Ancient Arms Race: Antiquity’s largest fortress and Sasanian military networks of Northern Iran

16 March 2022 by Eberhard W. Sauer, Jebrael Nokandeh and Hamid Omrani Rekavandi, presented by Eberhard W. Sauer In this webinar, Professor Eberhard W. Sauer will introduce the forthcoming Ancient Arms Race BIPS monograph, which focuses on the most recent fieldwork in northern Iran, including the Gorgan Wall and some of the largest fortifications in the ancient world. This has shed fascinating new light on ancient geopolitics. Few realise that imperial Rome had a serious competitor in Late Antiquity. Late Roman legionary bases, normally no larger than 5 ha, were dwarfed by Sasanian fortresses, often covering 40 ha, sometimes even 125–210 ha. The latter did not necessarily house permanent garrisons but sheltered large armies temporarily – perhaps numbering 10–50,000 men each. Even Roman camps and fortresses of the early and high empire did not reach the dimensions of their later Persian counterparts. The longest fort-lined wall of the late antique world was also Persian. Persia built up,