Western Civilization I / Unit 7 WC1 0614 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Parthia: Carrhae and the Enemy Rome Could Not Beat
Captions available
The idea
Parthia inherited Achaemenid and Seleucid forms, King of Kings and Ctesiphon, and controlled Silk Road routes. Its armored lancers and horse archers refused hand-to-hand combat. At Carrhae in fifty-three B.C.E. the anchor's twenty thousand Romans died and Crassus with them.
In practice
The Euphrates as border, Armenia as buffer; Sasanians from two twenty-four.
Where people slip
Neither side ever won conclusively. Trajan's Mesopotamia was abandoned.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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