“Making peace with Iran can be as painful as winning the war,” he recently said. CNN report pointed out. As negotiations continue on a shaky ceasefire, what a deal between the US and Iran might look like, and whether it is implemented, is anyone’s guess.
As a scholar of ancient Persia (which eventually became Iran), the difficulties now facing US President Donald Trump don’t exactly surprise me.
After dozens of wars between the two ancient empires of Rome and Persia, peace agreements often failed to solve problems and sometimes made the situation worse.
Bouncing from conflict to conflict
The powerful empires of ancient Persia (ruled by the Parthians from 247 BC to 224 AD and then by the Sasanians from 224 to 651 AD) rivaled the Roman Empire for centuries. They often went to war and the peace agreements they reached were mostly about buying time.
The first major conflict between Rome and Persia was the disastrous invasion led by the Roman general Crassus in 53 BC. Crassus himself died and thousands of Roman soldiers were killed in the fields near Carrhae in southern Turkey.
The continued conflict emboldened the Parthians, and in 20 BC, the Romans were forced to recognize The Euphrates River as a border as part of a peace agreement. For Rome, this was a concession, because up to this point its territorial expansion could not be stopped.
Conflict between Rome and Parthia would erupt again in the middle of the first century CE This time, it was over the kingdom of Armenia, which was strategically located between two empires in modern Armenia and eastern Turkey.
After the war, the Roman emperor Nero and the Parthian king, Vologases I, reached the Treaty of Rhandea in 63 CE. According to this agreement, the king of Armenia was to be appointed by the Parthians but actually crowned by the emperor in Rome. The treaty settled the immediate dispute, but over time it became unworkable.
Later, when the Parthians simply ignored the treaty, the Roman emperor Trajan punished them with a major invasion in 114 CE.
Despite some impressive initial successes, including the capture of the Parthian capital, the invasion failed. All Trajan’s gains were lost until the time of his death in 117 CE.
After the Parthians were replaced by the Sasanians as rulers of Persia in 224 CE, the conflict with Rome escalated even further. Control of Armenia was often the focus and constituted a key element of peace agreements.
After the death of the Roman emperor Gordian III in an invasion of the Sasanian Empire in 244 CE, a new agreement was reached between the two powers. The Sasanians imposed financial fines and a clause stopping Roman involvement in Armenia.
But within a few years Rome ignored the treaty. This led to a series of devastating Sasanian conquests of Roman territory and the capture of the Roman emperor Valerian in 260 CE.
In the late 290s, Rome would get revenge with a major victory over the Sasanian king, Narseh. of Treaty of Nisibis which followed in 299 CE contained a series of clauses which extended Roman power further east. He also gave Rome control of Armenia.
But this treaty sowed the seeds of considerable hostility. When the Sasanian king Shapur II invaded Roman territory in the 350s, his main goal was to reject the treaty made 60 years earlier. This was reinforced when the Roman Emperor Julian invaded the Sasanian Empire and suffered a heavy defeat. (including his death) in 363 CE.
While the level of conflict between Rome and ancient Iran was lower in the fifth century AD, it was even more pronounced in the sixth and seventh centuries. Rome and Iran were almost constantly at war during this period.
There were many treaties and attempts to achieve peace, but none lasted. Perhaps the most useless was the so-called Eternal Peace of 532which lasted less than eight years.
Easier to make war than peace
As history shows, peace agreements may be trumpeted at the time they are signed, but may end up sowing the seeds of future discord and conflict.
Rome and Persia’s war over Armenia was finally resolved in an agreement to divide the kingdom between Rome and Iran in the 380s. But it took more than 400 years to achieve it, despite dozens of attempts.
A constant tide of conflicts, invasions, threats and stalemates marked the entire time frame before.
Does a durable US-Iran peace deal face similar prospects? Only time will tell. Hopefully it won’t take ages to get there this time.
Peter Edwell is an associate professor of ancient history, Macquarie University
This article was reprinted from Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read on original article.
