[omalleyt]

It controlled most all the resource-producing regions of Africa north of the Sahara. Russia and Germania were densely wooded or covered in plains, in either case sparsely populated and not of substantial interest to a rich Mediterranean power. Persia was the only viable region of expansion, but after Trajan’s inability to incorporate them, the effort seems to have been abandoned

[behnamoh]

Persia (current Iran) itself was an empire with similar ambitions to incorporate at least the eastern parts of the Roman empire. Too sad that the two most progressive systems of governance in history were in war for around a thousand years, possibly leading to the fall of both.