Why did the Sassanid and the Eastern Roman Empire fail to make a lasting peace?
Upvote:1
But they did make a lasting peace...in 628 when Kavadh II agreed to Hieraclius' terms. History took a sharp turn a few years later, when the Arabs conquered the Sassanid Empire, but the Arabs didn't impose the settlement of 628.
Perhaps you meant to ask why they didn't make a lasting peace much sooner?
Upvote:2
Pre-modern empires are generally driven toward territorial expansion. Obviously the territories of the Mediterranean and Central Asia each brought a range of different resources that the opposing empire would like to control. When two large rivals get in each others way, conflict is almost inevitable. It is tempting to draw comparisons with other bipolar situations in the ancient world, like Athens and Sparta. If one were significantly weaker then the other, the rival would have been erased much sooner. But when two large powers emerge, a stable situation of lower-level conflict can emerge and will continue until one gets the upper hand.
However, as again is more generally the case, the two civilizations were not in a constant state of all-out war. In that sense, they did achieve a high degree of peaceful co-existence at various moments in time. An interesting illustration of that is the degree of cultural mixing that occurred in the borderzone between the two empires. Quoting an article from The Metropolitan Museum of Art:
The Sasanian empire expanded its geographic scope dramatically under Shapur I (r. 241–72), when its lands stretched into Central Asia and stopped just short of the Mediterranean in current-day Syria. This began a centuries-long cycle of expansion and retraction, which placed the Sasanians in direct conflict with Rome, and later, Byzantinum. Much of the eastern Mediterranean became a buffer zone between empires, which presented opportunities for rich cultural exchanges in between devastating military battles. Trade and the movement of people resulted in a distinctive frontier culture in towns like Palmyra, Dura Europas, and Resafa that mixed Mediterranean-Roman and Hellenistic-Parthian elements. Dress preferences reflect these contacts. Sculptures from Palmyra, for instance, depict some men wearing pants associated with eastern dress styles, while others don the togas of Roman elites.
More post
- 📝 Who had the shortest time in going from imprisonment to head of state within democratic processes?
- 📝 How long has western civilization known the body contains a significant fraction of water?
- 📝 What would a small-scale merchant in Renaissance Italy consider a necessity at home?
- 📝 What did the top minds of the late 17th century have to say about Salem witch trials?
- 📝 Were there any crops and livestock common to both the Old and New Worlds prior to the Columbian exchange?
- 📝 Why does the Puerto Rican flag look so much like the one of the U.S.A.?
- 📝 In the painting "Ariadne", by Arthur Streeton, why are the sails of the ship white?
- 📝 What were British voting qualifications in the 1770's?
- 📝 Are we now living in an Automation Age?
- 📝 Can someone give me the history on this Japanese Crest symbol
- 📝 Why were there no increases in the train speed records between 1854-1934?
- 📝 Have there been instances of a monarchy being reintroduced after being abolished?
- 📝 Was the west bank of the Nile farmed in Ancient Egypt?
- 📝 Why wasn't the Treaty of Waitangi framed in terms of a feudal exchange, rather than a surrender of sovereignty?
- 📝 Where is an image of the oracle bone that describes the nova?
- 📝 Is Islamic law largely derivative of Catholic canon law?
- 📝 How was Switzerland able to stay neutral during WWI and WWII?
- 📝 What was the origin of the Classical Antiquity culture?
- 📝 Is there a majority viewpoint for the fall of the ancient Egyptian civilization?
- 📝 Did Freemasons hold Enlightenment ideals?
- 📝 Why did navies abandon armour?
- 📝 Why wasn't there French irredentism or pan-fransicm?
- 📝 New Latin American navies raiding Spanish interests
- 📝 I'm Looking for a picture of a 5 masted sailing ship called Capitan Hilgendorf. (Barquentine)?
- 📝 Difference between V-5 and V-12 Navy programs during WWII
- 📝 Why was the Ottoman flag changed from an eight-pointed star to five-pointed in the 19th century?
- 📝 What were the 20th century historical disputes?
- 📝 Why did the British think a 99-year lease on Hong Kong's New Territories was "as good as forever"?
- 📝 Why didn't Mao Zedong order to kill locusts initially in the 4 pests campaign?
- 📝 How often did city-destroying floods happen in Mesopotamia?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Why did the Sassanid and the Eastern Roman Empire fail to make a lasting peace?
- 📝 Why did the Western Roman Empire collapse but not the Eastern Roman Empire?
- 📝 What role did the Eastern Roman Empire play in the fall of the Western Roman Empire?
- 📝 Why did antique guns and swords from the Franco-Prussian War make part of the demilitarization program to which Germany was subjected?
- 📝 Why did Homer’s Greeks sack so many cities in the Trojan War? Does it make them mostly pirates and slave raiders?
- 📝 How did agricultural productivity change in Italy with the fall of the Roman Empire and through the early Middle Ages?
- 📝 Why did Black and Asian immigrants from the Empire not come to Britain in substantial numbers until after WW2?
- 📝 How and why did Aleksotas became part of the Russian Empire in 1864?
- 📝 Did Edward Gibbon provide a cause for why the Roman Empire decayed?
- 📝 Why did archery not make a comeback when armor was phased out in the 18th century?
- 📝 Why did Britain and France not declare war against the Soviet Union when it invaded Poland in WW2?
- 📝 Why did LBJ, a staunch segregationist, champion and sign the 1964 Civil Rights Bill?
- 📝 Why did the Roman military start to favour swords over the spear phalanx?
- 📝 When did the Roman Empire fall according to contemporaries?
- 📝 Why did Bayer lose aspirin and heroin trademarks under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles?
- 📝 Why did only the English adopt, evolve and use the longbow en masse in war?
- 📝 When and why did the use of the lifespans of royalty to limit clauses in contracts come about?
- 📝 Why did Italy abandon its alliance with Germany in WW1 and join the Allied side?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union close its borders and restrict travel abroad?
- 📝 Why did the term "Byzantine Empire" enter common usage instead of "Eastern Roman Empire" or "Roman Empire"
- 📝 Why did Stalin and the Soviet leadership have Leon Trotsky assassinated?
- 📝 Why was the Roman Empire considered an empire rather than a kingdom (again)?
- 📝 Why did the Chinese Nationalist party members go to the island of Taiwan and not to any other island?
- 📝 Why did quill pens persist until the early 19th century despite the capacity to make metal dip pens?
- 📝 Why did the Monitor and Merrimac (aka Virginia) have such radically different designs?
- 📝 Why did the Germans not encircle and besiege Stalingrad?
- 📝 Why did piracy thrive in the late 17th and early 18th centuries?
- 📝 Why did Canada, Australia and New Zealand separate from the UK?
- 📝 Why didn't the Persians make and use ballistas and other kinds of artillery?
- 📝 Why did the Merovingians and Pippinids adopt Christianity so fervently?
