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The Roman-Persian Wars were a series of conflicts between the Roman world and the Persian Empire that started during the late Roman Republic in 92 BC and was carried over to the Eastern Roman Empire lasting until 627 . ORIGINS The conflict lasted for over six centuries and is the longest lasting conflict between two sides. The Persian Empire was projected through the Parthian and later, Sassanid dynasties. For Ancient Rome , the conflict encompassed the Roman Republic , Roman Empire , and Eastern Roman Empire . The two empires were relatively equal in power. Roman desire for territory to expand their Empire and systems, and for buffer zones between them and various kingdoms, Barbarians , other empires, and those strongly unwilling to submit to them urged their attentions to the East. The Persian Empire had previously been seen as the ever present rival to Western civilization in the Greco-Persian Wars . Each side was never able to dominate the other. Towns, fortifications, and provinces were sacked, captured, destroyed, and changed sides frequently. Each side did not have enough strength and logistics to maintain strategic offensives with grand results, but were not weak enough to be defeated or subdued. All of the energy exuded over the six centuries amounted to nothing for either side as the Muslim Arabs colonized the territories of the Near East by conquering the war-exhausted Persians in the Islamic Conquests soon after the end of the conflict with the Romans. ANCIENT ROMAN-PARTHIAN PERIOD The first military action was Lucullus ' invasion of Armenia in 92 BC , allowing further unprovoked penetration into Mesopotamia by Pompey . In the Battle Of Carrhae ( 53 BC ), Roman commander Crassus fought an army of Parthian horsemen under Surena . Crassus was killed, his command mostly annihilated, and the rest captured resulting in a decisive Parthian victory. Julius Caesar was planning Eastern operations larger in scope than Crassus, but fell to assassin daggers before his plans could come to fruition. Mark Antony gave realization to Caesar's plans and carried them out in 36 BC launching an invasion into Persia, but lacking the fallen leader's skill, lost half of his men in the mountains of northwest Persia and during his winter retreat through Armenia. Emperor Augustus , negotiated a peace with the Persian Empire which lasted for about a century until the conflict resumed during Trajan's reign. Trajan's armies reached the Persian Gulf in 115 . He captured Ctesiphon in Mesopotamia in 116 . Ctesiphon was captured five times throughout the conflict and remained an important focus of power. Emperor Julian The Apostate was killed in a rear-guard action during a difficult retreat north after his army of 90,000 was unable to take the city in the Battle Of Ctesiphon (363) . Shapur I , "King of Kings" of Persia, launched numerous offensives into Roman territory. He plundered Antiochia and captured Emperor Valerian I after crushing his army in 259 in the Battle Of Edessa . BYZANTINE-SASSANID PERIOD When the Parthian dynasty ended, there was no reduction in the conflict since the Sassanids were even more aggressive than their predecessors. As the Western Roman Empire fell to barbarian control, the Eastern Roman Empire continued the conflict against the Persian Empire . The last action of the centuries' long conflict was the second Battle Of Nineveh in 627 between Rhahzadh who commanded the army of Persian Emperor Khosrau II "the Victorious" and between the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius . During a succession struggle in Byzantium , Khosrau's army made a lightning move from Armenia through Anatolia and Syria down to Mesopotamia while Heraclius made a heroic reorganization of Byzantine defenses and counterattacked. The culmination of this counterattack was a defeat of the Sassanid army on the plains of northern Mesopotamia on December 12 . Persia accepted Heraclius' peace terms the following year. The Lazic War The Lazic War lasted from 542 to 562 , with the fighting lasting until 557 due to a five-year truce. The Fifty Years Peace finally brought an official end to the war in 562 . The war was fought between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Persian Empire for control over the kingdom of Lazica in the country of Colchis . The Romans sought the kingdom of Lazica as a barrier against Persian advance from Iberia to the Black Sea . The kingdom was a satellite state of the Persian Empire , but was also devoted to the Christian faith. Persian Emperor Khosrau I intended to either convert the inhabitants to Persian religion or replace them with Persian inhabitants so the Lazic king, Gubazes II, sought Emperor Justinian I for protection. Among the battles, the Lazic capital Archaeopolis was attacked three times by the Persians with the final one being a successful capture, but they were repulsed by the combined force of Byzantine and Lazic forces which occupied it until the end of the war. As the five-year truce was coming to an end, Khosrau I sent an ambassador to Constantinople to renew the truce, due to a general stalemate and weariness. What amounted was a more permanent peace and various treaties, such as Lazica was to remain under Roman rule, the Persians were to prevent any peoples from coming toward Roman territory from the Caucasus , and both sides were to not impede on each others tribes or neighbor nations, as well as refraining from border fortifications and easing the strictness on diplomacy and trade between the two empires. A beneficial military outcome for the Romans was preventing the Persian Empire from gaining access to the Black Sea . =References=
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