Sasanian Persia
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The Sasanian Empire (third-seventh centuries) was one of the largest empires of antiquity, stretching from Mesopotamia to modern Pakistan and from Central Asia to the Arabian Peninsula. This mega-empire withstood powerful opponents in the steppe and expanded further in Late Antiquity, whilst the Roman world shrunk in size. Recent research has revealed the reasons for this success, notably population growth in some key territories, economic prosperity and urban development, made possible through investment in agriculture and military infrastructure on a scale unparalleled in the late antique world. Our volume explores the empire’s relations with its neighbours and key phenomena which contributed to its wealth and power, from the empire’s armed forces to agriculture, trade and treatment of minorities. The latest discoveries, notably major urban foundations, fortifications and irrigations systems, feature prominently. An empire whose military might and urban culture rivalled Rome and foreshadowed the caliphate will be of interest to scholars of the Roman and Islamic world.
Eberhard Sauer is Professor of Roman Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, having previously taught at the Universities of Leicester and Oxford. He has directed excavations in Britain as well as, jointly with colleagues in Iran and Georgia, fieldwork on the Great Wall of Gorgan and the Sasanian fort in Dariali Gorge in the Caucasus. He is the author of The End of Paganism in the North-Western Provinces of the Roman Empire (1996), The Archaeology of Religious Hatred in the Roman and early medieval world (2003) and Coins, cult and cultural identity: Augustan Coins, Hot Springs and the Early Roman Baths at Bourbonne-les-Bains (2005). He is co-author of Linear Earthwork, Tribal Boundary and Ritual Beheading (2005) and Persia’s Imperial Power in Late Antiquity (2009). He is co-editor of Archaeology and Ancient History: Breaking Down the Boundaries (2004).