6. Древние меры мины, массы и денежные единицы, упомянутые в тексте

6. Древние меры мины, массы и денежные единицы, упомянутые в тексте

Меры длины

Стадия = 176,6 м

Парсанг = 5250 м

Меры массы

Либра (фунт) = 327,45 г

Денежные единицы

Кентинарий = 100 либр золота

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SUMMARY

«THE HORSEMEN IN GLITTERING ARMOUR»

The Art of Warfare in Sasanian Iran and the History of the Roman-Persian Wars

by Vladimir A. Dmitriev

The book consists of two parts. The former has to do with diverse aspects of the Sasanian art of warfare, viz. the composition and organization of the Persian army, its armament and other military outfit, as well as battle tactics and strategy. On the basis of the available evidence one can come to a conclusion that the organization of the Persian host was quite different from the Late Roman/Early Byzantine professional armies, being cle facto no more than irregular troops. The Persian basic force was cavalry divided into heavy-armed cataphracts and light-armed archers. In addition, some infantry and elephant corps were in the composition of the Sasanian army.

The Persians’ tactics were grounded on cavalry operations with the use of various stratagems. Their strategy, unlike that of the Romans, was almost always offensive: it is significant that even in its crisis periods Sasanian Iran attacked the Roman Near Eastern possessions.

The latter part of the book deals with the SasanianRoman wars for the Near and Middle East. Its history may be divided into several chronological periods:

1) 235–298: Primarily, the first two Sasanian monarchs — Ardashir I (226–242) and Shapur I (242–272) — were able to achieve significant successes. However, later on — under the emperor Diocletian (284–305) — the Romans could win the war of 296–298 and restored status quo.

2) Early 4th century through 387: Prevalence of Iran due mostly to great military achievements of the outstanding Sasanian king Shapur II (309–379).

3) 387–540: Period of relatively peaceful co-existence of both the empires, which was interrupted with short-time conflicts of local nature only.

4) 540–579: Drastic escalation of their relations due to the Persian monarch Khusrau Г aggressive politics. Just thanks to great efforts the Romans were able to withstand his expansion.

5) 579–591: Period of changeable successes in the struggle between Rome and Iran for the Near East.

6) 591–628: Conclusive stage of their struggle. During the war of 602–628 the Persians initially conquered most of the eastern territories of the Romans, however, the latters could resist this Sasanian onslaught and finally restore a pre-war frontier status quo.

A result of the four-hundred-year struggle between Sasanian Iran and the Roman/Byzantine empire was their mutual serious weakness and incompetence to withstand a new formidable menace — the Muslim Arabic invasions that put an end to the ancient Iranian civilization and gave birth to a new stage of the world history.

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Об авторе этой книги

Владимир Алексеевич Дмитриев родился в 1973 г. в городе Острове Псковской области.

В 1995 г. закончил исторический факультет Псковского государственного педагогического института имени С. М. Кирова. В 2003 г. на кафедре всеобщей истории Новгородского государственного университета имени Ярослава Мудрого защитил диссертацию на соискание ученой степени кандидата исторических наук на тему «Аммиан Марцеллин и персы (восточная цивилизация в восприятии римского историка IV в. н.э.)».

В настоящее время работает заведующим научно-исследовательской частью кафедры всеобщей истории Псковского государственного педагогического университета. Является автором научных статей по проблемам истории и источниковедения поздней античности и сасанидского Ирана, учебных и учебно-методических пособий, редактором ряда научных и учебных изданий, написанных в сотрудничестве с Петербургскими историками.

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