Battle of Maranga | |||||||
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Part of Julian's Persian expedition | |||||||
A map of the campaign up to the battle of Samarra | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Eastern Roman Empire | Sassanid Empire | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Julian | Merena | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Minimal | Unknown |
The Battle of Maranga occurred in 363, shortly after the Battle of Ctesiphon. The Romans repelled a Sasanian attack while sustaining minimal losses. [1] However, the army's lack of supplies continued to threaten the army, and soon afterwards the emperor Julian was killed at the Battle of Samarra.
After defeating the Persians in battle on the banks of the Tigris and surrounding the capital, Ctesiphon, Julian soon became convinced of his inability to take the city. The apparent impregnability of Ctesiphon, along with his desire to defeat Shapur the Persian king in battle, resolved Julian to abandon the siege. The river fleet which had accompanied the march of the army was abandoned to the flames, and Julian, relying on the fertility of the country for provisions for the troops, ordered the baggage train to be burnt, only 20 days' supplies being preserved. The army then proceeded inland, guided by native captives, who however took care to supply the emperor with misinformation and faulty councils, while Shapur fired the country, harassed the enemies' scouts, and dexterously eluded his main army. Incapable of forcing a battle, Julian fell back on the Tigris, resolved on a retreat north-westwards to the Roman province of Corduene, before his scanty and rotting provisions should run out. [2]
The Persians, who had assembled a very numerous army, now closed upon the rear of the Romans. Julian's march was continually harassed, and the fighting at Maranga reached the proportions of a battle. Although the Persians were rebuffed and Julian's retreat was enabled to proceed, the losses were considerable on his side as well, and the retardation of his march contributed to weakening the army whose provisions were on the verge of giving out. [3]
The subsequent death of Julian in the action of Samarra, which was similarly a tactical success for the Romans, contributed to lower the morale of the troops, and the emperor Jovian, whom they elected in the camp as Julian's successor, was brought by the threat of famine and the Persian army to conclude a disgraceful peace with Shapur II, conceding all the gains of the treaty of Diocletian (298), and important border fortresses such as Nisibis and Singara, as well. [4]
Valens was Roman emperor from 364 to 378. Following a largely unremarkable military career, he was named co-emperor by his elder brother Valentinian I, who gave him the eastern half of the Roman Empire to rule. In 378, Valens was defeated and killed at the Battle of Adrianople against the invading Goths, which astonished contemporaries and marked the beginning of barbarian encroachment into Roman territory.
The 360s decade ran from January 1, 360, to December 31, 369.
Ctesiphon was an ancient Iranian city, located on the eastern bank of the Tigris, and about 35 kilometres (22 mi) southeast of present-day Baghdad. Ctesiphon served as a royal capital of the Iranian empire in the Parthian and Sasanian eras for over eight hundred years. Ctesiphon was capital of the Sasanian Empire from 226–637 until the Muslim conquest of Persia in 651 AD.
Year 363 (CCCLXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Iulianus and Sallustius. The denomination 363 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
The Battle of Nineveh was the climactic battle of the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628.
Marcus Aurelius Carus was Roman emperor from 282 to 283. During his short reign, Carus fought the Germanic tribes and Sarmatians along the Danube frontier with success.
Shapur II, also known as Shapur the Great, was the tenth Sasanian King of Kings (Shahanshah) of Iran. He took the title at birth and held it until his death at age 70, making him the longest-reigning monarch in Iranian history. He was the son of Hormizd II.
The Battle of Ctesiphon took place on 29 May 363 between the armies of Roman Emperor Julian and an army of the Sasanian Empire outside the walls of the Persian capital Ctesiphon. The battle was a Roman victory, but eventually the Roman forces found themselves unable to continue their campaign as they were too far from their supply lines.
The Roman–Persian Wars, also known as the Roman–Iranian Wars, were a series of conflicts between states of the Greco-Roman world and two successive Iranian empires: the Parthian and the Sasanian. Battles between the Parthian Empire and the Roman Republic began in 54 BC; wars began under the late Republic, and continued through the Roman and Sasanian empires. A plethora of vassal kingdoms and allied nomadic nations in the form of buffer states and proxies also played a role. The wars were ended by the early Muslim conquests, which led to the fall of the Sasanian Empire and huge territorial losses for the Byzantine Empire, shortly after the end of the last war between them.
The Battle of Samarra took place in June 363, during the invasion of the Sasanian Empire by the Roman Emperor Julian. After marching his army to the gates of Ctesiphon and failing to take the city, Julian, realizing his army was low on provisions and in enemy territory started marching towards Samarra.
Merena was a 4th-century Iranian military officer active during the reign of the Sasanian king (shah) Shapur II. According to the Iranologist Touraj Daryaee, Merena's real name may have been Mihrān, thus making him a member of the House of Mihran, one of the Seven Great Houses of Iran. He was a cavalry commander in the Sasanian army in the course of the Roman-Persian Wars soon after the Battle of Ctesiphon in 363, which took place outside the Sasanian capital Ctesiphon in the province of Asoristan. As cavalry commander, he also appeared in the Battle of Maranga.
Romans in Persia is related to the brief invasion and occupation of western and central areas of Parthia by the Romans during their empire. Emperor Trajan was even temporarily able to nominate a king of western parts of Parthia, Parthamaspates, as ruler of a Roman "client state" in Parthia.
Flavius Arintheus was a Roman army officer who started his career in the middle ranks and rose to senior political and military positions. He served the emperors Constantius II, Julian, Jovian and Valens. In 372 he was appointed consul, alongside Domitius Modestus.
Victor was a Roman military officer and politician, who served the emperors Constantius II, Julian, Jovian and Valens. He was appointed consul in AD 369, alongside Valentinianus Galates.
Julian's Persian expedition began in March 363 AD and was the final military campaign of the Roman emperor Julian. The Romans fought against the Sasanian Empire, ruled at the time by Shapur II.
The Peace Treaty of 363 between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Sasanian Empire was the subsequent treaty from Emperor Julian's Persian expedition. Upon Julian's death, the newly elected Emperor Jovian was forced into signing a humiliating treaty by which territorial and diplomatic concessions were given to the Sasanians.
During the siege of Maiozamalcha, 363 CE, the Roman army under Emperor Julian stormed, pillaged, and destroyed the city of Maiozamalcha, before continuing onward to the Sasanian capital of Ctesiphon.
The siege of Ctesiphon took place from January to March, 637 between the forces of Sasanian Empire and Rashidun Caliphate. Ctesiphon, located on the eastern bank of the Tigris, was one of the great cities of Persia, the imperial capital of the Parthian and Sassanid Empires. The Muslims managed to capture Ctesiphon ending the Persian rule over Mesopotamia.
The Perso-Roman wars of 337–361 were a series of military conflicts fought between the Roman Empire and the Sasanian Empire between 337 and 361. They were a result of long-standing competition between the rival powers over influence in the border kingdoms of Armenia and Iberia, as well as the desire of Shapur II, after his Arab campaign, to revoke the unfavorable terms of the Treaty of Nisibis, which had concluded the previous war between the empires. Though the Romans under Constantius II were defeated in several sanguinary encounters, Shapur was unable to secure a decisive victory.