“Making peace with Iran may be just as painful as winning the war,” a recent CNN report noted. As negotiations roll on during a shaky ceasefire, what a deal between the US and Iran might look like and whether it holds is anyone’s guess.

As a scholar of ancient Persia (which eventually became Iran), the difficulties US President Donald Trump is now facing don’t exactly surprise me.

After dozens of wars between the two ancient empires of Rome and Persia, peace deals often failed to solve problems, and sometimes made the situation worse.

Lurching from conflict to conflict

The powerful empires of ancient Persia (ruled by the Parthians from 247 BCE to 224 CE, and then the Sasanians from 224 to 651 CE) rivalled the Roman Empire for centuries. They often went to war and the peace deals they struck were mostly about buying time.

The first major conflict between Rome and Persia was the disastrous invasion led by the Roman general Crassus in 53 BCE. Crassus himself died and thousands of Roman soldiers were killed in the plains near Carrhae in southern Turkey.

Ongoing conflict emboldened the Parthians........

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