The epic story of the imperial rivalry between two of the greatest empires of the ancient world - Parthian and Persian - and how they rose and eventually fell.

The Roman empire shaped the culture of the western world. Stretching from the north of Britain to the Sahara, and from the Atlantic to the Euphrates, it imposed peace and prosperity on an unprecedented scale.

In the east, however, the Parthian and then Persian empires ruled over great cities and the trade routes to mysterious lands beyond. This was the vast region Alexander the Great had swept through, creating a dream of conquest that tantalised Greeks and Romans alike. Caesar, Mark Antony and a succession of emperors longed to follow in Alexander's footsteps. All failed. On Persia's borderlands, the Roman empire stumbled and came to a halt, unable to go any further.

In this magisterial history Adrian Goldsworthy traces seven centuries of a conflict that, ultimately, neither Rome nor Persia would win.