Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

46 2 A chronological survey
further. 173 Be that as it may, it did not take Heraclius long to offer higher
payments and buy the neutrality of the Avars once more. In the spring of
323 he began a new offensive via Cappadocia into Armenia, where he took
Dvīn and other cities and also moved further south against Gandzak. Here
he destroyed an important Zoroastrian sanctuary that had been founded
by the first Sasanian ruler Ardaˇsīr I (224–40), apparently in order to take
revenge for the preceding raid of Jerusalem. The years 624 and 625 saw
numerous confrontations between the two opponents in which the Romans
were victorious for the greater part. However, as Heraclius could not score
a decisive victory he withdrew to Cilicia in 625. 174
In the following year Xusrō decided to attack Heraclius’ army in Cilicia
and to march against Constantinople in order to gain a sudden decisive
advantage. ˇ Sahrbarāz crossed Asia Minor and advanced as far as Calchedon.
The situation became even more threatening when, shortly after, the ruler
of the Avars, the Khagan, also pressed against Constantinople with a large
force and besieged the city from two sides. 175 However, the Avars suffered
a major defeat by sea on 10 August 626 and immediately withdrew so that
the Sasanian plan of a united front against Byzantium failed and with it
the whole Persian offensive. ˇ Sahrbarāz returned from Calchedon to Syria.
At this point the last great Roman offensive began.
While the capital was under threat, Heraclius stayed away from Constantinople
so that he would not be surrounded. In Lazika he built
up a new, powerful army and established contacts with the Chazars, a
Turkish people located between the Sea of Azov and the Caspian Sea. This
alliance between Romans and Chazars was to become both a threat to
Persia and a characteristic of a new Roman Eastern policy. 176 In the summer
of 627 Romans and Chazars fought successfully against the Sasanians
in the southern Caucasus region and conquered Tiflis in Sasanian eastern
Georgia. Then Heraclius decided to invade Sasanian territory. 177 At
the ruins of Niniveh the Roman troops clashed with a Persian army that
Xusrō II had sent against them in order to stop Heraclius’ advance. When
in December of 627 a battle was fought the Persians suffered a crushing
defeat, which decided the war in favour of Byzantium. Heraclius moved
on to find Xusrō II in his favourite residence at Dastagird. The Sasanian
173 On the Avars see Samolin 1957–8: 62–5; Pohl 1988; Daim et al. 1996.
174 Zuckerman 2002: 122–55.
175 Bariˇsić 1954: 371–95; Stratos 1967: 370–6; Howard-Johnston 1995a: 131–42.
176 On Heraclius’ stay in the Caucasus region and his diplomatic contacts with the Chazars see Stratos
1968: 197–203.
177 For a detailed account see Kaegi 2002: 156–91.