The Ancient World War

Sassanian Iran and Byzantine Rome were possibly the only two empires on earth to be “hyper-powers” during late antiquity; the Greek speaking Christian Romans (or Byzantines) dominated the countries of Italy, Spain, Greece, Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor (Turkey), Armenia, western Mesopotamia (Iraq) and the Balkans. The Zoroastrian Sassanian Persians ruled an empire that included parts of India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, eastern Mesopotamia and Tajikistan. These two empires were neighbours and bordered each other from the time of their individual establishment.

The two had been at war for perhaps four hundred years from the early 3rd century to the early 7th century in an epic struggle known as the “Roman Persian wars”. There are a number of reasons for this Great War, the main one being conquest, glory and wealth, the other being more morally based was religion, the Sassanians frequently persecuted and martyred Christians in gruesome ways such as crucifixion, boiling in salt water and even crushing by elephants. (1) This gave the Byzantines a preemptive justification to strike against the Sassanian Empire. While the Sassanians saw a greater picture, being direct descendents of the Achaemenid kings of Persepolis. The Sassanians saw a right to rule over all of what was once under the control of their forefathers. These battles were scattered across the Middle East, most of these conflicts were concentrated in Mesopotamia but also occurred as far reach of the Levant and Asia Minor, and ranged from full scale battles to minor skirmishes and quarrels. Armies and overview of the opposing forces The Byzantines were a shadow of the former Romans of Augustus (2); that said they were broken down into similar types of regiments and organizations. The Byzantine army was as a whole smaller and weaker than that of their predecessors, but by Justinian I (527-565AD) the Byzantine army was reformed into a highly efficient, well trained and armed army. The main regiments in the Byzantine imperial force included the Foederatti (“allies”) units made up of mercenary barbarians and indigenous Roman troops. Comitatenses provided that core force of field troops; these late legionary style heavy infantry were made up of well trained experienced men. Cavalry was also rich and diverse by the early 6th century AD. Unlike the earlier Romans, who had only a select few variety of cavalry available to them, the Byzantines had now created a vast range of cavalry units; from the knight style Kataphraktoi and Clibanarii or Klibanophoroi (developed from the Sassanian cataphracts) to the hippo-toxotai horse archers and lightly armed promoti. Most Byzantine troops were armed with spears, swords, shields and lamellar amour along with high quality steel helmets. Other regiments of Byzantine infantry and cavalry included Limitanei, vexillationes, promoti and the elite Scholae Palatinae. Byzantine technological advances were outstanding for the time and new inventions such as “Greek Fire” a sort of flamethrower as well as many other advances were created as early as the 7th century AD. (3) Byzantines also had an effective navy based in the Mediterranean that could have led fast often deadly strikes at enemy fleets and bases.

al-dujail

-"Al-Dujaile is my home town, I always looked at it as god's heaven on earth, it's about 60 kilometers to the north of Baghdad, on the bank of al Ishaki river (a branch of Tigris), inhabited by few thousands, most of whom are farmers, our village is well known by its date palms and grapes, a fascinating nature that takes your breath away, its people are related by strong tribal relations that keep them as one large family. - Date: 7/8/1982, Saddam decides to visit the village, the Ba’ath party in the region prepared the people to make a big reception, they took us out of the schools(I was 7 years old). They made us line in a row on both sides of the road to wave for him and cheer his name. It never occurred to me that it would be my last day in the childhood world. I was forced to skip that period of my life with such cruelty that I can not explain. I ran away to my home into my mothers' lap, my younger brother and sisters gathered around me, I realized something huge has happened and anticipated the eminent evil. it didn't take long for the security to get to our house, we were taken to the unknown, me, my mother(who was 4 months pregnant), my sisters Einas(5 years), Zeina(3 years)and my brother Mohammed(1 year). I was too young to know why we were treated like that, but I sure knew the meaning of being scared to death. The sound of foot steps that stops by the door was enough for every one to freeze, as after that the door would be opened, a name of one of the men would be announced and he would be dragged to the interrogation room to return few hours later unconscious, covered by blood, wrapped in a blanket, and would be thrown on us. The women and children had their share, and this is what saw: extraction of nails and teeth, electric shocks, whipping with lashes, using razors to tear the skin into shreds, my aunt was left hanging from the roof after her clothes had been wrapped of her in front of her brothers to force them to talk. Do you know how much pain we suffered? Can you imagine? I doubt it. -After that we were transferred to Abu-Ghraib prison, where we met the men for the last time, after that, the 143 men separated from us and then transferred to another place, as for the rest of us, we were kept in Abu-Ghraib prison for six months, during that time, the day for my mother to deliver her baby came, she had complications and they didn't take her to the hospital until it was too late, the baby died. my mother never if it was a boy or a girl.