Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

21 The peace treaty of 628 151
agreed that all Persian prisoners would be released and that the emperor
would guarantee their safe return.
There is no doubt that the terms of 628 primarily aimed at a restoration
of the status quo ante bellum. The new borders would be those which
had existed between the Byzantine and the Sasanian Empires before the
beginning of the war in the year 602. The Persians had to withdraw from
all territories they had conquered in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor
and in Western Mesopotamia and had to return them to Byzantium. 161
According to Theophanes the Persian troops left these areas during the first
year of the reign of Kavādh II. 162 In addition, the Persians had to agree that
they would release the captives they had deported to the Sasanian Empire
from these areas. 163
One further aspect must have been particularly important for Heraclius,
namely the return of the Holy Cross, which the Sasanians had carried
off when they conquered Jerusalem in 614. 164 Its festive restoration
in Jerusalem, probably in March 630, earned Heraclius great prestige and
made it manifest to the world that a Christian Byzantium had triumphed
over a Zoroastrian Sasanian Empire, and this triumph had been sealed by
the foedus of 628. 165
161 Rawlinson 1875: 536.
162 Theoph. Chron. am 6119 (p. 327 ed. de Boor); on the execution of the terms of the treaty see Stratos
1968: 245–56.
163 Theoph. Chron. am 6118 (p. 327 ed. de Boor).
164 On the Sasanian conquest of Jerusalem see the references on p. 45 n. 171.
165 See Stratos 1968: 245–56.