War and diplomacy: Rome and Parthia, 31 bc–ad 235

Abstract

Parthia was unique among the lands bordering the Roman empire in that it was a large kingdom with a long and distinctive tradition of civilization, coherent government, and domination over subject peoples. Parthian armies not only inflicted unavenged defeats on Rome but even invaded Roman territory. This unprecedented situation presented the Romans with unique problems, since there was little in their historical experience to prepare them for dealing with an adversary of significant strength on a permanent basis, but also with unique opportunities for diplomatic contact. The process by which Romans and Parthians achieved an orderly coexistence, the factors in society that influenced this, and also the methods by which diplomacy was successfully accomplished, help to illustrate the interrelation of society, government, and war in the imperial period. Even within the confines of ancient warfare Rome and Parthia had a significant capacity for acting outside their borders and initiating destruction. In that sense they were superpowers, and Henry Kissinger has aptly summed up the consequences of mutual ignorance and lack of communication between great powers: The superpowers behave like two heavily armed blind men feeling their way round a room, each believing himself in mortal peril from the other whom he assumes to have perfect vision…. Of course, over a time even two armed blind men can do enormous damage to each other, not to speak of the room. ( Kissinger 1979 , 522)

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