One of the least understood and yet most influential periods in Mesopotamian history coincides with the reign of the Sassanian Empire. Named after an ancestral figure, the Sassanian Empire lasted over four hundred years and 40 kings (Marx, p.1). Born out of the ashes of the Parthian Empire, the Sassanian Empire ushered in an era of cultural and economic revival. Harking back to the dominance of generations long gone, the Sassanian Emperors extended their dominion from their base in the Southwest of Iran to Central and even Western Asia. Sasania profited from a period of intensified trade and exchange, and shepherded Iran's role as a major gateway on the Silk Road that connected the Western world with China. Eventually, however, the wealth of the Empire led to the weakening of its military might, and the Empire fell to the newly formed armies of Islam (ecai.berkeley.edu). As the final great Iranian monarchy before the Arab conquest of Western Asia, the Sassanian Empire holds an important, yet often neglected, piece in the puzzle that is Mesopotamian history. This paper will discuss the impact of the Sassanian kings on the rise and fall of the empire. The focus will be on Chosroe I, who reigned from 531-579 A.D. He was the greatest ruler of the Sassanian dynasty and was also ironically responsible for the downfall of the empire brought about by his centralization of power, which called for a strong leader. Chosroe I was able to fulfill this role, but those who followed him were not.
The Sassanian Empire's beginning had its roots in the weakening power of Parthian Empire. The Ashkanid period of the Parthian Empire was marked by high taxes and obligatory military service. A type of Feudalism was established by the regional ruling families. "The Nobles would be assigned a certain territory to rule and profit from and in exchange they owed the Imperial court a fixed amount of tax." For the most part of the Ashkanid dynasty, si...