Tag Archives: sassanid persian empire

The Political Forces Controlling the Steppes When Rome Fell

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Episode 13: The Sassanid Shahs and the Hephthalites*

Barbarian Empires of the Steppes (2014)

Dr Kenneth Harl

Film Review

The Sassanid (aka neo-Persian) Empire, which overthrew the Parthian empire in 224 AD, was a contemporary of the Western Roman Empire (which would fall in 476 AD). The former was an extremely effective bureaucratic state practicing monotheistic Zororastorianism.**

Unlike their Parthian predecessors, the Sassanids had the ability to capture and rule cities, which made them a much greater threat to Rome. Romans and Sassanids engaged in increasingly destructive wars for control of Meosopotamia and Armenia (a vassal state of both the Parthian and Sassanid empires).

Despite Rome’s eventual victory, in 364 and 379 AD the Romans ceded parts of Mesopotamia and Armenia to the Sassanids. This left the neo-Persians with the hassle of dealing with the Hephthalites  and other nomads entering the steppes via the Caucasus mountains.

Initially allied with the Hephthalites, the Sassanids also seized control of Transoxiana (the former heartland of the Kushan empire – see The Parthian Empire: Rome’s Greatest Rival), seeking to control the Silk Road’s wealthy caravan cities.

The Hephthalites eventually reclaimed most of Transoxiana, establishing the Oxus River as the boundary between the Sassanid and Hepththalite empires. With the capitol in Bactrium, they issued coins imprinted with Greek text.

As the Hephthalites gradually gained control of most of the eastern steppes, the Sassinids formed an alliance with the Eastern Roman Empire against them. In the 5th century, the Sassanids built the Great Wall of Gorgan (manned by 15,000 – 30,000 troops) to block Hepththalite movement via the Caucasus passes. They also formed anti-Hepthalite alliances with the Göktürks (a Turkic-speaking people originating from the region which became Xinjiang in modern-day China).

*The latter taught that Ahura Mazda was the sole god in perpetual battle with Ahareem, the evil one.

**Also known  as the White Huns, the Persian-speaking Hephthalites represented several ethnic and linguistic groups and were most likely driven onto the Central Steppes by the Northern Wei kingdom, which ruled northern China in the third century. The Sassanids hired them as mercenaries.

***At present Uzbekistan, Tajkistan, Afghanistan and northern India make up the region formerly known as Transoxiana.

Film can be viewed free on Kanopy with a library card.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/video/5694984/5695011

How the Rise of the Huns Transformed Europe

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Episode 11: Rome and the Huns

Barbarian Empires of the Steppes (2014)

Dr Kenneth Harl

Film Review

This lecture concerns the vital role of the steppes nomads (especially the Huns, who played a pivotal role in the collapse of the Roman Empire) in Europe’s transition from “antiquity” to the Middle Ages.

According to Harl, the Huns were first prominent on the Pontic-Caspian Steppes, the heartland of their empire, around 370 – 375 AD.[1]

In 376 AD the Huns overwhelmingly defeated the Goths (who, along with the Sarmatians,[2} enjoyed a 150-year alliance with Rome [3]). With Rome’s permission approximately 100,000 Goths crossed the Danube to resettle in the Roman province of Gaul.

In 410 AD, the Goths, under increasing pressure in Gaul from the Huns, sacked Rome for the first time. As part of the peace settlement, the Romans allowed the Goths to form an independent kingdom in southern Gaul.

Under Attila (434-453 AD), the Huns formed a Hun-ruled confederation of Hun, Germanic, Iranian, Alan (an offshoot of the Sarmatians) and proto-Turkish tribes. As well as crossing the Caucasus to launch raids in Mesopotamia and the Sassanid Persian Empire, the Huns gradually migrated west to the Danube and the Hungarian plains. Assimilating the Alan nomads who lived there, they launched a series of raids against the Eastern Roman Empire.[4] In response to these raids, Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II built a massive wall between 408 – 450 AD along the four mile land border of Constantinople.

Although the Hun continued to ravage the eastern provinces of the Eastern Empire, Constantinople (and eastern Asia) remained safe from a future nomad invasions.

[1] According to Harl, the Huns may have been an offshoot of the Xiongu nomads north of China. The Hans adopted the Chinese “Five Baits” system of diplomacy (see How Steppes Nomads Influenced Eartly Chinese Civilization). The Huns, who spoke a Proto-Turkic language, were the first Turkish speakers in Europe.

[2] See The Role of Sarmatian Nomads in Rome’s Military Success

[3] After the emperor Constantine (306-337 AD) decisively defeated the Goths, they were required to send duty to Rome as well as supplying conscripts to support the Roman military in their war with Persia.

[4] In 330 AD, Constantine split Rome into an Eastern and Western Empire. The eastern Roman court fell under the control of eastern warlords. In the western empire, Roman troops consisted mainly of nomad mercenaries. Prior to its collapse in 476 AD, the Western Roman Empire relied mainly on the Huns to keep its Germanic allies in line.

Film can be viewed free with library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/video/5694984/5695007