Parthian

Like Pompeii, this ancient city has yielded many great discoveries, and serves as a window into the world of the ancient Hellenistic, Parthian, and Roman periods.

Charles the King and Wales, by Huw Thomas, will be published by Parthian Books on 1 May.

The Romans knew that while the Parthians were a martial people, they were too “unsophisticated” to have invented “this astonishing material, which was “as light as a cloud” and “translucent as ice.”

The green turned greener still as we descended into the Fergana Valley, the lush ancient corridor between Greek, Chinese, Bactrian and Parthian civilizations, finally arriving in the Silk Road city of Osh.

Around 100 B.C., the empires alluded to in the title, the Roman and Parthian, began fighting for preeminence in a region we reflexively call the Middle East.