1 Byzantium and the Sassanids make way for Islam

Byzantium and the Sassanids make way for Islam

Constantinople | Justinian's War for Trinity Worship in Italy and North Africa | More War in Italy, and Intrusions | Mob slaughters Emperor Maurice and Family and Gregory applauds | Byzantine Empire and Persia face Islam, 603-35

Constantinople

 bY  500 CE, power was distributed in North Africa and Western Europeamong the Franks, Visigoths, Ostrogoths and Vandals. In Constantinoplean emperor ruled what had been the eastern half of Roman Empire – which historians would eventually call the Byzantine Empire. This includedGreece, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine and Egypt, which were tied together by trade. The city of Constantinople traded also to the coasts of Gaul, Spain, Africa, India and China. It was a prosperous city which drew diplomats, merchants, sailors and other travelers from many parts of the globe. It was populated by Greeks, Armenians, Syrians, a few Arabs and others. Constantinople's soldiers were largely German and some were Huns. By the 500s most of Constantinople spoke Greek, with Latin being used only for religious, formal and official occasions. People of the city were united by their common Roman citizenship and their Christian faith

The emperor Justinian, who ruled from the year 527, saw himself as the rightful heir of a rule handed down from as far back as Augustus Caesar, a rule he claimed was created by God. God, he said, had displayed his love by bestowing two gifts: the priesthood and the imperial dignity. Faithful subjects viewed the emperor at Constantinople as God's vicar on earth and ruler by divine right. The emperor's Germanic subjects seem to have been most impressed, viewing the emperor as almost a god in his own right.

As a Christian city, Constantinople had many churches, monasteries and convents. It had free hospitals for the sick staffed by monks and nuns. There were alms houses for the needy and the old, and free accommodation for the homeless. The city subsidized orphanages. And in times of increased need rationing was often introduced to help the poor.

Many of Constantinople's Christians saw the world as a vale of tears in which one should not place trust or hope. But many were enthusiastic about chariot racing. From early in the morning, young and old people and priests from all over Constantinople would converge on the city's circus to view and gamble on the chariot races.

It was crowd emotions concerning chariot racing that created Constantinople's most deadly riots, the Nika riots, during Justinian's rule, in January 532. There was volitility among the people of Constantinople. Small scale riots occurred similar to football (soccer) rioting in modern times. Some team members were hanged for murder, but two escaped, and fans wanted them pardoned. Normally divided among themselves, they united against Justinianin, who had annoyed them also by his taxation. Toughened by his wife Theodora, Justinian ordered a crackdown, led by his generals. According to the scribe then living, Procopius of Caesarea, 30,000 died.

Justinian's War for Trinity Worship

Like other Christians, Justinian was expecting the Second Coming of Christ in the near future, and in preparing for this he wanted to unify what he saw as God's empire. He wished to liberate Western Europe and North Africa from the non-Trinity, Arian branch of Christianity – 

Christianity of the Vandals, the Ostrogoths and the Visigoths. ^note2  The Franks were his allies – Catholics who had converted a few decades before Justinian ascended the throne. Justinian believed that as God's chosen emperor it was his duty to create one state, one church and one law.

Justinian had inherited an on-going conflict with the Sassanid Empire, and, to wage war against the Vandals, in 532 he negotiated with the Sassanid dynasty's Khosrau I – who ruled from Ctesiphon. They called it an agreement of "Eternal Peace."

Some historians claim that the Vandals had grown soft in the one hundred years since they conquered North Africa. Perhaps they were enervated by the mild North African climate, by self-indulgence and by the new wealth that many of them had gained. The Vandal's military has been described as having declined in efficiency, and their new king, Gelimer, described as without military or diplomatic talent. Constantinople's historian, Procopius, was to attribute the coming Vandal defeat to God and fate. The Vandals, at any rate, were weaker than they would have been had they formed an alliance with their fellow Arian Christians, the Ostrogoths of Italy. Instead, they had been warring against the Ostrogoths

Rather than treat Justinian as a danger to themselves as well as to the Vandals, the Ostrogoths allowed Justinian's fleet of 500 ships, with 15,000 soldiers, to use their port in Sicily against the Vandals. That was in June, 533.  From Sicily, Justinian's military, under the commander Belisarius, invaded North Africa, and victory came fast. Belisarius defeated the Vandals by December 533.

Belisarius made slaves of the defeated Vandal warriors. Vandals were to return all estates they had taken in conquering North Africa, a pronouncement that inspired many claims and much litigation. Churches confiscated by the Vandals were to be returned to Catholic worship, and anyone guilty of having been an Arian Christian was to be excluded from public office. Justinian's forces seized Gelimer's treasures, and Gelimer was taken to Constantinople and displayed in a victory parade. He refused to abandon Arianism, but Justinian was charitable and granted him an estate on which he was allowed to retire.

The conquest of North Africa, however, was not complete. Justinian's victory against the Vandals was followed by intermittent wars between his forces and the blue-eyed Berbers (also called Moors) from North Africa's hill country. The Berbers fought on horseback along a front that was too long for Justinian's troops. For the sake of "Roman civilization," Justinian's military built a string of defensive fortifications.

Justinian Versus the Ostrogoths

Continuing his drive to reunite the Roman Empire and to defeat Arianism, Justinian moved next against the Ostrogoths. In 536, his forces, led by Belisarius, landed in Italy near Naples, and in November Belisarius conquered that city. The Ostrogoths were threatened also by the Franks to their north, and they neutralized the Franks with a bribe, gold proving stronger than Frankish loyalty to the cause pursued by Justinian. The Ostrogoths abandoned Rome, taking with them a group of Roman senators as hostages and an oath of fidelity from the Bishop of Rome, Pope Silvarius. Belisarius' army arrived there in December. The city's Catholics viewed them as foreigners. They had suffered no discrimination under the Ostrogoths, but they were hopeful and filled with respect for the emperor Justinian. The Pope was also hopeful, and he broke his word to the Ostrogoths and went over to the side of Justinian.

The king of the Ostrogoths, Witigis, assembled an army of about 150,000, mostly cavalry wearing chain-mail. With them, in March 537, he returned to Rome and began a siege of the city. The Ostrogoths cut Rome's outside supply of water – the beginning of the end of Rome's great aqueducts and an end to its luxurious public baths. The Ostrogoths tried storming Rome's wall but failed – the city's defenders in one area throwing statues down upon the attackers. Inside Rome, a secret group of anti-Catholics tried to open the gates for the Ostrogoths but failed. In the city, Belisarius gathered together women, children and slaves, and the Ostrogoths allowed them to leave unharmed. Belisarius drafted all able-bodied men in the city into his army, and joining his army were about sixteen hundred cavalrymen – mostly Huns and Slavs led by Romans – who managed to sneak into the city past the Ostrogoths.

The Ostrogoths had no navy, and Justinian's navy was giving him advantage. Not only did Justinian ship food and reinforcements up the Tiber river and into Rome, he was able to blockade food from reaching the Ostrogoths. A little more than a year after the siege had begun, the hungry Ostrogoths lifted their siege of Rome and returned north. There the Ostrogoths and their fellow Arian Christians the Burgundians blockaded the city of Milan and reduced its inhabitants to eating dogs and mice. And when the Ostrogoths and Burgundians took the city they massacred all the city's adult males, estimated at 300,000, and the Burgundians took the city's women as slaves.

By 539, food production and distribution in Italy had diminished to the extent that many were dying of malnutrition. Cannibalism appeared. Unburied corpses littered the countryside. Taking advantage of Italy's vulnerability, the Franks invaded Italy in search of plunder, slaughtering along the way.

Renewed War with the Sassanid Empire, and Plague

With Constantinople having gained in North Africa and Italy, Khosrau worried about Constantinople's greater strength, and he was interested in his reward for making Justinian's conquests possible. Meanwhile he had reorganized his army, turning it from an ill-trained feudal institution into a competent force capable of fighting prolonged campaigns. He asked Justinian for an outlet to the Black Sea and for the gold mines of Trebizond at the southeastern edge of the Black Sea, which he believed should belong to his empire. In the spring of 540, after Justinian refused, Khosrau broke the "Eternal Peace" agreement, declared war and invaded Constantinople's empire.

In 541, coinciding with the renewed war and troop movements, a plague pandemic appeared in Constantinople's empire, said to be the first recorded instance of bubonic plague. It was noticed first in the Egyptian harbor town of Pelusium, which had a huge rat population, as did much of Europe. It was deadly bacteria that had evolved and existed in fleas and passed along with flea bites.

Flees didn't travel far, but they rode on rats. On their own rats didn't travel far in their lifetime, but humans did, and humans transported infected rats. Bactirium was transferred by flea bites. Not all flees were infected, but infected flees killed their rat hosts, and if there were enough rats around the infected fleas would jump to new hosts, rats or humans. It was all dependent upon large populations of flees and rats. Among humans, weakened immune systems contributed to the danger.

The plague spread to Alexandria and moved on to Syria, to Palestine and to Constantinople, where it lasted four months and killed an estimated 40 percent of the city's population before it died from a dearth of available hosts. The emperor, Justianian was infected and seemed on the verge of death, but he was one of the lucky ones: the flee bites and disease was not too much for his immune system and he recovered.

The plague bacillus survived among flea populations elsewhere, and epidemics of the disease would rise and fall elsewhere. Modern estimates suggest half of Europe's population died as a result of the plague before it disappeared in the 700s. ^note3  And another great outbreak would arrive in Europe in the 1300s.

More War in Italy and the Empire invaded

In 540, the same year that he faced renewed war with the Sassanid empire, Justinian sent instructions to his general, Belisarius, to make peace in Italy by offering the Ostrogoths territory north of the Po River in Italy in exchange for Justinian keeping all of Italy south of the Po. The Ostrogoths agreed. Meanwhile, Justinian's generals south of the Po River had taken advantage of their power to plunder the Italians, which turned many Italians against Justinian's effort there. The Ostrogoths, under a new leader, resumed their war against Justinian's forces, and they pushed these forces southward, bypassing Rome. In the spring of 543 the Ostrogoths captured Naples, with the new leader of the Ostrogoth army, Totila, treating the city's inhabitants humanely.

The Ostrogoths advanced from town to town. The inhabitants of the town of Isaurius sided with the approaching Ostrogoths, and the town's garrison, loyal to Justinian's cause and to Catholicism, slaughtered them – passions and fear triumphing over Christian principle, as it would for centuries to come.

Totila sent an appeal to Rome's Senate, telling them that his rule of them would be better than Constantinople's, and he gave them his solemn oath not to harm the city's inhabitants. The general in charge of Rome's defense responded by expelling the Arian clergy from Rome, fearing they were agents of Totila.

Around the first part of the year 546, another Ostrogoth siege of Rome began. The city's inhabitants went from eating nettles, dog and rodents to starvation. From Justinian's commander inside the city, starving Romans requested food, permission to abandon the city or that the army kill them. The commander replied that giving them food was impossible, letting them leave the city would be dangerous and that killing them would be criminal. Then after receiving payment from those who wanted to leave, he allowed them to do so, and all the civilians left except approximately five hundred. Some of those leaving dropped from exhaustion. Some were cut down by the Ostrogoths, and some left unmolested.

In December, 546, a gate into Rome was opened from within, and Totila's forces rushed into the city. Justinian's troops and a few senators fled through another gate. Some within the city took refuge in churches, and a few were cut down by Totila's troops. Totila went to pray at St. Peter's Cathedral. He then had Rome destroyed, including a portion of the city's great walls.

Totila then went north to consolidate his strength there. Again naval superiority allowed Justinian to land troops in Italy, and his forces reoccupied Rome and rebuilt its walls. In 549 Totila and the Ostrogoths returned and began a third and final siege of the city. Bloody battles were fought, and the following year Totila took the city again.

In 551 the superiority of Justinian's navy allowed his forces to obtain the upper hand in Italy. In 552, Justinian's forces seized two strongholds on the southern coast of Spain. And in 554 his armies finally defeated the Ostrogoths – the end of a costly and painful enterprise that had devastated Italy. The Pope and Catholicism now reigned supreme in Rome and central Italy, and this was declared to be the work of God. The Trinity version of Christianity had won against Arianism, violence again deciding a matter of theology

Byzantine Empire Invaded

"Avarice, arrogance and imperial butchery, fused with religiousity for the morality of the time, with the belief that we're all just sinners: Justinian and Theodora described by Procopius inThe Secret History, published after his death and perhaps with inaccuracies." (Medieval Sourcebook, Fordham University.

In addition to its ruinations and killing a massive number of people, Justinian's conquest of Italy had drained Constantinople's resources. And Justinian's wars weakened his ability to protect his empire's northern frontier along theDanube River and his frontier to the east.

From the steppes just west of the Don River came Bulgars, who raided, ravaged towns and farms north of Constantinople, and left again. From grasslands north of Constantinople's empire, Slavic tribes speaking an Indo-European language invaded Constantinople's empire. Some of the Slavs turned from plunder to seizing the lands and settling into farming in sparsely populated areas and on what had been wasteland. The Slavs were followed by those who in theory are considered to be a Mongolian people – Avars – traditionally herders, bow legged from the constant riding on horseback.  Like the Huns before them, they fought in cavalry formation, were organized and disciplined and were interested in plunder.

By the time of Justinian's death in 565, at around 83, much of Constantinople's imperial wealth had been spent. Justinian's successor, his nephew, who took the title Justin II, inherited an empty treasury, and he discontinued Justinian's practice of buying off potential enemies. Justin halted payments to the Avars, ending a truce with the Avars that had existed since 558. United with the Avars were a Germanic tribal people called Lombards who had been moving south from around the Elbe River since the 400s. In 567, north of the empire near what today is Belgrade, they with the Avars annihilated the Gepids. The Lombards moved on, across the Alps, and in 568 they reached Milan in Italy. Justin was unable to stop their march, and soon the Lombards took control of territory between Ravenna and Rome. Justinian's war for Trinity worship in Italy had become for naught.

Mob slaughters Emperor Maurice and Family and Gregory applauds

561, Justin II and the Sassanid emperor, Khosrau I, agreed to a 50-year peace regarding their mutual frontier in Mesopotamia. Both were having trouble with others. Khosrau in 570 responded to a request from Arabs seeking assistance against conquerors from Ethiopia, and he led his army into Arabia.

Justin II and Khosrau didn't give up concerns with empire. In 570, in the Caucasus region, Armenians revolted against Sassanid rule, and Justin put the Armenians under his protection and sent troops. Constantinople sided with the Ethiopians (Abyssinians) on the Sassanid's southern frontier, and it allied with Turks on the Sassanid's eastern frontier and persuaded them to go on the attack.

The Sassanids went on the attack and invaded Constantinople's empire, and in November 573 they captured numerous cities, including Dara. The fall of Dara is said to have caused Justin a fit of insanity. He removed himself from office and went into retirement, by-passing his relatives and naming as his successor a general, Tiberius – to be known as Tiberius II.

In 582, after eight years of rule, a dying Tiberius, age 62, named his successor: an army commander who had displayed valor in warfare. This was Maurice – a man of Roman descent from Cappadocia (the middle of Asia Minor).

Emperor Maurice continued the war against the Sassanids, and he waged war against advancing Avars between Thace and the Adriatic Sea. Maurice was in desperate need of soldiers, but he received little support from his Christian subjects, thousands of whom entered monasteries to escape from the danger posed by the Avars. Maurice forbade the monasteries to receive new members until the danger from the Avars was over, and monks reacted by clamoring for Maurice's fall. In Rome, Pope Gregory the First sided with the monks and those wishing to avoid military service. And more dislike for Maurice emerged from his persecuting Monophysite Christians, including exiling Monophysite bishops, some of whom had been popular in their diocese. ^note4

Maurice became involved in Persia's succession troubles. Khosrau I died in 579 and was succeeded by his son, Hormizd IV. Hormizd came into conflict with Persia's nobles, and a general named Vahram imprisoned, blinded him and later had him executed. Vahram put Hormizd's son on the throne, Khosrau II, but aristocrats were opposed to Khosrau II, and Zoroastrian religious leaders were opposed to Khosrau's tolerance towards Christians. A conflict erupted between Khosrau II and Vahram, and Khosrau was forced to flee to Constantinople's empire and put himself at the mercy of Maurice. In exchange for land, Maurice helped Khosrau II destroy Vahram and return to power.

Both Maurice and Khosrau saw the war between their two countries as troublesome. The Persians, moreover, were being invaded from the east by Turks. Maurice's help to Khosrau II brought peace between Constantinople and Persia, with Khosrau II marrying a Christian princess from Constantinople and maintaining good relations with Maurice

The benefits of reconciliation between the two empires were not given priority by Maurice's subjects. He had defeated the advance by the Avars, but his government was short of money, and he angered his soldiers by reducing their pay and obliging them to pay for their own arms and clothing. Maurice's frugality also angered his civilian subjects. They had no use for the asceticism in Maurice that they admired in Jesus Christ. That the government was short of money concerned them less than their having been denied benefits from government spending, and they made Maurice the target of their frustration. In 602, Maurice's army mutinied in response to his order to winter beyond the Danube River – a mutiny led by a non-commissioned army officer named Phocas.

Phocas' army marched on Constantinople and seized the city. Common folk joined the revolt, aiming their hostilities not only against Maurice but also against anyone who was wealthy. It was their way of expressing themselves politically – an environment without electoral politics.

Phocas sided with the civilians against the wealthy, and wealthy Christians had their homes looted and were killed by their poorer fellow Christians. The rebels offered the throne to Maurice's son, Theodosius, who refused. With others vying for the throne, the army chose Phocas, and Constantinople's senate obediently elected Phocas as emperor. Phocas then sought the destruction of Maurice and his family. Maurice's five sons were butchered, one at a time in front of him, while Maurice prayed. Then Maurice was beheaded. Their six heads were hung up as a spectacle for the people of Constantinople, and the bodies of Maurice and his sons were cast into the sea. The empress Constantina and her three daughters, and many of the aristocracy, were also slain, some of them after being tortured. In Italy, Pope Gregory joyfully applauded Maurice's demise, and he described the coming to power of Phocas as the work of Providence. He called on Catholics to pray that Phocas might be strengthened against all his enemies.

Byzantine Empire and Persia face Islam, 603-35

The initial support that Phocas received from Constantinople's citizenry faded. Phocas was a disaster for the city. He is described as having responded to all problems with little more than brutality and as alienating many.

The murders of Maurice and his family were also a disaster for relations with Persia. Khosrau II, disturbed by the death of his friend Maurice and his family, moved to avenge those deaths – or at least he used the murders as a pretext. With Khosrau's eastern borders secure, in 603 he confidently declared war against Phocas and began invading Constantinople's empire and defeating Phocas' forces. It was the beginning of twenty-six years of renewed warfare between Constantinople and the Sassanids. Khosrau II rallied his empire, claiming his right to reconstitute the great empire of the Achaemenian kings – Cyrus and Darius.

The Zoroastrian priesthood was pleased. As they saw it, their king was responsible for conquering the world in order to spread peace and the Zoroastrian faith along with individual salvation and to prepare all humankind for the great, worldwide battle against Satan at Armageddon.

Khosrau's armies occupied Syria, Palestine and Cappadocia in the middle of Asia Minor. With Constantinople weakened by renewed war against the Sassanids, the Avars joined in the advance against Constantinople and overran Thrace and beyond to Illyricum by theAdriatic Sea, seizing agricultural lands without resistance. And they were joined by the Slavs.

North Africa was the part of Constantinople's empire left untouched, and, after seven years of rule by Phocas at Constantinople, a force from Egypt led by the military-governor to Egypt, Heraclius, sailed to Constantinople intending on overthrowing him. Heraclius and his group arrived at Constantinople in 610, and, with Phocas having lost much of his support, Heraclius easily defeated him. That same year Phocas was executed on the scaffold, and Heraclius became emperor.

The War Proves Costly and Futile

Perhaps the war turned Khosrau II against Christianity – the faith of what again had become an enemy empire. Whatever sympathies Khosrau had had toward Christianity and the many Christians within his empire early in his reign, in his later years he showered favor upon the Zoroastrians. He built fire temples for them and he sanctioned their persecution of Christians.

In 614, Khosrau's forces sacked Jerusalem, massacring 90,000 Christians, burning to the ground many Christian churches and carrying Christian relics back to Persia. In 614, the Avars sacked cities in Greece. In 616, Khosrau's forces invaded and occupied Egypt, meeting little resistance. Then in 617 the Avars neared Constantinople, while large numbers of Slavs were spreading southward and settling in Greece. In 623, Slavs ravaged the island of Crete. In 626, Avars, supported by Slavs, attacked the walls of Constantinople. A Sassanid force also assaulted the city. The Patriarch of Constantinople, Sergius, led a courageous defense of Constantinople and defeated the Avars. The Avars withdrew toPannonia and never again threatened Constantinople. Unable to penetrate Constantinople's walls and facing Constantinople's superior navy, Khosrau II withdrew his forces from around the city.

The Sassanids had overextended their forces. Their victorious move into Egypt, Palestine and Asia Minor proved hollow as they had too few people to occupy these areas while holding off a counterattack by Constantinople, drawing on the manpower of its empire. With his superior navy, Emperor Heraclius sailed into the Black Sea, his troops disembarking behind Persia's armies. Heraclius' troops began marching toward the Sassanid capital, Ctesiphon, destroying what they could along the way, while the Persians fled before them. They broke dikes to create floods in order to slow Heraclius' progress. They destroyed the great canal works in Mesopotamia, which were to fill with silt and remain neglected.

Khosrau II fled Ctesiphon. His armies remained undefeated and angry in their humiliation. Khosrau found a scapegoat for his defeat in the commander of his armies, Shahrbaraz. He planned to execute Shahrbaraz, but Khosrau's generals, who had often smarted from his insults, joined with the old rivals of the monarchy, the nobles, and imprisoned Khosrau. They fed Khosrau bread and water and killed eighteen of his sons before his eyes. Then the generals, encouraged by his remaining son, Sheroye, executed Khosrau.

Sheroye was crowned king, and he took the name Kavadh II. In 630, Kavadh signed a peace treaty with Constantinople that returned Egypt, Palestine, Asia Minor and western Mesopotamia to Constantinople. Kavadh returned to Jerusalem relics that had been taken from there, including what were believed to be the remains of the cross of Jesus. People of both empires rejoiced at the end of a long war that had bled the empires for so many years. Khavad agreed to withdraw his troops from Egypt. Prisoners of war were to be exchanged, and the two sides recognized the boundaries that had existed before the war. The war had gained nothing for either side.

Heraclius personally replaced the "True Cross" on its shrine in Jerusalem. He did not notice that on that very day some Arabs attacked Constantinople's garrison near the river Jordan. These Arabs were Islamists, beginning their assaults on territory nominally part of Constantinople's empire.

After less than a year as emperor, Kavadh died. His seven-year-old son, Ardashir III, succeeded him, Ardashir ruling in name only until general Shahrbaraz killed the boy and usurped the throne. In turn, Shahrbaraz' own soldiers killed him and dragged his body through the streets of Ctesiphon. Anarchy swept through the Sassanid empire, already exhausted by twenty-six years of war. In the coming four years, nine men tried to gain the throne, and all disappeared through flight, assassination or death by disease. Cities and provinces declared their independence.

The Sassanid empire was fading, and Constantinople was weakened, while a neighboring force that would expand against the two – Islam – was on the rise.