Dura-Europos: Early use of chemical warfare

[guy]

Dura-Europos was a Roman fortress city in Mesopotamia till its capture and destruction by the Sassanians after a brutal siege in 256-257 AD. Although poorly documented, the battle Involved Sassanian tunnels to enter behind the Roman fortifications. The Romans made their own tunnels to counter this threat. The Roman tunnels were met with failure.
 

“The Sasanian Persians had effective siege techniques to storm Dura-Europos by applying a series of tunnels to bring down the city walls, with mining likely starting within Dura’s underground necropolis. The Romans then dug a series of countermines to stop the incursions, but in the ensuing struggle the Persians won the battle.

As the Roman diggers reached the Sasanian lines, the chemicals were pumped into the Roman tunnel, causing suffocation and death from the gas.

The use of smoke generators in siege-mines is mentioned in classical text, with the archaeological evidence at Dura suggesting that the Sasanian Persians were well aware of the use of chemical substances and its application in chemical warfare.”

Sadly, this archaeological site was mostly destroyed and looted recently by the Islamic State during the Syrian conflict.

https://www.heritagedaily.com/2022/01/the-first-known-case-of-chemical-warfare/142483?fbclid=IwAR3wmgisAqgkz8-7rcmgo2r3199wRfp5H9VlBtogclxqK83JX3cFg9QyoHQ&amp
 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dura-Europos

[Novosedoff]

I never could quite understand why Romans failed to absorb Persia and expand beyond it to the east as Macedonians and Seleucids did it (despite the fact that Romans sacked the Persian capital 5 times)!

One theory explains the lack of zeal by Romans by pointing to the falling productivity of the Roman silver mines in Spain as if the trade with China for silver was the only purpose for Romans to advance eastwards.