Wouldn't the Kushans try to expand into Iran if the Neo-Parthians get crushed by the Romans?
Hadrian's Consolidation - reboot
- Thread starter Hecatee
- Start date
Hecatee
Donor
True enough, but the descriptions of the area from Alexander the Great's time are also depicting a rather bleak pictures (although if I recall it was more to the east)
Vultures’ keep, Armenian kingdom, Caucasus mountains, April 248
Hecatee
Donor
And now as promised a special triple lenght chapter for reaching page 100 of this thread !
Vultures’ keep, Armenian kingdom, Caucasus mountains, April 248
Mynasian was tired, Mynasian was terrified, Mynasian was fighting. He and a hundred other soldiers were on the walls, alongside some three hundred civilians who had seeked refuge inside the powerful walls of the city. Luckily the Scythians had not yet had the opportunity to go around the wall and this meant supplies could still be gathered and reinforcements hoped for.
Two young boys had been sent with urgent messages calling for the prompt sending of reinforcements, but Mynasian knew chances of reinforcements to arrive on time were slim. Not only because they were based a few days away, and would take a few days to assemble anyway before they could walk to the succours of the fortress. But he also knew that this invasion was probably not isolated, the other fortresses were probably also being besieged and calling for help, if they had not yet fallen.
Luckily the Scythians had been spotted early enough that the garrisons of the watch towers had had time to ride their horses back to the main keep, doubling the standing garrison. As they had arrived they had been sent to bed to sleep before taking the night vigil, a smart move by the commander that had allowed them to be fresh when time had come to repulse an hasty night assault by the plain dwellers.
A number of peasants had also been able to reach the safety of the walls, the rest being mostly hunted for sport by young warriors looking for easy blood : many had seen the heads of their friends paraded by arrogant scythians in front of the wall, at least until a well aimed ballista shoot had decapitated a cocky young barbarian.
All knew that there would be no pity, no chance of survival if such wild beasts breached the walls. This gave a fire to everyone defending the fortress that kept them moving despite the tiredness. It was now the second day of the siege, and the fourth assault.
After the first night attack led by a small party of courageous men using a rope to climb the wall, the enemy had tried to approach the gate with a large trunk which they intended to use as a ram against the wooden doors. They had soon left under the heavy arrow and ballista fire shot from the towers and walls, not without leaving a number of men dead behind them. The roofed parapet of the crenelated wall and the good design of the towers’ embrasures meant that the defenders were well protected from enemy fire while the Scythians had to walk through difficult and naked ground before reaching the fortress.
Yet the attempt had made the commander of the fortress curse : it was not the Scythian way to attack in this manner, something was not right. His instincts were proved correct during the third assault when the Scythians attacked using shields made of silk on a light frame to deflect the defenders’ arrows. Multiple layers of silk were an efficient way to protect oneself and the shields were well adapted to the Scythians way of living, being light and easy to put together or dismantle for travelling. It also did not need huge amounts of rare wood…
That assault had come to the foot of the walls and of the gate, but here too the barbarians had been repelled thanks to boiling water thrown on the attackers through the pergolae : the machiculations allowed to drop many sorts of contents on top of the attacker, and the water was good to either make the enemy shields too heavy or to scald any exposed flesh…
But more than the shields what had proved the commander’s hunch was the presence in the Scythian command group of five horsemen who could only be Parthian cataphractoi. The attack was visibly part of a larger plan, and that was bad news for the defenders because it meant reinforcements were probably not forthcoming…
Now the fourth attack was incoming, differing from the previous ones by the fact that the Scythians had built large ladders that would allow them to climb the walls and overwhelm their foes. Walking under the protection of silk shields, the ladder-carriers progressed slowly but rather safely toward the wall : only the ballistae managed to do any damages. A lucky hit had even broken one of the ladders, but a dozen more were still incoming…
Gritting his teeths, Mynasian touched once more the hilt of his sword to get some comfort from the weapons’ presence. His first weapon however would be a piece of wood designed to push the ladder from the wall, preferably with a few Scythians on it so that in their fall they may crush some of their fellows. Near him two other men were similarly equipped while two others carried maces and axes. Together they were responsible for the defense of a dozen meters of walls…
The attackers were clearly not scythians horsemen. Were they slaves ? In any case they did not wear the traditional scythian clothes, nor were they Parthians. In fact they did not look like any man Mynasian had ever seen : their skin did not have the right tone, it seemed yellowish, and their face was strange.
They were courageous, or maybe just too fearful of their masters because they kept going on, despite the losses from the ballistae and the occasional arrow… Finally they arrived at the wall, struggling to raise their ladders. A group a bit further had laid its ladder too low and they were now struggling to push it closer to the wall to gain the necessary reach. Another was clearly too short for its task… But the one in Mynasian’s section was of the right size and place at the right spot and half a dozen men were already starting the climb, a knife in the mouth and a sword in one hand…
Pushing his stick against the top rung of the ladder, the young man tried to push the weight off the wall and cause it to fall. Two of his fellow defenders helped him, but unfortunately they could not give the ladder enough momentum, their tool was too short ! Still a man was unbalanced and fell off on two of his comrades, the group collapsing in a tangle of arms and legs.
Already a head was appearing on the parapet, only to be crushed by the mace of a defender, the leather cap used as a helmet by the assaillant no protection from the heavy iron head of the weapon. That man too fell backward, taking the next in line with him in his fall, although this time the falling men did not crush any comrade.
Using his stick as a kind of headless spear, Mynasian tried to unbalance another man, who jumped on the parapet instead, only to meet the point of a sword which carried through his leather jerkin, spraying blood and causing for a foul smell to rise. Yet already another man was at the head of the ladder…
Slowly the press became too much the for the few defenders, and the strange men managed to get on the parapet, a small pocket that had to be crushed at all price. Six men then arrived, led by the commander himself, to help Mynasian and the men with him contain the barbarians. One of the original defender was on the ground, dead, being trampled under the feets of the fighters, while another one had left the fight, his face cut by a blade, one eye pierced, intense pain making him schriek and unable to keep on fighting…
The main chance of the defender was that they were better armored than their opponents, wearing either chain or scale mail, but while it protected them from hits that disabled their enemies it was also heavy and tiring. Still they did not seem to feel the weight on their shoulders and arms as they kept wielding their swords, axes and maces…
Suddenly a small gate leading into the next tower opened and let four other defenders rush the back of the enemy. Throwing themselves in the melee, they managed to reach the ladder where one of them killed another assaillant before using his axe to split a number of rungs, exposing himself to deadly arrows but managing to cause enough damage for the hastily built ladder to break. Yet the courageous man would not enjoy the success for, pierced by at least a dozen arrows, he fell forward, taking three men with him on his way down where his bones were crushed by the impact with the rocky ground.
Still his action had turned the small battle on the parapet and now the surviving barbarians were being killed, six of them dying at the price of another defender dead and one too wounded to fight. Still the assault was not finished, two other ladders had managed to disgorge enough soldiers to make a small foothold in the fortress, so six of the exhausted defenders, including Mynasian, rushed to the next spot.
Here too the fighting was ferocious, and Mynasian knew that some of the sights would give him nightmares for a long time if he survived long enough to sleep… A man’s teeths went flying tanks to a well placed sword slash that also cut through his jaw, while another fell inside the courtyard of the fortress after a mace hit him in the knee, his flight down to heart seeming never to end until the sickening sound of broken bones resounded, unheard in the din of battle, as he touched the ground.
Finally the last enemy on the walls was killed, and the fighting was over, at least for the day. The price paid had been high, twelve soldiers and twenty civilians had been killed, four soldiers and fifteen civilians being too wounded to fight. At this rate they would be able to repel one or two more such assaults before succumbing, and it was not the losses they had caused to their foes, around a hundred men, that would stop them, for there were thousands of them...
Illustration from a Xth century manuscript of the "Historia Caucasiana" by the famed historian Lucius Aenius of Trapezon
Vultures’ keep, Armenian kingdom, Caucasus mountains, April 248
Mynasian was tired, Mynasian was terrified, Mynasian was fighting. He and a hundred other soldiers were on the walls, alongside some three hundred civilians who had seeked refuge inside the powerful walls of the city. Luckily the Scythians had not yet had the opportunity to go around the wall and this meant supplies could still be gathered and reinforcements hoped for.
Two young boys had been sent with urgent messages calling for the prompt sending of reinforcements, but Mynasian knew chances of reinforcements to arrive on time were slim. Not only because they were based a few days away, and would take a few days to assemble anyway before they could walk to the succours of the fortress. But he also knew that this invasion was probably not isolated, the other fortresses were probably also being besieged and calling for help, if they had not yet fallen.
Luckily the Scythians had been spotted early enough that the garrisons of the watch towers had had time to ride their horses back to the main keep, doubling the standing garrison. As they had arrived they had been sent to bed to sleep before taking the night vigil, a smart move by the commander that had allowed them to be fresh when time had come to repulse an hasty night assault by the plain dwellers.
A number of peasants had also been able to reach the safety of the walls, the rest being mostly hunted for sport by young warriors looking for easy blood : many had seen the heads of their friends paraded by arrogant scythians in front of the wall, at least until a well aimed ballista shoot had decapitated a cocky young barbarian.
All knew that there would be no pity, no chance of survival if such wild beasts breached the walls. This gave a fire to everyone defending the fortress that kept them moving despite the tiredness. It was now the second day of the siege, and the fourth assault.
After the first night attack led by a small party of courageous men using a rope to climb the wall, the enemy had tried to approach the gate with a large trunk which they intended to use as a ram against the wooden doors. They had soon left under the heavy arrow and ballista fire shot from the towers and walls, not without leaving a number of men dead behind them. The roofed parapet of the crenelated wall and the good design of the towers’ embrasures meant that the defenders were well protected from enemy fire while the Scythians had to walk through difficult and naked ground before reaching the fortress.
Yet the attempt had made the commander of the fortress curse : it was not the Scythian way to attack in this manner, something was not right. His instincts were proved correct during the third assault when the Scythians attacked using shields made of silk on a light frame to deflect the defenders’ arrows. Multiple layers of silk were an efficient way to protect oneself and the shields were well adapted to the Scythians way of living, being light and easy to put together or dismantle for travelling. It also did not need huge amounts of rare wood…
That assault had come to the foot of the walls and of the gate, but here too the barbarians had been repelled thanks to boiling water thrown on the attackers through the pergolae : the machiculations allowed to drop many sorts of contents on top of the attacker, and the water was good to either make the enemy shields too heavy or to scald any exposed flesh…
But more than the shields what had proved the commander’s hunch was the presence in the Scythian command group of five horsemen who could only be Parthian cataphractoi. The attack was visibly part of a larger plan, and that was bad news for the defenders because it meant reinforcements were probably not forthcoming…
Now the fourth attack was incoming, differing from the previous ones by the fact that the Scythians had built large ladders that would allow them to climb the walls and overwhelm their foes. Walking under the protection of silk shields, the ladder-carriers progressed slowly but rather safely toward the wall : only the ballistae managed to do any damages. A lucky hit had even broken one of the ladders, but a dozen more were still incoming…
Gritting his teeths, Mynasian touched once more the hilt of his sword to get some comfort from the weapons’ presence. His first weapon however would be a piece of wood designed to push the ladder from the wall, preferably with a few Scythians on it so that in their fall they may crush some of their fellows. Near him two other men were similarly equipped while two others carried maces and axes. Together they were responsible for the defense of a dozen meters of walls…
The attackers were clearly not scythians horsemen. Were they slaves ? In any case they did not wear the traditional scythian clothes, nor were they Parthians. In fact they did not look like any man Mynasian had ever seen : their skin did not have the right tone, it seemed yellowish, and their face was strange.
They were courageous, or maybe just too fearful of their masters because they kept going on, despite the losses from the ballistae and the occasional arrow… Finally they arrived at the wall, struggling to raise their ladders. A group a bit further had laid its ladder too low and they were now struggling to push it closer to the wall to gain the necessary reach. Another was clearly too short for its task… But the one in Mynasian’s section was of the right size and place at the right spot and half a dozen men were already starting the climb, a knife in the mouth and a sword in one hand…
Pushing his stick against the top rung of the ladder, the young man tried to push the weight off the wall and cause it to fall. Two of his fellow defenders helped him, but unfortunately they could not give the ladder enough momentum, their tool was too short ! Still a man was unbalanced and fell off on two of his comrades, the group collapsing in a tangle of arms and legs.
Already a head was appearing on the parapet, only to be crushed by the mace of a defender, the leather cap used as a helmet by the assaillant no protection from the heavy iron head of the weapon. That man too fell backward, taking the next in line with him in his fall, although this time the falling men did not crush any comrade.
Using his stick as a kind of headless spear, Mynasian tried to unbalance another man, who jumped on the parapet instead, only to meet the point of a sword which carried through his leather jerkin, spraying blood and causing for a foul smell to rise. Yet already another man was at the head of the ladder…
Slowly the press became too much the for the few defenders, and the strange men managed to get on the parapet, a small pocket that had to be crushed at all price. Six men then arrived, led by the commander himself, to help Mynasian and the men with him contain the barbarians. One of the original defender was on the ground, dead, being trampled under the feets of the fighters, while another one had left the fight, his face cut by a blade, one eye pierced, intense pain making him schriek and unable to keep on fighting…
The main chance of the defender was that they were better armored than their opponents, wearing either chain or scale mail, but while it protected them from hits that disabled their enemies it was also heavy and tiring. Still they did not seem to feel the weight on their shoulders and arms as they kept wielding their swords, axes and maces…
Suddenly a small gate leading into the next tower opened and let four other defenders rush the back of the enemy. Throwing themselves in the melee, they managed to reach the ladder where one of them killed another assaillant before using his axe to split a number of rungs, exposing himself to deadly arrows but managing to cause enough damage for the hastily built ladder to break. Yet the courageous man would not enjoy the success for, pierced by at least a dozen arrows, he fell forward, taking three men with him on his way down where his bones were crushed by the impact with the rocky ground.
Still his action had turned the small battle on the parapet and now the surviving barbarians were being killed, six of them dying at the price of another defender dead and one too wounded to fight. Still the assault was not finished, two other ladders had managed to disgorge enough soldiers to make a small foothold in the fortress, so six of the exhausted defenders, including Mynasian, rushed to the next spot.
Here too the fighting was ferocious, and Mynasian knew that some of the sights would give him nightmares for a long time if he survived long enough to sleep… A man’s teeths went flying tanks to a well placed sword slash that also cut through his jaw, while another fell inside the courtyard of the fortress after a mace hit him in the knee, his flight down to heart seeming never to end until the sickening sound of broken bones resounded, unheard in the din of battle, as he touched the ground.
Finally the last enemy on the walls was killed, and the fighting was over, at least for the day. The price paid had been high, twelve soldiers and twenty civilians had been killed, four soldiers and fifteen civilians being too wounded to fight. At this rate they would be able to repel one or two more such assaults before succumbing, and it was not the losses they had caused to their foes, around a hundred men, that would stop them, for there were thousands of them...
Illustration from a Xth century manuscript of the "Historia Caucasiana" by the famed historian Lucius Aenius of Trapezon
Hecatee
Donor
They are Scythians with a few Sassanid "consultant", part of the larger Sassanid invasion plan, the update later today will give you the broader picture
On the shore of the Chaour, near Susa, Parthian Kingdom, April 248
Hecatee
Donor
On the shore of the Chaour, near Susa, Parthian Kingdom, April 248
Varham the first, shahanshah, looked as his army crossed the Chaour river. Ten thousand horsemen, a third of them cataphractoi, and thirty thousand infantrymen formed the core of the Parthian kingdom’s forces, reinforced by a number of allies and mercenaries : twenty thousand scythian cavalry and, for the first time in centuries, a hundred war elephants recruited in far off India. The beasts were terrifying and made horses bolt if they were not used to their smell, something on which the parthian generals counted.
On that side things had gone better than expected. News of his recruiting of a force to attack the Romans had travelled like wildfire on the great plains, to the point that he had had to refuse warriors for his main attack and had been able to arrange for three more attacks on the Empire’s borders as far as the Euxine sea shore and the Caucasus : ten thousand tribesmen would raid the lands around the Tysia river in the west, ten thousand more would try to force the Caucasus defenses and would in any case prevent the Armenian dogs to send reinforcements to their masters, and fifteen thousand more mounted archers would attack from the north of his Parthia, south of the Caspian sea, directly into Gordiene, with the goal of cutting the roads coming from Syria, hopefully preventing any reinforcement to come to the help of the two southern Mesopotamian legions which he intended to attack with his main force.
Parthian generals had been seconded to each of the barbarian host to make sure they adhered to the general strategy of the campaign : none was to engaged in set battles, all were to keep raiding, moving around to fast to be fixed, dancing around the legions, brushing away their cavalry piecemeal, leaving them defenceless or forcing them into sieges where heat and hunger would be the main allies of the Parthians.
His army would make for Babylon while a few thousand scythians would move south toward the port and legionary fortress of the region with orders to bottle them in their fortress or destroy them with harassment techniques should they decide to still come to the help of the besieged Babylon.
The armies of Parthia were on the warpath, death and destruction walking with them, hungry for Roman blood…
Varham the first, shahanshah, looked as his army crossed the Chaour river. Ten thousand horsemen, a third of them cataphractoi, and thirty thousand infantrymen formed the core of the Parthian kingdom’s forces, reinforced by a number of allies and mercenaries : twenty thousand scythian cavalry and, for the first time in centuries, a hundred war elephants recruited in far off India. The beasts were terrifying and made horses bolt if they were not used to their smell, something on which the parthian generals counted.
On that side things had gone better than expected. News of his recruiting of a force to attack the Romans had travelled like wildfire on the great plains, to the point that he had had to refuse warriors for his main attack and had been able to arrange for three more attacks on the Empire’s borders as far as the Euxine sea shore and the Caucasus : ten thousand tribesmen would raid the lands around the Tysia river in the west, ten thousand more would try to force the Caucasus defenses and would in any case prevent the Armenian dogs to send reinforcements to their masters, and fifteen thousand more mounted archers would attack from the north of his Parthia, south of the Caspian sea, directly into Gordiene, with the goal of cutting the roads coming from Syria, hopefully preventing any reinforcement to come to the help of the two southern Mesopotamian legions which he intended to attack with his main force.
Parthian generals had been seconded to each of the barbarian host to make sure they adhered to the general strategy of the campaign : none was to engaged in set battles, all were to keep raiding, moving around to fast to be fixed, dancing around the legions, brushing away their cavalry piecemeal, leaving them defenceless or forcing them into sieges where heat and hunger would be the main allies of the Parthians.
His army would make for Babylon while a few thousand scythians would move south toward the port and legionary fortress of the region with orders to bottle them in their fortress or destroy them with harassment techniques should they decide to still come to the help of the besieged Babylon.
The armies of Parthia were on the warpath, death and destruction walking with them, hungry for Roman blood…
Hecatee
Donor
That would be this river, in modern-day eastern Hungary.
Yes. In fact it is the northern area of that river that is under attack, as well as the Pruth, by roving bands of scythians each more than a thousand men strong and intent on looting and capturing slaves, but this is not an invasion. Of course it does cause troubles and may prevent sending as much reinforcements as were in the last Mesopotamian war during the rule of Marcus Aurelius.
Thank you for the clarity, I missed that information on the first reading.
By the virtue of having the border more firmly fixed further east than OTL, I expect Rome to be able to overcome this challenge (especially with less distraction in the West). This Rome also seems to be continuing its ability to adapt and implement reforms when new tactics and technologies become relevant (the increased communication abilities on a wide front against a mobile force are especially going to be a god-send in this regard).
OTL even in times of great internal crisis, Rome was still able to offer serious resistance on the Eastern borders (even when completely taken by surprise and led by idiots). The increased standardisation of training will ITL will be very important in avoiding the worst of the problems they faced in real life. You also implied in an earlier post that the Romans were well aware of the upcoming invasion and have been making preparations accordingly.
I don't think it will be easy for the Romans, but I do believe the shahanshah to be overconfident and will soon come to learn his mistake that you do not provoke the Roman eagle without accounting for the sharpness of its talons.
Hecatee
Donor
True enough, although the Shah's effort is exceptionnaly wide : he's well understood that concentration of force by the Romans means the death of any attempt on his side, so he needs to prevent any Roman consolidation and transfert of reinforcements from further West. He's thus trying to fix the Romans in eastern Europe, prevent intervention by their ally Armenia, cut the main supply route through what is now Kurdistan, and destroy in details the two legions in Mesopotamia and their auxiliaries, some 30 000 troops, with his main army which is not that much larger (only some 50 000 men in the main trust, but while the cavalry is superb the quality of the infantry has never been tested against Romans).
Still the plan is ambitious and the success of his call for mercenaries and volunteers on the steppes is impressive and should cause troubles to the Romans if they were relying on OTL tech level.
Very valid points for sure. This will be a tricky test for the Romans but the advantages that they have always enjoyed have been magnified in this timeline as opposed to beginning their decline. I expect the following to be key;
- Military Professionalism - In OTL there was no shortage of conflicts for officers to cut their teeth, but you have increased the effectiveness of this point by highlighting in depth that this experience is now feeding into each other in a more standardized way. You will of course still have great variations in the skill level of the army and it's officers, but the median average has increased which will have positive butterflies in the military challenges the Romans will face.
- Technological Advancement - I highlighted above the key improvements to various technologies that you have described in your posts such as in communication. You have also described improvements in tactics and other military technologies. In OTL, the Romans were notorious for their adaptability. In particular, the improvements to cavalry should prove pretty decisive in a conflict requiring greater maneuverability for defense.
- Internal Stability - In OTL even in the most trying of times Rome was always a danger. Remove some of the factors that led to this instability (such as your creating of a more stable succession system) and the ability of Rome to focus all of it's attention to it's Eastern borders will be a very frightening prospect when they do not have to worry about its internal, Western, or Northern flanks. Mitigating the problems of the migrations will also be huge.
- Better Economy - It is not all sunshine and roses (you have implied problems down the line when the gold mines run dry) but you have taking great care to show the benefits of a more integrated empire in laying the groundwork of a proto-industrial revolution. This also ties in with the technological advancements as they very closely support each other.
- Population - It's a fact that at their height, no-one could seriously challenge the Romans (possibly Serica, but they're the other side of the world) and that was partly because of how huge the empire truly was. Although historians argue over how bad an impact the various plagues had on the Romans, even at their best interpretation they were pretty devastating. Increased population = more manpower which is never a bad thing in a war.
I have to echo everyone's sentiments and state that you have done a wonderful job of showing these changes in a realistic way that does not come across as a "Rome wins forever, the end". They will face set backs for sure and I am excited to see how the war plays out.
Quick question that may actually be addressed in future updates, but what is the ideal goal of the Shah from this conflict?
Hecatee
Donor
Thanks for the thoughtful post and the positive comment on this timeline.
I would say that you got our Romans quite well pegged out. And yes all of those elements are essential characteristics of our empire as it now stands. I'd just add one element to your analysis : while I've recently said that naval exploration is more limited that some would have thought, the naval option has become an option in the mindset of the Romans in ways that it has not been since the 2nd century BC : I've already foreshadowed some elements about how it might come into play...
About the end goal of the Shah, he has two main goals :
1) reinforce his position and legitimity by taking back important persian/parthian land. He does not hope to get back to the 5th century BC's borders, he knows the Empire is too powerful, but hopes to eject them back west of the Tigris and Euphrate rivers.
2) The Shah understands that sea trade is now important, and that capturing southern Mesopotamia is important to secure such trade, and also that it will help him re-establish the land trade through the Parthian empire if he gets some important depot-city west of the Iranian plateau
Thank you for the clarity. Essentially taking a stab at giving a black eye to a long time enemy for not only economic gain but to shore up his own internal position. If it pays off, it will provide it's own dividends but if not, this may lead to much more instability. However, the Shah seems like he falls on the competent side of political leaders so even if defeated I don't know if this will be the last we see of him (depending of course on the scale of defeat).
You make some very good points about the naval potential of Rome. I always really like the realistic portrayal of the Jewish in your TL and it warms my heart to see them still thrive in the new roles they have found for themselves as facilitators of naval trade. On the short term, they seemed to be worse off but they could potentially carve out for themselves a successful niche as the Diaspora takes to the seas (it also helps that Jewish communities exist around the classical world in many diverse locations, especially after the policies of Hadrian). I don't know how far east they have made it at this point in history, but it would be make sense for them to hedge their experience with their trade networks to become the gatekeepers to the East.
I could see the equivalent of the Zionist movement in this timeline taking the form of a naval empire with Venetian/Portuguese style naval ports in key strategic locations for trade, combined with settler colonies in areas with key resources. The true gatekeepers of the East (which would solidify earlier naval trade networks between east and west for sure).
The Shah's betting the nation on this attack.
The sheer number of armies, the amount of logistics required, the amount of money spent on all that, plus bribing the Scythian 'volunteers'.
If he succeeds, he may shore up his political situation at home, in the short term, but he's got to have gutted the nation's treasury in the process, and he's got to have conscripted just about every wagon and cart in the western half of his country.
If those don't come back, his economy is screwed.
I can see him succeeding in all his tactical goals, and infuriating the Romans in the process. Can we say Carthage? Parthica delenda esse?
With the Romans' bigger Empire, better transport and communications, and tech, the Parthians may achieve all their stated goals (against the smallish forces in place), and get cut off and crushed.
Trying to supply his forces with supply lines running across the Zagros range? Have fun.
Once the Roman reinforcements arrive, they can circumvallate each captured city, and starve out the garrisons.
The Parthians aren't going to have the reserves or logistics to relieve those beleaguered cities.
IMO
The sheer number of armies, the amount of logistics required, the amount of money spent on all that, plus bribing the Scythian 'volunteers'.
If he succeeds, he may shore up his political situation at home, in the short term, but he's got to have gutted the nation's treasury in the process, and he's got to have conscripted just about every wagon and cart in the western half of his country.
If those don't come back, his economy is screwed.
I can see him succeeding in all his tactical goals, and infuriating the Romans in the process. Can we say Carthage? Parthica delenda esse?
With the Romans' bigger Empire, better transport and communications, and tech, the Parthians may achieve all their stated goals (against the smallish forces in place), and get cut off and crushed.
Trying to supply his forces with supply lines running across the Zagros range? Have fun.
Once the Roman reinforcements arrive, they can circumvallate each captured city, and starve out the garrisons.
The Parthians aren't going to have the reserves or logistics to relieve those beleaguered cities.
IMO
Oh, and the Scythian attacks might, just might, get Rome to deal with THAT threat, once they've trashed the Parthians.
Hecatee
Donor
In fact the cost is much lower than you would think. The western and Caucasus attacks are "free", purely scythian initiative (at Parthian suggestion) by those not able/willing/allowed to take part in the 2 Mespotamian attacks, and payement for those 2 was minimal and largely to the leaders only, with a cost of some grain stockpile to feed the troops.
The main Parthian army is in large part "feodal" in nature (as it was OTL), and its most pricey itemm.are the 100 war elephants...
As for logistics, it is mainly horse and camel borne, but horseflesh is indeed somewhat rare in Parthia at the moment. Yet a catastrophic defeat would not mean a catastrophe for the economy.
About the Parthians : yes a huge gamble and their official comeback on the international stage, but a calculated risk.
About the Jews, while my TL is obviously a monotheism screw, yes they are thriving but lack a main base for becoming a new Venice.
They can't do anything besides crush the incursions themselves. The scythians will always be more mobile than the Romans, and can simply melt back into the endless steppe once beaten.
Donald Reaver
Donor
While I agree with that at this time, there will be a time when this Rome can start projecting power out. Losing a legion or more is bad but replaceable in a year more or less the Empire can handle that. Losing a steppe army stands to destroy that alliance/people as they have others under them or behind them. The steppe is vast but not endless.