The Sasanian Empire began when the Parthian Empire ended in AD 224. Their rulers claimed the Achaemenids as ancestors and set up their capital at Ctesiphon in Mesopotamia. Their period of greatest military expansion occurred under Shapur I, who by the time of his death in AD 272 had defeated Roman imperial armies and set up buffer states between the Sasanians and Roman Empires. After Shapur, the Sasanians were under more pressure from the Kushans to their east as well as the Roman then Byzantine Empire to its west. However, the Sasanians rebuilt and founded numerous cities and their merchants travelled widely and introduced crops such as sugar, rice, and cotton into the Iranian plateau. But in AD 651, the last Sassanid emperor was killed by the expanding Islamic Arabs.
The Sasanian Empire began when the Parthian Empire ended in AD 224 Their rulers claimed the Achaemenids as ancestors and set up their capital at Ctesiphon in Mesopotamia Their period of greatest military expansion occurred under Shapur I who by the time of his death in AD 272 had defeated Roman imperial armies and set up buffer states between the Sasanians and Roman Empires After Shapur the Sasanians were under more pressure from the Kushans to their east as well as the Roman then Byzantine Empire to its west However the Sasanians rebuilt and founded numerous cities and their merchants travelled widely and introduced crops such as sugar rice and cotton into the Iranian plateau But in AD 651 the last Sassanid emperor was killed by the expanding Islamic Arabs