andrew of caesarea and the apocalypse in the ancient church of the ...

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between factions led by Phocas, a usurper to the throne, and Heraclius. The Persians took full
advantage of the chaos to make an incursion westward toward Constantinople, which they
never actually reached. In the meantime, Heraclius arrived in Constantinople in 610 and
killed the tyrant, Phocas. He was crowned emperor, began to restore order, and immediately
mounted a campaign to push the Persians back. The second capture of Caesarea occurred in
611 during the return of the Persian army on its way back to Persia. In that instance, they not
only sacked the city but occupied it for one year until a Byzantine siège forced them to quit
the city in 612. As they withdrew, the Persians set fire to Caesarea.
While Andrew makes veiled références to thèse traumatic events, he does not suggest
any knowledge of a far more momentous historical event: the Persian sack of Jérusalem. This
took place in 614 and resulted in unspeakable carnage. As was the case for many other
eastern cities, the Persian assault on Jérusalem was nothing less than catastrophic. Thousands
of people were put to the sword and survivors were taken away into slavery. For the sheer
scale of human suffering both the events at Caesarea and Jérusalem would hâve had an
immense effect on Andrew. But in the case of Jérusalem, the trauma rocked the entire
Christian world. Not only did Jérusalem expérience bloodshed and destruction on a massive
scale, as did Caesarea, but in Jérusalem the Persians destroyed countless monasteries and
churches on holy sites. The staggering losses included the Church of the Résurrection which
contained both the site of Golgotha and the tomb of Christ. The Persians even captured the
"True Cross." Those who escaped the initial massacre 14 were made captives and taken back
to Persia as slaves. 15 Among them was the Patriarch of Jérusalem, Zacharias.
Clive Foss dates the capture of Caesarea at 611 and states that the Persians occupied the city for one year and
burned it when they withdrew. Foss, "The Persians in Asia Minor at the end of Antiquity," The English
Historical Review 96 (1975): 721-743. Kaegi concurs. See W.E. Kaegi, Jr., "New Evidence on the Early Reign
of Heraclius," Byzantinische Zeitschrift 66 [1973]: 308-330, 323. This was only the beginning of many such
tragic occurrences for the city. In fact, Caesarea was sacked four times between 636 and 740 (Haldon,
Byzantium in the Seventh Century, 107), most notably in 647 by the Syrians and in 726 by the Arabs. The city
was later sacked again by various parties: in 1067 by the second sultan of the Seltsak, in 1243 by the Mongols
and finally by the Ottoman Turks, also in the 13* century.
14 The number of dead, arrived at by an actual count of the bodies, was 66,509 people. "Antiochus Strategos:
The Capture of Jérusalem by the Persians in 614 AD," trans. F.C. Conybeare, English Historical Review 25
(1910): 502-517, 515-516. Détails about the sack of Jérusalem, as well as what transpired for the captives who
were taken back to Persia, were preserved in a very gripping and heartbreaking account composed by a monk,
Antiochus Strategos, who was an eyewitness to the events and recorded them.
15 Approximately 35,000 captives were taken to Persia as slaves frorn Jérusalem. Sebeos, 24. The Armenian
History Attributed to Sebeos, trans. R.W. Thomson and commentary by James Howard-Johnston, Translated
Texts for Historians séries, vol. 31 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1999).