Illuminating video. Indeed, the parallels between historic conflicts between Persia and the west and the current conflicts between Iran and the west under the leadership of the U.S are fascinating.
If people only knew who the Parthians really were, they would understand why they are almost never mentioned in our western history books...go Parthia!
@@nomfundomdluli1544 parthian were tall and handsome people with brown hair and almost big nose (not alot) and they were skillfull in archery and horse riding beacause of their life style since they born now kurdish and balouchis are look like them
I agree with the people in the comments asking for longer lecture videos on this topic and so does Vesta. She ended this video by wishing people would know more about the Parthian influence on history. So @BritishMusuem, I think we're all excited to hear her speak 😎👍
Parthians were a very influential group in history. It might be interesting to know that Modern Persian bas A LOT of words that have their origins in Parthian (as well as Pashtun, Baluch and other langs)
Chuck Iringtwice been there twice, still wanna go again. I mean yeah, they essentially stole most of their stuff and refuse to give it back, but damn if it’s not interesting
but why aren't those videos longer :/ I know you're prob trying to attract avarage youtube users with very short attention spans but the subjects are niche anyway and I think the target audience would appreciate longer videos (12-15 min at least) or maybe it's because you're just an addition to the British Museum and the youtube chanel is simply a commercial expansion tool or it's a budget thing idk. I would love longer videos, even 1 hour lectures would be great
Crassus wasn’t killed in the battle, he was killed at the peace negotiations after the Roman’s retreated into a nearby town. This is one of the reasons that the parthians are always depicted as being sort of scruffy/sketchy/untrustworthy
The myth of Greece, Alexander the Great, Rome are clouding not only the Eastern Parthian but even other culture that came before them and I'm not speaking of Egypt, the Fertile Crescent, and Jewish of which we are often reminded, but the rest of people living in these areas. Culture that are classified as tribes, or barbaric.
Between the defeat suffered at the hands of the parthians in 53 BC and the parthians giving back the standarts, there were confrontations between the romans and the parthians that might have influenced that decision. In 39 BC the pathians tried to invade the roman province of syria and cillicia under the ex-roman general and former second hand of julius ceasar in the gallic wars Labienus, who back in 49 BC took the pompean side in the civil war, and the parthian prince Pacorus. To counter the parthian attack 11 Legions under the General Publius Ventidius Bassus were dispatched and soundly defeated the roman/parthian army under Labienus, who died. After another victory of the romans in the amanus mountain range by the romans against the retreating parthians Pacorus pulled back. He attacked once again and was once again defeated by Bassus at a mount in Syria. Pacorus death shook the parthian empire and lead to the intronisation of phraates IV. In 36 BC Mark Anthony attacked the parthians with an army, said to have numbered 100.000 men, via the kingdom of Armenia. The mobile army of the parthians managed to attack his supply train also containing the siege equipment. SO Antony was froced back, but was able to fend off 18 parthian attacks. These battles are crucial to understand the peace treaty.
Nitpicking. Every time the Persians show counter heavy defeats upon their western enemies, some eurocentric skunk reveals its face to make excuses about minor 'successes' that never amounted to anything. The Parthians decimated the Romans. So did the Sassanids. Accept the truth. Trust me, it will harm you, child.
Friedrich Schopfheim Those defeats did amount to something, Orodes’ abdication or are you simply passing it off as nothing? I love it when Westerners study defeats like these and discuss them and Parthaboos come to the comment section celebrating such victories and then claim the West can’t accept such defeats. But you’ll never see them talk about the Battle of Dara, Odaenathus or Bassus.
They probably didn't care because they did the same with Rome at home. It's just propaganda and you already know it's gonna happen. Certainly they didn't cry about it on Twitter calling teh romans racist like people would do today.
@@golDroger88 well, we are not trying to live up to romes standards, with all the bloodsport and slavery. btw, do you think racist stuff still hapens in the states?
@@qwertyman1511 Ah, yes, the Parthians, such a long lasting and influential civilization. Bloodsports and slaves are probably the main reasons why Rome lasted as long as it did. Jokes aside, I obviously respect the Parthians but you've got to put things into perspective. The States are definitely not a racist country, generally speaking individuals have the same opportunities. Many people all around the world discriminate for various reasons, that's not gonna change any time soon.
4:30 Crassus was not killed in battled (although his son was). Crassuss was surrendered by his demoralised men, he was humiliated and was the executed and his severed head was further humiliated. Also, this is one of the great battles of History. Please don’t clickbait the title and then not really talk about the battle. Don’t get me wrong, it was an interesting video otherwise.
Did the Parthians get some sort of tax for passing through their territory in return for the standards? I can understand putting a spin on it for the Romans as a win, but surely they didn't just return the standards for nothing?
Well the battle of Carrhae was on of the three major disasters that befell the Roman army: The others were Teutoburger Wald in 6 AD and the Bar Kochbah revolt in Palestine 132 AD. Each time 3 legions were destoyed - anilliated - XII, XIII, XIX were never heard of again except for Germanicus retrieval of the Standards. It was not unheard of that a legion was destroyed; but 3 in one campaign - that was really earthshaking. That of course does not take vexilliations and associates of Rome, that would have suffered as well. The battle of Carrhae was notable not so much for the persian bowmen; but for the fact that the supply train brought up more arrows. The bowmen actually stayed away from the hand to hand fighting and picked the heavy Roman infantry off from a fairly close distance - and got away - only to return immediately after.
Shouldn’t Cannae be the first one and make it four? Since the battle reduced Rome’s population by 25% and costed it two Consuls. Germany lost 9% of its population after WW1 and was devastated so imagine how bad Rome was when Hannibal had beaten them. Just saying.
Parthians and the sassanids defeated Rome many many many times it was like a fun thing for Persians and one f a Persian King turned a roman emperor into a footstool to climb on him to his horse and in the 7th century the Persian conquered Egypt from Rome and almost entire middle east and many parts of Africa but it was returned due to a peace treaty so Persians were a threat to Romans but Romans were not a threat to Persians because they could easily defeat them and we know history from European point of view that's why Rome is overrated
According to Chinese history books. China has traded with Rome called Silk Road at that time. Because of so many obstacles including Parthia and Hun in the middle of Asia. It was hard to start commerce until Arabic Empire was established. Then the Silk Road began thriving from China to Venice .
sorry but even Alexander could not raise the profile of the Parthians in 8 minutes .. these are like teaser adverts, more substance please from your voluminous vaults. Did they start the caravansari and road networks ? What about their administration and technological prowess ? Etc etc...Where did their genius stem from....
I'm glad you mentioned this. It's a common fallacy in history to believe propaganda. Alexander not only didn't conquer Persia, the cities he did hijack, he couldn't keep. He managed to keep some Persian cities like Babylon that he invaded, but none further East. Pathetic eurocentrism needs to be dealt with. Don't lose hope. We can and will do it! With education and reasoning we will gain the upper hand on those with false, dangerous ideologies.
What makes West different from East is that the descendants of the same Parthians today are a highly persecuted minority forced to live in extrement poverty and are denied justice is all sorts of ways while West has cherished and promoted Rome's culture in all sort of ways giving us its sophisticated image. Its not some other force but East and Iran itself that seriously lacks a more creative way of thinking. It is not West's fault that so many Iranians themselves do not even know who the Parthians were. Are we really sure we are not the barbarians we are thought to be?
Ignorance has many faces. The Parthians returned the Standard because in our (Parthian / Iranian) culture we know how embarrassing it is for a nation and its military when Standards are lost to the enemy. So, after signing the peace treaty with Rome the Iranian (Parthian) King ,ordered the return of the Roman Standard as a goodwill gesture since the Romans had been humiliated and punished enough. Romans tried for a few decades and could not retrieve their Standard by force (military) or political means. Iranians had taken about 10,000 Roman prisoners and put them to work to build roads.... and the high ranking Romans were given homes (under house arrest) and when they said to the captors that they missed their families, Iranians allowed these high ranking officers to invite their families to live with them inside the Iranian empire. The warfare was different those days and Iranians would always wanted to show that they are not only militarily stronger than Rome but also morally superior. During the almost 800 years of when Rome and later Byzantium (Eastern Roman empire) tried they could never decisively defeat the Persian (Iranian) empire. These wars cost a lot of money for both Rome and Iran and weakened their economies and people were really tired of wars and expense. Unfortunately, this weakened state was one of the reasons why when Moslem hordes attacked Iran (after two hundred years fighting) they first defeated Iran and later the Eastern Roman Empire too. I agree with you. Unfortunately the Greek's ethnocentric ignorance has polluted their own understanding as well as passing on this cultural Greek disease to their Roman cousins (believing their own propaganda), something that still exists today, in fact it is uncritically taught in the Western colleges and Universities. By their actions, Iranians (Achaemenid, Parthians, Sassanid) and management of their societies and dealing with their enemies had shown they far more sophisticated than Greeks and Romans combined ever could. In fact, Iranians regard Alexander as Alexander the Destroyer as all he did was to destroy and burn down the Iranian libraries, places of worship, government institutions and Alexander did not leave a single evidence of building cultures, societies.. and that is why Alexander's Satrapies (he tried to imitate the Iranians) failed. So, when in the West people write in their books Alexander the Great, many Iranians laugh and say Great for what? If killing and destruction is the metric, well Alexander excelled at that, but Chengiz Khan or Huns, Mongols were far more efficient destroyers that Alexander ever could. Iranians consider Alexander just like a criminal Mongol warlord that did nothing of value in terms culture, learning and contributing to the betterment of mankind, Alexander was nothing more than a murdering arsonist. Contrast that with when Cyrus the Great entered Babylon...
*_The influence that Persia and the Iranic people had in human history, is so unbelievably great and yet so overlooked. It is incomparable with the influences of Rome and that should say a lot because the romans were extremely influental._* *_I believe this lady is very scared of being called a nationalist since she is herself an ethnic Iranian and because of this she restrains herself from telling the truth about the influence of Iran. It is because Iran that we believe in One God. It is Cyrus the great's dream that we live in today, with freedom of movement, freedom of settlement, freedom of religion and freedom in general. Thomas Jefferson, among many founding fathers of America, had read Cyropedia, a book about Cyrus and the Persian Empire. Three Iranian Magis that visited Jesus' birth. The persian had a say in every minute detail in everyone's lives and yet are overlooked. Western historians are pathetic._*
TOO SHORT. Please do a more complete history of the Parthians. We have seen enough documentaries of the usual Greco Roman propaganda nonsense. Why doesn't the British Museum make a documentary about what you have said.
I dont think its ignored, theres a European bias because most people watching these videos are European or European descendants. Also how could she call the Parthians equal to Rome? Rome sacked Parthias capital many times but parthia was never anywhere close to being withing sight of Rome
Sacking or murdering or winning wars do not prove your strength. It's your sociocultural and language (+intelligence) and their staying powers that prove one nation's true strength. Look at Greece. They won so many battles against the Persians. But the Persians always won the war of civilization against them and all of their opponents. Parthia, Achaemenid Persia, Sassanid Persia, Median Persia, Islamic Persia, neomonarchist Persia and Islamic Republic Persia have always been much more superior socioculturally than the West. Suck it.
Christian Keogh it’s not about my believe but man you just not agreed parthians are equal to romans just because of unfair military options you’re not fair nothing more to discuss i leave you with your nice western believes but i look for the truth
Parthia had several capitals, the others being situated on the Iranian plateau out of reach for the Romans... Ctesiphon was a frontier town in the Mesopotamian valley and could be easily reached just as several Roman frontier towns in the Levant were sacked by the Parthians and Sassanids.
Want to see what the " Parthians " looked , acted like and their level of understanding of the world ? Just go to Afghanistan , Iran, Iraq, Syria today ... they still live in 1st century BC ...
Funny how critical thinking is considered "Socialist" 😂 I like the idea of confronting a European bias... I mean, it's called the "Near East" or "Middle East"... "East" of what? Europe? The center of the universe? Haha... In much of the west, history is always told with a European bias. You barely learn about the rest of the planet's history.
@@ShahriarFarkhan yes, it's very critical of you but not exceptionally thoughtful considering in your own statement you refer to Europe as "the West". West, west of what? China, North Korea, the former Soviet Union, Cambodia, the center...? And stated as if you yourself are unbiased. Also, you yourself should look at the history of socialism in all of the places I listed as well as other places. There is reason to be cautious of the socialist perspective.
@@ezshmee59 Ha, I find it hilarious to read "socialist" in reference to this video... Please read the term in the dictionary to understand what you're saying, literally. The fact that the word "Middle East" is normalized means that my critique is appropriate because it talks of the whole planet as if Europe is the center... The whole concept normalizes something and subtly enforces that... It would be expected if that region were called "Middle East" in the Europe but it makes no sense to call it that in the US because EUROPE is EAST of the US / Americas YET we still call it the "Middle East" No one calls Europe "the east" in the US do they... Hmmm, why would we do that? Why is that normalized? The critique I made stands. "Middle East" has become normalized because the people who created the term lived in Europe or were of European ancestry so Europe was the center of the world. It's okay, every ancient civilization thinks they are the center of the universe ;-) You realize that so much of history and just everything has a European lean? I grew up in the US and schools in the US barely touch on the planet's history. "Ancient History" taught here is the Greeks and maybe some of Egypt... No talk of the Chinese, the Assyrians, the Persians, the Babylonians, or the other numerous ancient civilizations that contributed to the modern world. Why is that? Why call it "Ancient History" when you barely mention the Chinese (or anyone else). By the way, before you refute that, know that I attended one of the "best" public school systems in the US. I loved history so I took every class I could through High School. I didn't learn anything about the rest of the planet till I actually read about it outside of school.
Shahriar Farkhan I’m in an American high school right now in grade ten learning about ancient China and Persia. You are either misconstruing what you learned, took the wrong classes, or are using out of date information.
