PC: Parthia wank

[GauchoBadger]

How plausible is it for the Parthian Empire, which suceeded the Seleucid Empire and preceded the Sassanian Empire, to become a power comparable or at least almost comparable to Rome when it comes to its territory and military prowess?
I was thinking about Parthia managing to keep a hold of Armenia, eastern Anatolia, and Syria. Which borders are both the biggest and most stable for this wanked Parthia?

 

[Indicus]

The biggest problem with Parthia is that the Kushan Empire and Rome, both quite powerful empires, exist on both of its sides. Such circumstances are hardly optimal for Parthia. Have Bactria defeat the Kushan tribes, and have Rome fall to some instability, and the Parthians could become quite powerful.

 

[GauchoBadger]

The biggest problem with Parthia is that the Kushan Empire and Rome, both quite powerful empires, exist on both of its sides. Such circumstances are hardly optimal for Parthia. Have Bactria defeat the Kushan tribes, and have Rome fall to some instability, and the Parthians could become quite powerful.

I heard that there was an indo-parthian kingdom located in OTL Afghanistan and Pakistan, which was a close ally of Parthia proper. Would having it survive be enough to keep Parthia's eastern flank secure for them to focus on capturing the Roman Empire's eastern territories?
I also heard that the chinese sought an alliance with Parthia against the Xiongnu yet didn't manage to convince the parthians when they sent a diplomatic envoy.

 

[John7755 يوحنا]

I heard that there was an indo-parthian kingdom located in OTL Afghanistan and Pakistan, which was a close ally of Parthia proper. Would having it survive be enough to keep Parthia's eastern flank secure for them to focus on capturing the Roman Empire's eastern territories?
I also heard that the chinese sought an alliance with Parthia against the Xiongnu yet didn't manage to convince the parthians when they sent a diplomatic envoy.

Well, in most cases, Iranian-Chinese alliances are not worthwhile and are only symbolic. Technically, the Tang Dynasty was to assist the Sassanids against the Arab armies, yet did no such thing and in a way, arriving some 100 years later in its own conquests.

In short, the Parthians would gain nothing going head first into the steppe tribes to its north and would likely be in for a beating once they tried. The tribes to their north were very, very fearsome and their successors would soon learn that with the rise of the Hepthalites and Huns and myriad other groups.

Further, there is not just the Kushan... Assuming Parthia survives long enough, they also will have to contend with the Hepthalites and the Gupta to its east.

 

[SlyDessertFox]

This is tricky. The most obvious way is to get Rome out of the picture. The problem with that is, Roman intervention in the east is arguably what weakened the Seleucid Empire enough in the first place to where the Parthians could roll them over. Without the Romans, the Seleucid Empire will be much stronger (think of what Antiochus III could do without Roman interference), and likely able to prevent any significant Parthian gains at the very least, and possibly reverse them in time. But then the Romans, at that point, are unlikely to not expand into the east themselves, and pound for pound, they will almost always be able to check any Parthia expansion further west.

So the solution is to get Rome to collapse, or at least severely debilitate them, between the 180s BCE and 60 BCE. The most obvious way to do that is around the mid-late Republic, during and slightly after the Cimbrian Wars. You had a lot of things happening either simultaneously or in quick succession; the Cimbrian War, the Social War, the Roman civil war, the Mithradatic War, the Spartacus revolt, more civil war (Sertorius in Spain). You could make a lethal cocktail of any of those (the Cimbrian War is a particularly potent POD), and shatter Roman hegemony in the east, if not actually destroy the Roman state. From there, it wouldn't be too implausibe for the Parthians to eventually fill in the vacuum, though they'd probably have to deal with strong Pontic and Armenian states. These could be overcome though, in a way the Romans probably could not.

Beyond that, you have to have Parthia develop a more centralized political system, otherwise this empire is going to be even more unstable than the OTL Parthian Empire was.