Customer Reviews

Rome's Enemies (3): Parthians and Sassanid Persians (Men-at-Arms)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Parthian Empire and the even more powerful Sassanian Persians who followed them stood directly in the path of Rome's imperial desires. The result was a series of brutal wars in which both sides suffered terribly.
This Osprey volume is thin but don't let that fool you; it contains a pretty decent amount of information. Discussed are the armor, tactics (including the famous Parthian Shot), and military history of both empires. The plates by the late Angus McBride are well done and add some color (literally) to the book. The Roman defeat at Carrhae is one of the topics covered although the book makes clear that Parthian forces were far from unstoppable as the Romans DID win many of the battles they fought against their eastern rival. Sassainian Persia was more of a danger to Rome at its height and under the famous/infamous Chroses II Parviz very nearly conquered the Byzantine Empire before the Emperor Heraclius counterattacked and crushed Persia. Weak from defeat, natural disasters, and political nightmares, the Zoroastrian Persians would ultimately fall to the fanatically fierce armies pouring out of early Islamic Arabia. The ancient world was truely coming to an end.
Overall, I recommend this book about two of Rome's most skilled and powerful foes.

Excellent men-at-arms, although personally I feel that both of these peoples deserved their own title. The text and plates both detail the Scytho-Parthian horse-archers, Partho-Sassanid savaran, and infantry and mercenaries in Persian service, as well as the virtually never ending campaigns between Rome and these two great peoples between the 1st Century BC and the 7th Century AD, when the Arabs finally overwhelmed a Sassanid Empire already weakened by Byzantine invasion.

This is one of the good sources of information without it going into a steep price tag like the Cambridge Histories [which I do own]. This is a perfect way for western readers to learn about something rather than go and learn Perisan and read the manuscripts [though I encourage you to do so]. A 5/5 for this one.

I have to agree with Big Mike, the History Instructor. The illustration is done very nicely, and as far as a general outlook it is rather nice introduction to anyone with absolutely no knowledge of Persian/Parthian history.
However the book does not do much to break from the roman-centric view of the wars with Parthia/Persia. The age old habit of downplaying Roman defeats,and glorifying Roman victories have also been used, starting with the authors description of the battle of Carrae. As i said there are some very good general history points covered in this book, but the book does leave a lot to be desired. This along with the high price of a book, was a dissapointment.

Persians were not one of many enemies of Rome. They were the only equal to Rome. Time after time Rome failed to move east because of Persia. Persia's cultural gifts to Rome / Europe is well documented.

Osprey's Men-At-Arms seriesmay be the greatest source for depicting how historical warrior's dressed and may give you a good pallette for painting wargames miniatures, but the facts they quote as history leave alot to be desired. The illustrations are wonderful and the b&w photos of artifacts are interesting but a serious student of history can find better sources other than this book. I give them 5 stars on the pictures but only 1 on the subject matter at hand.