[Cronos]

Crassus and a handful of others just didn’t know that the hell they were doing when they headed east. In eastern Anatolia, Rome tried maintaining trade links into Parthia and a peaceful border by supporting various buffer states

Crassus did know what he was doing -- he wanted to prove his position as part of the triumvirate and get some booty to give to his supporters. he failed.

the point about buffer states is also very true and one that if one reads history always makes sense -- remove the buffer state and it leads to horrific war that destroys the two big guys: cases in point:
1. Armenia providing the buffer state between Rome and Sassanid Persia
2. The various Canaanite states providing a buffer between the Hittites and Egypt
3. Poland-Lithuania as the buffer state in the 1700s between Austria and Russia
4. Tibet as the buffer state between India and China
5. Afghanistan under its kings between Tsarist Russia and the British South-Asia Empire.

[no-to-illegals]

Hi all,

Would love to stay around and type to the forum.
Am busy to the extreme. Being busy is good though
tiring. I do appreciate your pings though am too
busy to read much. Please keep me in mind with your
pings. I do enjoy your pings.

In God's Hands,

nti