Heraclius and Khusrau. The Last Great War of Antiquity

1.

Heraclius and Khusrau
The Last Great War of Antiquity

2.

Overview
• 1. Narrative of the war.
• 2. Roman propaganda.
• 3. Christian views within Iraq.
• 4. Two sources in detail.

3.

The fall of Hormizd
• Vahram Chobin’s great victory near Merv
• Hormizd sends him women’s underwear as an
insult
• Chobin proclaims rebellion, Hormizd’s army
falls apart, Chobin strikes coins in Khusrau’s
name at his family estate at Rayy
• Rebels at Ctesiphon release Khusrau’s uncle
Vindoe, who orchestrates Hormizd’s murder

4.

Khusrau comes to the throne
• Chobin refuses to stand down and Khusrau
flees to Rome
• The emperor Maurice installs Khusrau as
Sasanian shah
• Khusrau gives Maurice all of Persian Armenia
and there is peace between the empires
• Khusrau marries two Christian women: Maria
(a Greek) and Shirin (a Khuzistani)

5.

Taq-i-Bustan

6.

7.

Fall of Maurice (I)
• Roman army ordered to fight the Slavs in the
Balkans during winter: 602 rebellion of Phocas
leads to murder of Maurice and his family
• Khusaru invades the Roman empire, joined by
Maurice’s ‘son’ Theodosius
• Aided by rebellion of Roman general Narses
• Slow reduction of the fortified frontier
(Reshaina, Tella, Edessa) as Romans fight a war
on two fronts.

8.

Coup of Heraclius (II)
• Heraclius launches coup from Africa: double invasion of
Constantinople and Egypt in 609
• Persians seize Syria in 611; Jerusalem in 614 and Egypt
in 616. Usurp taxation machinery: see Middle Persian
in the papyri.
• Execution of Phocas
• Senate offers tributary status in 615. Persian execution
of Roman diplomats.
• Heraclius’ failed attempt to impress the Avar qaghan at
Adrianople: almost taken prisoner in 623.
• Roman counter-attack wins minor victory at Caesarea,
celebrated in poetry

9.

Heraclius’ counter-attack (III)
• Trains a new army in 622. Schooled in winter warfare
and motivated by prayer. Referred to as ‘martyrs’
• Propaganda developed around the Persian occupation
of Jerusalem
• Leaves Constantinople to face the Avars: Heraclius goes
by sea to Colchis and makes a deal with the Turks and
the Caucasian nobility
• Strikes south towards Nineveh (Mosul): his victory
against an over-stretched army triggers a coup against
Khusrau
• Sudden withdrawal of the Turks to deal with rebellion
in China.

10.

The aftermath
• 629 Death of Kavad II Shiroe from the plague
• Romans orchestrate a second coup to install
Shahrbaraz and remove his army of
occupation. Give territory to the Romans, who
also temporarily occupy Takrit and Nineveh.
• Shahrbaraz returns the True Cross and has his
son Nicetas baptised.

11.

Religious propaganda:
George of Pisidia
• H tells his solderis that they will receive ‘crowns of
martyrdom’ and ‘recompense from God’
• George proclaims Heraclius ‘God’s vice-gerent on
earth’. Celebrates his calmness, his self-control and his
personal bravery.
• H is Moses ‘beating the children of Persia against a
rock’/ Khusrau is the enemy of God
• The Mother of God saves the City of Constantinople
• H lauded at Khusrau’s death for his generalship (like
Alexander) but also for bringing salvation to the world
(like Noah or Moses). Read aloud to citizens at the
Hagia Sophia.

12.

The hexagram
• Creation of a new silver coinage in 616:
melting down of the silver reserve and church
plate.
• The religio-military slogan ‘Deus adiuta
Romanos’
• Sent to the Caucasus: penetration of the
Persian silver zone
• Imitated by Georgian lords
• Find their way deep into eastern Siberia

13.

Hexagram

14.

Antiochos Strategius
• Accounts of Persian desecration at Jerusalem,
taking the patriarch Modestus into captivity
• Persians act as allies of the Jews
• The True Cross falls into a tradition of the use of
relics in warfare
• Ideas circulate in Georgian
• Prompts Roman reaction in the desecration of
the fire temple at Ganzak and in the image of
Khusrau as anti-Christ

15.

Christians within the Sasanian world I:
The run-up to war
• Conversion of the Nasrid king al-Nu’man III.
• Christian continuations of the Xwaday-Namag.
• Royal intervention in the election of catholicos
Ishoyahb I under Hormizd IV.
• Stage-managed ‘obeisance’ of Khusrau and Shirin
before Sabrisho. Deliberate selection of an
outside candidate.
• Yazdin selected as chief tax-farmer for
Mesopotamia.
• Shirin given relics of the True Cross.

16.

Christians in the Sasanian world II:
Khusrau turns against the Nestorians
• Suppression of the catholicosate after Gregory
of Pherat loses authority.
• 612 Assembly of bishops: ‘We are the luckiest
men since Adam to live under your reign’
• Gabriel of Sinjar joins the Miaphysites after
accusations of bigamy
• Execution of al-Nu’man III. Supposedly in
punishment for his conversion to Christianity.

17.

Christians in the Sasanian world III
• But this shows the shah supporting Miaphysites, rather
than acting against all Christians. Christian elites are much
less ‘rooted’ in single confessions than in the Roman world.
• Changing policy a reflection of imperial expansion: needs to
appeal to multiple interest groups after occupying the
Roman east.
• His ‘imprisonment’ of Modestos probably an effort to reach
out to the Chalcedonians
• The ‘destruction’ of Jerusalem has little archaeological
record.
• The capture of the True Cross: Khusrau does not aim to
destroy it, but to bring it to Ctesiphon

18.

Christians in the Sasanian world IV
Retrospective distancing from Khusrau after his
death
-Kavad II presented as a closet Christian: miraculous
birth of Ardashir III
-Yazdin seen as the ‘new Constantine’ by the
Khuzistan Chronicle. His son Shamta executed
under Shahrbaraz
-Shahrbaraz as a Christian on a Roman model. But
his first interest is still in creating his own dynasty.

19.

Khuzistan Chronicle
Core of the text compiled in 650s, probably by Elias of Merv.
Final quarter of the text (after chp. 46) a continuation, written by another hand. Its
interest in the fall of Shushtar suggests a location in Khuzistan.
Disjointed coverage, gleaned from numerous earlier histories and perhaps official
sources.
These continue Christian ecclesiastical history and Sasanian royal histories.
Can trace the changing opinion to the king’s appointee Sabrisho (chps. 5-6)
Romanticised stories of the conflict between Nu’man and Khusrau (chp.9)
Martyrdom of Nathaniel of Shahrzur (chp. 11), written with hindsight of later
events. Contrast chp. 12 which has a ‘loyalist’ attitude to Sabrisho.
Prominence of Yazdin (chp. 18, 23, 24). Anti-Jewish. Very different from Roman
accounts of Persian collusion with the Jews. Gives major role to Shamta in
Khusrau’s death (chp. 28)
Reports Jewish and Manichaean fighting with Christians (41, 44) , as well as a
Jewish messiah in Babylonia (chp. 43)

20.

Armenian History attributed to Sebeos
Composed c. 660. Armenian cleric with eschatological expectations, framed by the
war of Rome and Persia and by the Arab invasions.
Also interested in the theological debates between Armenia and Constantinople.
Chiefly focussed on Khusrau II: important section at chp. 10 differentiates
Khusrau’s reign from the earliest part of the history.
Like Khuzistan Chronicle, can be seen as a Christian continuation of the XwadayNamag.
Allows us to see Armenians as servants of the shah, serving on the eastern frontier
against the Kushans.
Reports Jewish collaboration with invading Persians (chp. 33), and seize Jerusalem
and torture priests to reveal the True Cross (chps. 34-5). This stimulates
correspondence between the emperor and the Armenians (chp. 36)
Note the different lists given for murderers of Khusrau and the criticisms made
against the shah: reflects rapidly changing situation of later events. By the time of
the Arab conquests, Khusrau’s death may be seen as the beginning of the end for
the Persians.
Historian has access to official lists and documents from Dvin.

21.

Other texts on the death of Khusrau
• Ferdowsi, Shahname
• Al-Tha’alibi
• Al-Tabari
• Al-Dinawari
• Thomas of Marga, Book of the Governors

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Our essay question
• How religious was the war of Heraclius and
Khusrau?

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Free writing
• Over to you…

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Select bibliography
• Kaegi, Heraclius: Emperor of Byzantium
• Greatrex and Lieu, Roman-Persia warfare: A
Sourcebook
• Howard-Johnston, Witnesses to a World Crisis
• Foss, ‘The Persians in Asia Minor’, English
Historical Review 90 (1975)
• Stratos, Byzantium in the Seventh Century
• Wood, The Chronicle of Seert