A Roman emperor grovelling to a Persian king: the message behind a new statue in Tehran

This statue is to celebrate a past trumph of Iran over the western world and to strengthen Iranian popular morale in the current conflict with the USA. However, there is an intesting sublety about it: It is celebrating a great victory of the pre-Islamic Sasanian regime in 260 CE, which was conquered by the Muslim Rashidun Caliphate 632-654 (See Muslim conquest of Persia). The Islamic Republic of Iran is glorifying its Zoroastrian past.

During the middle ages and early modern period Moslem Iran had little direct contact with the West, being separated by Moslem Arabic and later Turkish states. Hence the need to look back before the Muslim conquest to find a parallel with the modern situation. In fact the Sasanians gave the Romans a lot of trouble, far more than the preceding Parthian empire. This culminated in The Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 AD and the Rise of the Muslims, which left both sides exhausted and vulnerable to the new power of Islam.