The Eagle and the Lion Rome, Persia and an Unwinnable Conflict
By Adrian Goldsworthy
ISBN: 978-838931964 Head of Zeus (2024) - £16.99
The paperback edition of Adrian Goldsworthy's latest work covers the vast history of Rome's interactions with both the Arsacid Parthian and Sasanian Persian Empires. Goldsworthy admits that he wanted to deal with these two empires together deliberately (they tend to be dealt with separately) because there are parallels and continuities in Rome's dealings with them. This creates a lengthy tome which is still, by necessity, at times cursory.
Covering Rome's relations with the Parthian Empire and then the Sasanian means dealing with more than seven hundred years of complex history. The Parthian Empire was founded in the third century BC and Rome first came into contact with it at the end of the second century BC. Even when the Parthian Empire fell abruptly to the Sasanians in AD 224, the Sasanians simply supplanted the Parthians in the
