Parthians and the Silk Road

The great overland trade route known as the silk road began to form. The entire west central leg of the silk road, including any and all spurs, passed through parthian territory. Some have argued that this is exactly what was on trajan's mind as he headed off to invade mesopotamia in one 15. But others point out that parthians had been caught up in one of their frequent dynastic struggles during trajan's campaign. And once their internal disputes were settled, the romans would have found the parthians themselves showing much stiffer resolve than trajan had encountered.