This Obscure War Changed the World Forever — The Final Roman-Persian War

Original art: murals of the Moldovița Monastery in Romania

This war would change the course of history and the world forever. It would begin a domino effect that had an impact so large that it marks the ending of an era. The major powers that had simply always existed in the Europe-Middle East-Africa region would fall into serious decline and finally be wiped out by a power and a movement that is important to the world today. And yet, the war is not common knowledge. 

There are a few reasons this could be. For one, the name of the war ascribed to it by historians is the "Byzantine-Sasanian War of 602-628" or some variant thereof which doesn't really stay in your mind all that well. Alternatively, another possibility that the war is so forgotten is that its major combatants no longer exist and the states that rose in their wake did not adopt their history as their own. 

Nevertheless, the Final Roman-Persian War, as I will call the event, led to the end of both the Roman (or Byzantine) and the Persian (Or Sasanian/Sassanid) Empires and the rise of the Islamic Rashidun Caliphate which conquered the region and spread the religion of Islam, a defining cultural trait of the Middle East today.

Background

Rome and Persia, powerhouses of Europe and the Middle East respectively, had always fought sporadic wars between each other as far back as 54 BCE. The fall of the Western Roman Empire and the formation of the Byzantine Empire did not change this. The shifting in dynasties of Persia from the Parthians to the Sasanians did not change this, either. The prize for their endless wars was the domination of the Middle East with the fertile Mesopotamia at its core.

In the previous Byzantine-Sasanian War of 572-591, Byzantine Emperor Maurice had helped the exiled Sasanian prince Khosrow II obtain his throne. In thanks, Khosrow II ceded territory to the Byzantines like parts of Mesopotamia, Armenia and Caucasian Iberia. The earlier tribute system where the Romans had to pay a tribute to their eastern neighbor was canceled. To some degree, the Sasanian king may have seen the Byzantine emperor as a father figure. There was peace in the land.

Geopolitical context of the Byzantine and Persian Empires in 602 CE from geacron.com

Of course, the Romans and their Byzantine successors were notorious for leaders with reigns violently cut short. As the Byzantines no longer had to worry about being attacked from their east, they were free to handle issues to the west like the Slavs and Mongolic Avar invaders in the Balkans. These campaigns cost money, something that the Byzantines were lacking. Emperor Maurice gradually cut pay to the army to fund his campaigns. Naturally, this did not sit well with the Byzantine army who mutinied. These mutinies were defeated each time and Maurice's punishments became harsher until, after the fourth mutiny, Maurice refused to provide food to his army in the winter, ordering them to live off the land. Outraged, the army hailed the Thracian centurion Phocas as their emperor and moved against Constantinople. Maurice's army of Blues and Greens failed to stop the rebellion and Maurice was slain in 602 CE.

The illegitimate and unpopular rule of Phocas was unwelcome in many parts of the empire. It sparked a rebellion in Mesopotamia on the border with the Sasanian Empire and its leader, a Armenian-Byzantine governor named Narses, asked for help from Khosrow II. Khosrow sought to avenge the death of Maurice and to take back the territories lost from the previous war now that the Persian king no longer had any ties to Byzantium. And so, with an attack on Byzantine Mesopotamia and Armenia, the Sasanians had entered the war. Thus began the Final Roman-Persian War that would change everything forever.

The Persian Blitz

Initially, things did not go well for the Byzantines. A Byzantine general (Germanus) sent to pacify Mesopotamia was killed in battle with the Persians in 604 CE and, after a nine-month siege, the Persians captured the key strategic fortress of Dara in northern Mesopotamia in 605 CE. In addition, Narses had been captured and burned alive by the unpopular Phocas regime. 

Heraclius by Rossen Toshev

The Exarch of Africa, Heraclius the Elder, and his son Heraclius the Younger, with support from the imperial guard, the Exubitors, decided to rebel against Phocas in 608 CE, beginning the Heraclian Revolt. Other rebellions took place in Syria and Palestine in 609 and 610 CE which made Phocus send a general named Bonus to stop the violence. In response, Heraclius the Elder sent his nephew Nicetas to attack Egypt—a key province to the Byzantine Empire. Bonus engaged Nicetas in battle outside of Alexandria but Bonus was defeated. From that point on, the Heraclians launched a daring naval attack on Constantinople itself led by Heraclius the Younger. Heraclius defeated the government forces and seized Phocas. Legend remembers this exchange between the emperor and the emperor-to-be:

"Is it thus," asked Heraclius, "that you have governed the Empire?"

"Will you," replied Phocas, with unexpected spirit, "govern it any better?"

Emperor Phocas was subsequently executed.

The Deposition of Phocas, 610 CE by A.C. Weatherstone

Emperor Heraclius, legitimizing his rule through ceremony and a reputation for justice, took hold of the Byzantine Empire with some difficulty. Phocas' brother rebelled with a large army in Anatolia that was supposed to go off and face the invading Persians. However, Phocas' brother was assassinated meaning that the army only went on a detour that allowed the Persians to push into Anatolia itself. 

By the time Heraclius had become the emperor, the Romans had lost all territories east of the Euphrates River and Armenia while Persian raids were entering Anatolia as far a Chalcedon in sight of Constantinople itself. Heraclius tried to make peace with the Persians since Phocas had been removed but the Persians, having conquered much of the Byzantine territories, refused. This was an opportunity for the Sassanids to finally wipe out the Byzantine Empire and to reclaim the glory they once held during the time of the Achaemenids. 

Heraclius' attempt at reorganizing the Byzantine army also saw some problems as the Exubitor forces that had supported Heraclius' revolt now were incompetent as they bickered with the emperor while Persians under General Shahin pushed into Anatolia. Heraclius purged his military of officers who had served during the Phocas regime and placed the old Philippicus from the Maurice regime in charge of the Byzantine armies. Unfortunately, the old war hero was also incompetent and avoided battle with the Persians. Heraclius finally made himself the commander-in-chief of the Byzantine army but, at this point, it may have been too late.

A map of Byzantine and Persian campaigns in Anatolia from 611-624 by Mohammad Adil.

In 613 CE, Persian General Shahrbaraz was directed to strike Antioch in Byzantine Syria. Heraclius attempted to stop the Persians but Shahin defeated him in the Battle of Antioch. With no defenders, Antioch was looted and its patriarch slain. In Persian fashion, many of the inhabitants of Syria were deported to other parts of the Persian Empire. Further Persian advances at the Cilician and Tarsus Plains were devastating as the Byzantine Empire was cut in half—on one side being Anatolia and Constantinople and on the other being Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and north Africa. 

The major cities of Syria quickly surrendered to the Persians which opened the gates for a Persian strike on Palestine. Nicetas attempted to resist but a revolt by the Jews of Palestine against the Byzantine Empire and in support of the Persians helped the city of Jerusalem to fall to the Persians with 35,000 civilians deported. Nicetas fell back to Egypt while Palestinian churches were burned and religious artifacts, including the Holy Lance, the Holy Sponge and even the True Cross (said to be the cross on which Jesus Christ himself was crucified) were taken off to the Persian capital of Ctesiphon as war trophies. 

In 615 CE, the Persians had reached Chalcedon and Shahin took the city in 617 CE. Anatolia had fallen but no moves were made against Constantinople as the Persians focused on Egypt. Nicetas once again led the resistance against the Persians while garrisoning himself at Alexandria. A traitor revealed an unused canal to the Persians which allowed them to infiltrate the city, ultimately resulting in Persian victory while Nicetas fled to the island of Cyprus. Egypt, the province that provided the Byzantine Empire most of its food, was lost. In 618 CE, Heraclius was forced to cancel the free grain ration that had historically been promised to the citizens of Constantinople. In 622 CE and 623 CE, the Persians gradually conquered islands in the Aegean Sea including Rhodes. 

The Byzantine Empire was on the verge of collapse. 

Map of the Sasanian Empire after the fall of Egypt, c.622 CE by Wikipedia user Ro4444.

By this point, Byzantine coins that were being minted included the phrase "Deus adiuta Romanis" or "May God help the Romans." A plague also broke out in 619 CE. Heraclius briefly considered withdrawing the Byzantine government to Carthage (an ironic move given the historic relationship between Rome and Carthage) but decided against it. He had come to accept that the war was over and that the Byzantine Empire was to become a client state of Persia and that it would be Khosrow who would choose the next emperor. It was at this point that Heraclius is said to have received a letter from Khosrow:

Khosrow, greatest of Gods, and master of the earth, to Heraclius, his vile and insensate slave. Why do you still refuse to submit to our rule, and call yourself a king? Have I not destroyed the Greeks? You say that you trust in your God. Why has he not delivered out of my hand Caesarea, Jerusalem, and Alexandria? And shall I not also destroy Constantinople? But I will pardon your faults if you submit to me, and come hither with your wife and children; and I will give you lands, vineyards, and olive groves, and look upon you with a kindly aspect. Do not deceive yourself with vain hope in that Christ, who was not able to save himself from the Jews, who killed him by nailing him to a cross. Even if you take refuge in the depths of the sea, I will stretch out my hand and take you, whether you will or no.

The humiliating letter is said to have been enough to give Heraclius the spirit to fight again. 

The Byzantine Empire Strikes Back

With his morale restored, Heraclius set about making the hard decisions that were needed in order to secure the funding for a Byzantine counter-attack. Decreasing the pay for public officials by half, levying fines on corrupt officials and properly enforcing taxation were things that caused some dissent among the people but paid off in the end. Due to  Zoroastrian Persia's disrespect of Christ, the clergy of Byzantium gave their all to support the counter-offensive as well, going as far as giving Heraclius all gold and silver-plated objects from their churches in Constantinople. The prestigious Hagia Sophia was not exempt from this policy. Finally, once a field army was armed and prepared, Emperor Heraclius himself took command to lead from the front lines.

Byzantine infantry officer from the 6th century CE. 

In 622 CE, after Easter celebrations and summer training, Heraclius left Constantinople under the control of Patriarch Sergius and a patrician named Bonus (unrelated to the previously mentioned pro-Phocas General Bonus). In autumn, the counter-offensive began in earnest with an attack on Cappadocia that forced Shahrbaraz back to protect Iran proper. Heraclius crushed Shahrbaraz once again in a great victory that left Iran open to the Byzantines. 

Heraclius moved back to Constantinople for a moment as the empire continued to be harassed by the Avar Khaganate and their Slavic forces. Attempts at a peace deal failed in 623 CE after the Avars attempted to kidnap Heraclius for ransom (70,000 peasants who had come to see their emperor during the failed peace talks were captured and killed). Finally, a hard deal was made where Heraclius paid the Avars 200,000 solidi and surrendered some of his family members (and Bonus' family members) as hostages so that they would stop attacking the Byzantines. This deal with a heavy cost allowed Heraclius to focus entirely on the Persians. 

Heraclius flees from the Avars in 623 CE. From World History Plus.

In 624 CE, Heraclius gave a peace offer to Khosrow II—end the war or else Iran will be invaded. This was an offer that Khosrow rejected. Thus, the Byzantines invaded Armenia and Azerbaijan after Heraclius took back Caesarea to spite Khosrow. With the help of loyal Arab forces, the Byzantines were able to defeat guards of Khosrow's army that caused a route in the Persian forces. To add insult to injury, the Byzantines destroyed the great Zoroastrian fire temple Adur Gushnasp. While the Byzantines were resting in the Caucasus, Shahrbaraz, Shahin, and General Shahraplakan were sent with their own armies to trap and destroy the Romans. However, Heraclius was able to trick and outmaneuver each army, defeating the armies one by one with Shahrbaraz left naked and alone after his army routed on one occasion in 625 CE. 

Heraclius bravery was observed on the battlefield, especially during the Battle of Sarus in which his men pushed through Persian arrows. Shahrbaraz remarked to a nearby Greek the following of Heraclius:

"See your emperor! He fears these arrows and spears no more than would an anvil!"

The Battle of Sarus was a Byzantine victory and the Byzantines rested at Trebizond.

To the Fields of Nineveh

With a pause in the fighting, Khosrow readied two armies—a large force of 50,000 under Shahin to protect Mesopotamia and Armenia and a smaller force under Shahrbaraz to go by Heraclius' forces to Chalcedon in preparation for a major attack on Constantinople. The Persians made contact with the Avar Khaganate and made a deal to attack Constantinople, the Avars attacking from the European side and the Persians attacking from the Asian side. While the Avars managed to destroy an aqueduct leading to Constantinople and the Persians pounded the city heavily from the Asian side, the allies could do little against the city whose defense was lead by Patriarch Sergius and patrician Bonus. Communication between the allies was difficult due to the Byzantine navy dominating the Bosporus Strait (and even sinking a Slavic fleet). 

The Siege of Constantinople, 626 CE. From the Constantine Manasses Chronicle 

Upon hearing the news of the Siege of Constantinople, Heraclius split his army into three. One group was sent to reinforce and provide morale support to Constantinople. Another force under Heraclius' brother Theodore was sent to fight Shahin in Mesopotamia. The smallest force was to be led by Heraclius to invade Iran. It was a war on three fronts for Persia. On top of this, the Byzantine ally of the Western Turkic Khaganate and their Khazar underlings moved in to invade the Sassanids, seizing Bactria and Afghanistan away from the Persians and reaching even the Indus River. 40,000 Turkic-Khazar forces were deployed into the Caucasus to raid Persian territory and join with Heraclius. This front of the war would be considered the Third Perso-Turkic War. 

After Theodore defeated Shahin (who subsequently died of depression), the demoralized Avars decided to stop the Siege of Constantinople, fleeing into the Balkans once more. Shahrbaraz maintained his garrison in Chalcedon until Heraclius revealed to him intercepted letters from Khosrow that demanded the death of Shahrbaraz. Upon hearing of his king's intentions, Shahrbaraz moved down to Syria to watch the war from the sidelines, able to join the Byzantine side if it was so demanded of him. Khosrow had lost his main Persian armies.

Map of the West Turkic Khaganate, including territories (the Tokhara Yabghus) taken from the Sassanids. 

In 627 CE, Heraclius invaded Iran during the winter in a surprise attack. The Khazars were not adapted to the cold environment and their 40,000 troops fled back up north to continue their raids from afar, leaving Heraclius to himself while he was pursued by the Armenian-Persian general Rhahzdah. Heraclius lured Rhahzdah to the ruins of Nineveh, the ancient city that was once the capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire over one thousand years earlier. The Battle of Nineveh took place in the fog which allowed the Byzantines to crush the arrow-based Persian army. According to some accounts, after the eight hour-long battle, the Persians retreated and Rhahzdah challenged Heraclius to one-on-one combat. Heraclius subsequently killed Rhahzdah with one thrust of his sword, subsequently killing two other challengers. 

With the Persian army all but non-existent, the Byzantines raided the Persian countryside including Khosrow's palace which granted the Byzantines a small fortune. Khosrow himself had fled out into the countryside to rally together a new Persian army but Heraclius contacted Khosrow with the following message:

I pursue and run after peace. I do not willingly burn Persia, but compelled by you. Let us now throw down our arms and embrace peace. Let us quench the fire before it burns up everything.

Emperor Heraclius at the Battle of Nineveh, 627 CE. Original artist unknown.

This was not enough for Khosrow who sought to continue fighting. The Persian army had enough and launched an uprising against Khosrow, locking him away in a dungeon where he was kept alive only on the bare minimum of sustenance for five days. On the fifth day of the former king's imprisonment, he was slowly killed by Persian soldiers with their arrows. In his place, his son Kavadh II became the new king of the Sassanid Empire and offered peace to the Byzantines. 

Finally, the war was over. The Byzantine Empire was exhausted after having come back from the brink of extinction and it simply did not have it in itself to enforce harsh peace terms. The Final Roman-Persian War ended in 628 CE with all the territory lost throughout the war being returned to its owner. Captured soldiers were to be returned to their countries. Finally, the True Cross and other holy artifacts were to return to the Byzantine Empire. 

Heraclius carrying the True Cross into Constantinople, 629 CE by Pierre Subleyras. According to the Golden Legend, Heraclius' original plan to bring the cross to Constantinople in a victory parade was cancelled after he was visited by an angel who convinced him to carry it in humility as Christ once did. 

In 629 CE, Heraclius entered the city of Constantinople while carrying the True Cross itself. In a victory ceremony, the True Cross was placed at the high altar of the Hagia Sophia. The Byzantine people—the Roman people celebrated their victory. They believed that this victory was the will of God and that a new golden age was about to come to the broken and battered Byzantine Empire. 

In that very year, to the south, the nomadic people of the Arabian Peninsula became unified under the leadership and religion of a man named Muhammad. They assembled their passionate and zealous army for a strike to the north.

The Aftermath

In time, the True Cross would be returned to Jerusalem in the last period of peace the Byzantines would know. Peace would never come to Persia which fell into infighting. While the Romans did not have enough money to pay their veterans, Persia did not have enough money to recruit soldiers. The struggle for the Sasanian throne was bloody (even Shahrbaraz took the throne before being promptly assassinated in 630 CE). Both empires were exhausted and crippled as the western portions of the Eastern Roman Empire were lost to European rivals. The Slavs had occupied much of the Balkans, the Lombards would go on to take more territory in Italy and the Visigoths would conquer Byzantine holdings in Spain in 629 CE.  Though the Byzantines had regained Anatolia, Syria, Palestine and Egypt, these territories had spent a long time under Persian rule and policies that saw Byzantine rule here weaker than before. 

The Final Roman-Persian War changed the course of world history in one prominent respect—the war severely weakened the Byzantines and the Sasanians at just the right time for the Arabs, united under their Islamic Caliphate, to rise up and strike out to the north of the Arabian Peninsula. Persia was very quickly overwhelmed by the Muslims as Zoroastrianism weakened. Likewise, the subsequent Arab-Byzantine Wars put the Eastern Roman Empire on the road to meet its end just like the Western Roman Empire. The Caliphate was able to take territories like Syria, Palestine and Egypt away from the Byzantines once again.  

The expansion of the Islamic Caliphate from 622-750 CE. From Think Africa.

Had the Byzantines or the Sasanians showed restraint or if there had been a quick victory in the war, either one or both of the combatants might have been able to defeat the incoming wave that changed the tides of history. But these old empires had reached their limit. In their fall came the beginnings of a new religion that quickly became a major world religion. This was a religion that is still alive and well with us today with a deep history like the subsequent Golden Age of Islam, the rise of the Ottoman Empire, revolutions in Iran and Islamic rebellions in the Philippines. From clashes in India to scholars in Algeria, the coming of Islam is something that changed the world forever while nations like the Byzantines became lost in history. 

This was the war that changed everything.

References

1. The Age of the Parthians by Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis, 2017 
2. A Short History of Byzantium by John Julius Norwich, 1998
3. Byzantium and Its Army, 284-1081 by Warren T. Treadgold, 1998
4. Europe, 476-918 by Charles Oman, 2010
5. Heraclius, Emperor of Byzantium by Walter E. Kaegi, 2007
6. The Roman Eastern Frontier and the Persian Wars AD 363-628 by Michael H. Dodgeon, 2015
7. When an emperor tried to carry Jesus' cross with great pomp, this miracle happened by Philip Koslosk, 2019 (https://bit.ly/3kSa2Dj)

By Andrew Eubanks