country_of_citizenship shapur i
Parthia ( Parava , , Paraw , , Pahlaw ) is a historical region located in north - eastern ___MASK56___ . It was the political and cultural base of the Arsacid dynasty , rulers of the Parthian Empire ( 247 BC  224 AD ). The ___MASK49___ ( 247 BC  224 AD ), also known as the Arsacid Empire , was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient ___MASK56___ and Iraq . Its latter name comes from Arsaces I of Parthia who , as leader of the Parni tribe , founded it in the mid - 3rd century BC when he conquered the region of Parthia in ___MASK56___ ' s northeast , then a satrapy ( province ) in rebellion against the Seleucid Empire . Mithridates I of Parthia ( r . " c ". 171  138 BC ) greatly expanded the empire by seizing Media and Mesopotamia from the Seleucids . At its height , the ___MASK49___ stretched from the northern reaches of the Euphrates , in what is now central - eastern Turkey , to eastern ___MASK56___ . The empire , located on the Silk Road trade route between the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean Basin and the Han Empire of China , became a center of trade and commerce . The Sasanian Empire ( or ), also known as Sassanian , Sasanid , Sassanid or Neo - ___MASK77___ ), known to its inhabitants as rnshahr in Middle Persian , was the last imperial dynasty in Persia ( ___MASK56___ ) before the rise of Islam , ruled by and named after the Sasanian dynasty from 224 to 651 AD . The Sasanian Empire , which succeeded the Parthian Empire , was recognized as one of the leading world powers alongside its neighboring arch - rival the Roman - Byzantine Empire , for a period of more than 400 years . ___MASK56___ (, also , ; ' ), also known as Persia , officially the Islamic Republic of ___MASK56___ (' ), is a sovereign state in Western Asia . It is bordered to the northwest by Armenia , the " de facto " Nagorno - Karabakh Republic , and Azerbaijan ; to the north by the Caspian Sea ; to the northeast by Turkmenistan ; to the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan ; to the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman ; and to the west by Turkey and Iraq . Comprising a land area of , it is the second - largest country in the Middle East and the 18th - largest in the world . With 82 . 8 million inhabitants , ___MASK56___ is the world ' s 17th - most - populous country . It is the only country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline . The country ' s central location in Eurasia and Western Asia , and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz , make it of great geostrategic importance . Tehran is the country ' s capital and largest city , as well as its leading economic center . ___MASK77___ refers to any of a series of imperial dynasties centered in Persia ( modern  day ___MASK56___ ). The first of these was the Achaemenid Empire established by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC with the conquest of Median , Lydian and Babylonian empires . It covered much of the Ancient world when it was conquered by Alexander the Great . Several later dynasties " claimed to be heirs of the Achaemenids ". Persia was then ruled by the Parthian Empire which supplanted the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire , and then by the Sassanian Empire which ruled up until mid 7th century . Shapur I ( Middle Persian :  ; New Persian :  ) , also known as Shapur I the Great , was the second shahanshah ( king of kings ) of the Sasanian Empire . The dates of his reign are commonly given as 240 / 42 -- 270 / 72 , but it is likely that he also reigned as co - regent ( together with his father ) prior to his father ' s death in 242 ( more probably than 240 ) . Amongst the most notable events of his reign was the decisive defeat of the Romans at the infamous Battle of Edessa , where the Roman army was defeated and captured in its entirity , including the Roman Emperor , Valerian . He became the only Roman Emperor who was captured as a prisoner of war , causing instability in the Empire . As such , the battle is generally viewed as one of the worst disasters in Roman military history . Middle Persian is the Middle Iranian language or ethnolect of southwestern ___MASK56___ that during the Sasanian Empire ( 224  654 ) became a prestige dialect and so came to be spoken in other regions of the empire as well . Middle Persian is classified as a Western Iranian language . It descends from Old Persian and is the linguistic ancestor of Modern Persian . The ___MASK85___ , also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire , was the continuation of the Roman Empire in the East during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages , when its capital city was Constantinople ( modern - day Istanbul , which had been founded as Byzantium ). It survived the fragmentation and fall of the ___MASK38___ in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 . During most of its existence , the empire was the most powerful economic , cultural , and military force in Europe . Both " ___MASK85___ " and " Eastern Roman Empire " are historiographical terms created after the end of the ___MASK90___ ; its citizens continued to refer to their empire as the " Roman Empire " ( tr . ), or " Romania ", and to themselves as " Romans ".