'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎166v] (337/862)

HISTORY
230
Iranian reaction to the Greek civilization introduced by the Seleucids,
but they found that the hostility of the numerous Greek cities
rendered control of their empire precarious. Whenever the Seleucids
made a counter-offensive from Syria to win back their lost provinces
the Greek cities welcomed them. Hence the Arsacids were forced to
compromise with their Greek subjects, the civilization of the cities
remained superficially Hellenistic, and the Arsacid kings took the
title of Friend of the Greeks.
Parthia and Rome
Meanwhile, west of Mesopotamia, the countries bordering the
whole of the Mediterranean had been gradually conquered and
organized by the Roman State of Italy into an empire since about
200 b.c. Between Parthian and Roman aggression the Seleucid
Empire was reduced to the territory of Syria, and when this became
a Roman province in 64 b.c. the Parthian and Roman empires became
neighbours with a common frontier. At first they sought to master
each other by force of arms. In 53 b.c. the invading army of the
Roman Crassus was disastrously routed by the Parthian general
Surenas at Carrhae {7nod. Harran) in the foothills north of the Syrian
Jazira. The Parthians invaded Syria and Asia Minor in 51 B.c. and
again more effectively in 40 b.c., but they were expelled by the
Roman Ventidius Bassus (in 39 b.c.). The Roman emperor Augustus
(27 b.c.-a.d. 14) established an uneasy balance of power between
the two empires which lasted, despite many alarums, till a.d. 114.
The Euphrates was the agreed frontier in its middle course, but there
was perpetual dispute and occasional war about the status of Greater
Armenia, the area between the upper Euphrates and the Caspian
including the former Urartu (p. 218). Armenia had become an
independent kingdom for a brief time under Tigranes and an ally
of Rome (83-65 b.c.), but its natural and cultural associations were
with Parthia and the Iranian peoples.
The Emperor Trajan sought to alter the balance of power by
annexing Armenia and Mesopotamia (a.d. 114-117), but his successor
Hadrian let the provinces revert to Parthia. The main effect of this
and later invasions of Mesopotamia under Verus (164) and Septimius
Severus (197) was to weaken the Parthians against a revival of the
native Persian power, which eventually swept them away and proved
far more formidable to Rome than ever the Parthians had been. By
a.d. 200 the Romans gained from all their efforts only the north
western area of the Jazira mostly outside modern Iraq. This Roman