Khusro’s War of Revenge

Abstract

The circumstances leading to war are enumerated—(1) gathering crises in the Balkans, Italy, and Armenia, and (2) Persian dissatisfaction with the current line of the frontier in the west. The November 602 coup of Phocas and execution of the Emperor Maurice, who had restored Khusro II to the Sasanian throne in 591, provided Khusro with a perfect pretext for going to war. The focus is then on Persian strategy. The main offensive thrusts alternated between the Mesopotamian and Armenian theatres of war in a first phase (603–5) which saw the outer defences of the Roman Empire breached. After a year’s pause, the offensive was renewed on a larger scale, simultaneous pushes being made in both theatres of war from 607, which brought Persian armies to the inner line of Roman defence on the Euphrates in 610.