . Ul ti m a tely, the most
i m portant of these Im perial re s i den ces was By z a n tiu m , wh ere Con s t a n ti n e
founded his rival capital and renamed it Constantinople after himself. The Em-