The Roman–Persian Wars were a series of conflicts between states of the
Greco-Roman world and two successive Iranian empires. Contact between
Parthia and the Roman Republic began in 92 BC; wars began under the
late Republic, and continued through the Roman and Sassanid empires.
Although warfare between the Romans and the Iranians lasted for seven
centuries, the frontier remained largely stable. Neither side had the
logistical strength or manpower to maintain such lengthy campaigns so
far from their borders, and thus neither could advance too far without
risking stretching their frontiers too thin. Both sides did make
conquests beyond the border, but the balance was almost always restored
in time. The resources expended during the Roman–Persian Wars
ultimately proved catastrophic for both empires. The prolonged and
escalating warfare of the sixth and seventh centuries left them
exhausted and vulnerable in the face of the sudden emergence and
expansion of the Caliphate, whose forces invaded both empires only a
few years after the end of the last Roman–Persian war. Arab Muslim
armies swiftly conquered the entire Sassanid Empire, and deprived the
Eastern Roman Empire of its territories in the Levant, the Caucasus,
Egypt, and the rest of North Africa. Over the following centuries, most
of the Byzantine Empire came under Muslim rule.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman%E2%80%93Persian_Wars>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1587:
Mary I, Queen of Scots was executed at Fotheringhay Castle for her
involvement in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Elizabeth I of
England.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_I_of_Scotland>
1879:
At a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute, engineer and inventor
Sandford Fleming first proposed the adoption of worldwide standard time
zones based on a single universal world time.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandford_Fleming>
1904:
The Russo-Japanese War began with a surprise torpedo attack by the
Japanese on Russian ships near present-day Lüshunkou, China.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Japanese_War>
1910:
Newspaper man and magazine publisher William D. Boyce established the
Boy Scouts of America, expanding the Scout Movement into the United
States.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_D._Boyce>
1915:
Film director D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation was released,
becoming one of the most influential and controversial films in the
history of American cinema.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_a_Nation>
1969:
The Allende meteorite, the largest carbonaceous chondrite ever found on
Earth, fell near Allende, Chihuahua, Mexico.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allende_meteorite>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
supplant (v):
1. To take the place of; to replace, to supersede.
2. To uproot, to remove violently
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/supplant>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Man's constitution is so peculiar that his health is purely a negative
matter. No sooner is the rage of hunger appeased than it becomes
difficult to comprehend the meaning of starvation. It is only when you
suffer that you really understand.
--Jules Verne
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jules_Verne>