Could the Sassanid Persians completely defeat the Eastern Roman Empire?

I mean a complete victory, with Constantinople, the Levant, and Egypt all under Persian control.

And would they be able to keep it all? How would they even rule it? Didn't many persian kings dreamt of destroying Rome so they could invade the heart of Europe?
 
I mean a complete victory, with Constantinople, the Levant, and Egypt all under Persian control.
It's pretty unlikely, in my view, but it's probably not ASB. What's needed is for a decent Iranian fleet to be put together, as well as firmer alliances with the Avars/whoever the dominant steppe power of the Balkans is.

And would they be able to keep it all?
Almost certainly not. Logistics will break a mega-Sasanian Empire.
 
The Byzantine-Sassanid border was pretty static due to fortresses that usual made sieges a grinding battle. It must have been a shock when Khosrau's forces broke through and whipped the Byzantines from Jeruselum to Alexandria and Comstantinople.

I could see them take the Levant and perhaps Egypt too, the flat geography was no barrier. Though Egypt is a bit of an insular pickle, though Sassanid forces managed to hold the region for a decade. Still, its not like they could transplant their military system into the region without importing a number of Iranian nobles AND levying the locals. It would be better to prop up a puppet.
 
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katchen

Banned
The Sassanids need to either coordinate armies around both sides of the Black Sea ( very difficult if not ASB) or they need to figure out what the Ottomans finally figured out 900 years later--that to defeat the ERE, one needs to take over all the land from which their armies are levied. And that means NOT getting bogged down in a siege of Constantinople, but using whatever navy and barges one can put together to invade Thrace, Greece and Moesia BEHIND Constantinople leaving Constantinople a city state behind the Wall of Theodosius. The Ottomans consolidated their European Empire for 100 years after the Battle of Nicapolis before finally investing Constantinople.
If the Sassanids do this--and make peace with the Avars--not even Heraclitus will be able to save the Empire by sending an Army to Azerbijan since he will not have anywhere to levy such an army from.
And as for Rome, making peace with the Avars may mean letting the Avars have Italia. And Francia if the Avars can take it. Khosrau does need to know when and where to quit.
 
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