Ahhay and welcome to Emperor of Rome, a Roman history podcast from Latrobe University.

I'm your host Matt Smith and with me today is Dr. Kalin Davenport,

senior lecturer in Roman history from Macquarie University. This is episode

CXVI, Red Wedding.

The Roman Empire had engaged in Parthian Wars for generations,

stretching back off and on to the days of Pompey the Great.

Karakala makes his foray into this arena,

but as always, he's going to do things a little differently.

He shall have a wedding, or hanging.

Either way, he's going to have a little bit of fun. Here's Caitlin Davenport.

Rome and Parthia have been at odds for centuries. They're like the USSR and the USA during the Cold War. They're the two great superpowers of the Mediterranean and the Near East.

And certainly in the imperial period, so campaigns under Nero, Trajan, Lucis Veris, Septimia Severus. A lot of these

campaigns have been about securing the frontiers, particularly over who is going to hold

the throne of Armenia, the client kingdom which lies between Roman Parfia, whether it's going to be a Roman nominee or a Parthia nominee,

very often the Civil War in Armenia or Parthia, or Rome as well, you know, with Septimerus and Paskinius Niger, which gets caught up in the larger

geopolitics of the region.

Yeah, yeah, so enemies for quite a long time going then and what context is it in now who's ruling it at

this point? King Vorgesies the fifth of Parthia had died in 2008, so in the reign of Timious Severus.

Now he had two sons, the first who succeeded as Vorgeses the sixth, but the other son, Artebarnas, also revolted and sees the throne.

So by the time of Karakala's reign, Artebarnas does actually control most of the pathian empire, Volgase the sixth, only part of the empire

in Babylonia.

Right, but it's given this opportunity for Karakala to exploit. You've essentially got a civil war in

...