The Byzantine empire, then calling itself "New Rome", had along with its Iranian counter-
part, kept a tight hand over the civilized world for several hundred years. Its emperors ruled
in direct succession to the Roman Emperors over vast and populous lands in Europe, Asia
and Africa. The empire was enormously rich while its phenomenally good armies and navies
had compiled a successful military record. Coming from a Greek family, Heraclius was born
in Cappadocia but was brought up in Carthage where his father was the Exarch of Africa. In
his early years he never made any illusion to his fire of genius, avarice for power or qualities
of leadership.
When Phocus killed the tyrant Emperor Maurice, in 602 A.D., and usurped the throne, the
Chosroes of Persia declared himself the avenger of his former benefactor. The Byzantine
Empire absorbed heavy losses as the Iranians reduced Antioch, Damascus, and Jerusalem
and took away the True Cross in triumph. Soon afterwards they entered Alexandria, and
Egypt too was gone. It seemed to be the end of the great Roman Empire in the East. It was
then that the secret emissaries of the Senate prevailed upon the Exarch of Africa to send his
son from Carthage to Constantinople. Heraclius was crowned in 610 A.D., when the Empire,
afflicted by famine and pestilence, was incapable of resistance and hopeless of relief against
the enemy laying a siege to the capital.
Heraclius spent the first few years of his reign beseeching the clemency of Persians and
suing out peace, but in 621 A.D. he was suddenly awakened from his sloth. This was the year
in which the prediction of Roman Victory, something most "distant of its accomplishment",
was made by the Qur'an. In a sudden, displaying the courage of a hero, Heraclius exchanged
his purple for the simple garb of a penitent and warrior and decided to become the deliver-
er of Christendom and restorer of the greatness of the Eastern Empire. He began a great
counter offensive and defeating the Persians of their own territory, brought his victorious
arms to the capital of Iranian Empire. Amidst the triumph of his succeeding campaigns,
Heraclius avenged the honor of Byzantium, crushed the arms as well as the glory of Iranian
Empire until it seemed to be nearing its end.
Heraclius returned to Constantinople in 625 A.D. and then, in 629, marched in triumph to
Jerusalem for restoring the True Cross to the holy sepulcher. The people went forth to meet
the victor, with tears and thunderous applauses, spreading carpets and spraying aromatic
herbs on his path. The glorious event was celebrated with the tumult of public joy. While
the emperor triumphed at Jerusalem, he was conveyed the letter of the Messenger of Allah
(r) inviting him to embrace Islam. By that time, Heraclius seemed to have exhausted him-
self. He became the "slave of sloth, of pleasure, or of superstition, the careless and impotent
spectator of the public calamities," as he had been in the beginning, until the new move-
ment of Islam exploded out of Arabia and took away the very provinces Heraclius had recap-
tured from the Persians. The boundaries of the Byzantine Empire again shrunk to the Asia
Minor and the coastal regions of the Mediterranean Sea in Europe.