Aug 8

The Crushing defeat of the Roman Empire from the Iranian army

Marcus Antonius The Iranian army on August 8th, 40 BC, broke up the Roman army and took back Syria. The Iranian army continued its progress and again conquered Palestine completely and installed Antigonus as the governor of Judaea (Judea), then advancing into Asian Minor (Western Anatolia).     Subsequently, the Roman Senate proclaimed war against Iran, and it took them three years to get equipped for the war, for which the Roman legionary from all their conquered lands, from England, France, Spain, Germany, the North Africa, Illyria (Yugoslavia) and Greece were summoned. Attack on Iran started in 36 BC with 113,000 trained soldiers under command of Marcus Antonius (the father of Cleopatra,s twin sons the Greek origin queen of Egypt). This is the largest military expedition of the West to the East all through history, up to 1990. Cleopatra Before starting the war, the last request of Octavius (Octavian), the Roman emperor, who had asked that the banners of his defeated soldiers in the battle of Harran (Carrhae), in 53 BC, are given back, was refused by the national Iranian council (Mehestan = Senate). In 53 BC in Harran, 7 Roman legions and their commander, Crassus (Marcus Licinius Crassus), were destroyed. In that war, the Iranian army commander was Surena (Iran Sepahbod), who had brought new warfare to the battle field and used (up to that time) a new tactic.     Marcus (in English: Mark Anthony), like Crassus, was one of the three members of the higher Roman Empire Consulship (Triumvirate). In the new war, the Iranian forces, under command of Farhad the 4th (Greek: Phraates VI) the elected Shah (38 BC – 2 AD), used the tactic of quick and repeated attacks & retreats of the cavalry with light weapons, and dragging the enemy to a field that was planned beforehand and leaving it in the hands of the main units, and in this way shattered the huge Roman army; to such an extent that after bearing 24,000 killed and Thousands captives, they fled. Roman captives were sent to an area, now called Urumieh, to work in agricultural fields. In those days the center of Azerbaijan (Azarabadegan) was a city, from which the remains are now called Takht - e - Suleiman. Iranian light cavalry     Writers, who were watching the battle scenes of Farhad and Marcus, have written: “Marcus, who was under the heavy attacks of the Iranian cavalry, after his last retreat, when he was allowed to return to Greece through the Black Sea route, cried at the scene of the chaotic situation of his tired and hungry troops. Octavius decided to gather forces for making up for this defeat, but did not succeed, and after that the Roman Empire went into internal disputes (between Marcus and Octavius).     Octavius, who was later given the title “Augustus” by the Roman Senate, was forced to go into war with Marcus (defeated by Iran) whose love for Cleopatra made him stay in Egypt and did not pay attention to the sanctions of the Senate, and so gave up the idea of fighting with Iran     In the battle of these two rivals, which took place in the sea, in the Actium (on the Ionian Sea), the joint sea forces of Cleopatra and Marcus were defeated, and as written by Plutarch; after retreating of this couple to Egypt, first Marcus and then Cleopatra committed suicide.. Farhad the 4th     Later, the two empires; Persian and Roman - the two super powers of the time, solved their disputes over Armenia whose king was supposed to be Iranian, and for the next 71 years no major war took place between Iran (Persian Empire) and the Roman Empire.          Translation by Rowshan Lohrasbpour (Amordad-News writer)