"Greatest Civilized Enemy of Rome?" Topic

Other than the barbarians, which nation was Rome's greatest enemy?

Carthage

The other side in a Roman civil war.

And, by the way, who says the Gauls were unciviized or barbarians?
In fact, I would say that virtually ALL of Rome's opponents had various degrees of civilization. Including the Huns.

Yeah, Rome was Rome's greatest enemy.

Gotta go with the Romans.

Mithridates, not the greatest in the form of a threat but fun to game. Lot's of great history there along with a who's who of Roman generals to pit against him.

Parthia a different civilization but not barbaric.

Itself. C.f. Byzantium.

Sassanid Persia.

Sassanid Persia

Sassanid Persia

Carthage – earlier on (Republican period)
Sassanid Persia (Imperial to Middle)

Parthia then Sassanid Persia.

Carthage for Republican period, Sassanid for the Middle/Late period and Normans for the Byzantine period. I have heard it said that Rome reached its zenith at and just after the battle of Zama and that it was all downhill after that. Food for thought.

Sassanid Persia, the long running conflict with Rome allowed the Arab's to succeed.

As suggested Rome's greatest enemy was always going to be internal strife, however externally, I 'd go with the Sassanids as well.

Has to be Carthage during the 2nd Punic war, the only nation that tried to conquer Rome rather than just stop Roman expansion.

Carthage and Persia…. tied

Carthage for the Republic and the Sassanids from the Late Empire.

Carthage-Cannae

My answer as soon as I saw the post is the same as Timyminis

PFJ or the JPF :)

I gotta go with Carthage, just because.

The Muslim Arabs should be on the list to consider.

Rome's greatest enemy? Religion. The Jewish war went on for decades and a Jewish fellow managed a revenge by converting much of the Empire to a non-pagan religion. Anybody who could defeat the Roman Pantheon of gods is pretty powerful in my book. ALSO , Rome defeated all its other enemies except for the runner up…Attila the Hun.

Epirus is the coolest.
Parthia is up there.
But definitely the "greatest" was Carthage. Huge struggle for survival.

Carthage, definitely.

Han China..they just missed each other by a few days.

The Germanic tribes.

Sorry for not paying attention before.

The Samnites.

Persians. But i give the Jews a lot of credit too

Persians. But then I like the Persians much better than the Romans so I am biased. Really the answer should be Carthage but I don't like them as much as the Persians.

Rome was definitely her worst.

Just to throw another into the mix, Macedon under Phyrrus. Won a couple of costly victories against the Republic and with a little luck could have done better.

the only entities the Romans actually feared werfe Cartagine and the Persian empire.

Carthage came closest.

Not sure how civilized you want to consider the Huns.

Turks were latecomers but they did take Constantinople and finish off the last emperor.

There's a big difference between "Can they destroy us?" and "Can they take away a chunk of our borderlands?" An existential threat over a political problem.

In that context, Carthage is the winner, by far. Pyrrus was a danger, as were the Samnites. And, finally, the Seljuks of course.

The Persians fought long wars over a fairly specific frontier area. They did not threaten the existence of Rome. And they had some pretty silly headgear, which surely counts against them.

I note, BTW, that Terry Jones made a strong case that the Dacians were hugely more advanced than they are given credit for, and that the Roman response to their rise shows how serious a threat they appeared.

Sassanid Persia, just couldn't shake them off!

Sassanid Persia.

Of course the Goths et al that flattened Rome considerded themselves far more civilised – even "Roman" – than the declining and falling Romans.