The Armies of Ancient Persia: The Parthians

Throughout most of the classical period, Persia was one of the great superpowers, placing a limit on the expansion of its Western rivals. Until the conquest by Alexander the Great, the Achaemenid Persian Empire was the greatest the world had yet seen, stretching from the Mediterranean to the Himalayas. After the collapse of Alexander's empire and that of his Seleucid successors, the Parthians once more established Persia as an independent power and it remained the most formidable rival to the Roman empire for the next seven centuries, until Persia, by then under the Sassanids, was overwhelmed by the Islamic conquests. Yet, the armies of ancient Persia have received relatively little detailed attention, certainly in comparison to those of Rome. This long-awaited second volume of Dr Kaveh Farrokh’s comprehensive trilogy on Persian armies focuses on the Parthian period. An acknowledged expert on the military history of ancient Persia, the author draws on the latest research and archaeological evidence.

In the late third and early second centuries BC, the Parni, a semi-nomadic tribe of Iranian herdsmen, ejected the Seleucids from the province of Parthia, and from that power base expanded to dominate the region. Led by the Arsacid dynasty, their cavalry-dominated armies proved a match for Rome’s legions, most notably humiliating them at Carrhae in 53 BC. Relying chiefly on the winning combination of swift horse-archers and heavily-armoured cataphracts, they thwarted repeated Roman attempts at eastward expansion over the next two and half centuries. Kaveh Farrokh examines in unprecedented detail their weapons, armour and equipment, the composition of their armies, their tactics and strategies. A rich array of illustrations complements the text to present a complete portrait of one of the ancient world’s great military powers.