Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei has seemingly compared the US-Iran conflict to Persia’s defeat of Rome in a post on social media.

“In the Roman mind, Rome was the undisputed centre of the world. Yet the Iranians shattered that illusion,” he said.

“When Marcus Julius Philippus (Philip the Arab) marched east against Persia … it ended in a peace established on Sasanian terms: the emperor had to come to terms!”