Wars between empires Persian and Byzantine

Long series of conflicts between the Mediterranean world and the Persian world form one of the more long series of regional confrontations of the history. To the wars greco-Persians will succeed the perso-Romance Guerres, which themselves will continue after the separation of the Roman Empire and the creation of the Byzantine Empire. No part being able to dominate the other, these conflicts ended only with the Moslem conquests.

After the fall of the Roman Empire of Occident a short lull arises. The emperor Maurice, while using of his diplomacy and by helping Khosrô {{II}} to reach the throne in 591, buys to some extent peace. The death of Maurice, with whom it Persian king owes his throne, releases this one of his scruples, and in 603, Khosrô II launches a great offensive against the Byzantine empire. Quickly, its army seizes the east of the Anatolia then moves towards the Syria. It will be the Exarque of Carthage which will act to save the situation. It sends his son Héraclius to the head of a fleet for Constantinople where it reverses Phocas in 610 with the approval of the people. In 613, Persians seize Syria and in 614 Jerusalem. The church of the Holy Sepulchre, built by Constantin the Large one, is burned, and the Holy Cross, miraculeusement unearthed by the mother of Constantin, is carried by Persians.

Taken out of vice between Persians, which seize all the Eastern provinces of the empire, and the Slaves which flow in continuous floods in the Balkan Peninsula, Héraclius first of all reorganizes the last provinces of minor Asia still under its control. It divides the Anatolian west into four topics whose military administration is entrusted to a Stratège . Since the installation of the German in Western Europe at the 5th century, the empire misses mercenaries to meet its military needs. It was thought a long time that Héraclius had founded then the mode of the '' stratiotes ''. To each peasant soldier is allotted a ground and a warhead, one and the other being inalienable and hereditary. This system, combining a division of the empire in topics and an army made up of stratiotes, will be the base on which will rest the military power of the Byzantine empire until the 11th century. But makes this system of it is undoubtedly later.

Thus, the Byzantine State is rectified spectacularly with, moreover, the financial support and spiritual of the Church. Thus in 622, Héraclius puts in rout the Persian army, then in 623, it takes along its army in a military campaign several years. It reconquers the Arménie and the the Caucasus, and in 625 his/her brother demolishes a powerful Persian army. Benefitting from the countryside of the Byzantine army in minor Asia, the Bulgarian Persians, and the Avars are combined to besiege Constantinople in 626. But the wall of Théodose resists and the Byzantine fleet watch its superiority, so that the seat is raised before the end of the year. The large last battles takes place in 627 with Ninive. The Persian army is destroyed. In 628, Persians, which reversed Khosrô {{II}}, conclude a peace treaty by which they restore all the old Byzantine territories. Lastly, Héraclius brings back the Holy Cross to Jerusalem into 630. Let us note that it is not a “holy war”, this concept is foreign with the Byzantine thought and will remain it, even at the time of the crusades.

See too

Internal bonds

Armed Byzantine

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