To say that Rome and Parthia were destined to clash is less than innovatory. In addition, it must be pointed out that, in this reading, Sampson strikes notes already struck many times before in previous scholarship. Perhaps too often Sampson tends to skip quickly over details indicative less of an inevitability of conflict than of a potentially more progressive streak in Romano-Parthian relations. Such coherence, however, can also be a liability. In this aim, Sampson also meets with success, providing a sustained, coherent analysis of the growth of and interactions between these empires before, during, and after the battle of Carrhae. Their fateful confrontation materialized with Crassus’s invasion of the Parthian empire, which resulted in an engagement at Carrhae that would inaugurate a dominant tradition of Romano-Parthian war. Hence a primary argument is that the expansion of the Roman and Parthian empires made conflict between Rome and Parthia inevitable. He seeks to explore and articulate the significance of Carrhae in the broader context of the history of Rome, Parthia, and their relations. Yet Sampson aims to offer more than a merely engaging and lucid reconstruction of the battle itself - a reconstruction, incidentally, that he brings off to great effect. For those with a taste for military history, Gareth Sampson’s study of the clash of Rome and Parthia at the battle of Carrhae will be a welcome addition to the corpus of modern scholarship.

Rome total war parthians