Compare And Contrast Persian And Roman Empire

The Roman and the Persian both had a successful empire throughout many decades. One way both the Roman and the Persian expanded their empire was by conquering vast territory. “Following the conquest of the Italian peninsula, Rome fought with Carthage for control over the western Mediterranean. This led to a series of conflicts called the Punic Wars” (slide 10). After the victory of the first Punic Rome seized full control of both Sicily and Corsica and most importantly, Rome emerged as a dominant power as they emerged as a naval and land power. Romans would enslave men, women, and children after the conquest. They would also confiscate properties as Rome would construct roads, fortifications, ports, and harbors to territories with Rome. Furthermore,

since Rome has become a dominant power in continental Europe and North Africa treaties of Alliance would be established so small states would avoid being conquered by Rome. Some advantages of the alliances for Rome is that “rulers and elite would be offered citizenship and rights under Roman law. Roman troops would be stationed or granted free access through territory, bases constructed and access roads built for transport. A levy of troops would be required for Rome” (slide 14). Throughout the expansion of the Roman Empire, Rome has grown too large to control which would later lead to their downfall. The Persian Empires (560 BCE – 651 CE) became a dominate empire under the rule of Cyrus the Great in which he “took advantage of the decline of the Assyrians and Neo-Babylonians and launched a campaign of conquest, taking Media, Lydia, and the Neo-Babylonians” (Slide 3). Cyrus would proclaim himself a Shahinshah which makes him the most powerful king and the king of the kings. After the death of Cyrus in 530 BCE, Cambyses became the successor in which he extended the frontiers of the Persian Empire to include the Eastern Mediterranean, Phoenicia, and Egypt. Throughout many centuries the Persian Empire would become a powerful Empire with a vast territories, expansion in military and economy. The factors that enabled both empires to develop and expand is the superior numbers of men and technology. On depth, Roman had a vast number of weapons and resources for their army. In the other hand, the Persian army as well had weapons and resources to equip their men. For example, during the expansion of the Persian empire “Cyrus had built a military machine consisting armored infantry hoplite phalanxes, mobile archers, and heavily armed cavalry called cataphracts” (slide 9); therefore the Persian and the Roman army had an advantage of armors, archers, height, and speed horsemen which would play an important role as well as navies. Another factor that influenced the expansion of the Roman and the Persian Empire was through the collection of tax in order to provide equipments for troops and resources during battles. Most importantly, both empires were successful in expanding and defeating enemies was the fact that they both have many men power. Both of the Roman and the Persian Empire faced internal struggles within the empire. For example, Roman faced challenges from the resistance of the conquered people because of Rome’s brutality as an empire which would later lead to a civil war in 49 BCE. Some territories and people that rose against Rome were “Sabines and Etruscans on the Italian peninsula, Philip V of Macedon, Virathus of Lusitania (Iberia), Jugurtha of Numidia (North Africa), Mithridates, King of Anatolia, Spartacus Slave Revolt, Vercingetorix of Gaul, and Orodes II of Parthia” (Slide 17). Moreover, the Plebeians demanded reform for redistribution because the wealthy people were taking the majority of the land. Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus reform movements to address these social problems ended their death by a patrician faction. Moreover, both the empires fell into a political and most importantly, an economic crisis because of the heavily taxation. The Persians empire huge loss was in the land of Marathon 490 BCE and on the sea at Salamis 480 BCE against Greece in which the Persian empire underwent a devastating loss in both of the battles. Since the Emperor of the Parthian stopped paying the Booty in which they “acquired in the Parthian wars kept the empire afloat until the 220s” (Page 194); this angered the soldiers and many stopped fighting. This would be the fall of the Persian Empire and unfortunately “The Persian Empire collapsed under the onslaught of Alexander the Great against the last Persian Shahanshah, Darius III” (slide 23). Furthermore, since the both the empires were in an outrage of plaque along the trade route, the Germanic tribe would later easily rise to the power in the northern region of Europe, as far as Italy. These tribes would later be known for the defeat of the Roman Empire.
The Persians developed a religion founded by Zoroaster in which his teaching and ideas were oral traditions called Avesta.

Zoroastrianism was the religion that grew in the Persian Empire. As for the Roman Empire, Christianity was the developing religion, even though Jesus died in Rome, he would have a tremendous impact on the Roman Empire. The main factor that Christianity became the sole state religion was mostly the preaching of Paul to the Christian communities about Jesus in which many people found the true meaning of their life. Also, the missionaries were also a huge factor in which missionaries would expand Christianity throughout the Roman Empire by teaching others. Most importantly, since the conversion of Constantinople this allowed Christianity to grow in Rome’s society. Moreover, Constantinople would later issue a Nicene Creed, which would make Christianity the state religion. One of the important factors that lead Zoroastrianism to develop in the Persian Empire was the fact that Cyrus the Great and other Shahinshah ruled the Persian Empire under the Zoroastrian beliefs had an impact in the societies of the Persian Empire. Furthermore Zoroastrian would play an important role in other religion belief and “In later centuries they became central in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.” (Page 202). Lastly, Missionaries of the Zoroastrians also played an enormous role in developing throughout the Empire because during the Achaemenid Persian Empire Zoroastrian beliefs on truth and wisdom would be taught orally by priests. The role of the Christianity helped changed the Roman Empire from Polytheism to Monotheism. Moreover, these religions play in the society and culture at large because they helped to develop science, philosophical schools, institutions, and for the Achaemenid and Greek tradition they forged a “Greek- Hellenistic elements” (Page

207).