File:Sasanian Empire 621 A.D.jpg

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Chosroes II continues his victorious career, conquering Egypt and Asia Minor and occupying both Alexandria and Chalcedon across the Bosporus from Constantinople. ^[1][2]

In this campaign the Persians broke through Byzantium's eastern provinces; in 609, they reached Chalcedon, directly facing the capital, and their triumphal progress, far more serious than before, occupied the first part of the reign of Herakleios.^[3][4][5]

Chosroes II of Persia who owed his throne to Maurice, declared war on the murderer of his benefactor.^[6] Persian armies were victorious in Mesopotamia and Syria, capturing the fortress towns of Dara, Amida Haran, Edessa, Hierapolis and Aleppo, though they were repulsed from Antioch and Damascus. They then overran Byzantine Armenia and raided deep into Anatolia through the provinces of Cappadocia, Phrygia, Galatia, and Bithynia. Byzantine resistance collapsed. A Persian Army penetrated as far as the Bosporus. Antioch and most of the remaining Byzantine fortresses in Syria and Mesopotamia and Armenia were captured(611). After a long sieges, the invaders took Damascus (613) and Jerusalem (614). Chosroes then began a determined invasion of Anatolia (615). Persian forces under General Shahen captured Chalcedon on the Bosporus after a long siege (616). Here the Persians remained, within one of of Constantinople, for more than 10 years. Meanwhile, they captured Ancyra and Rhodes (620); remaining Byzantine fortresses in Armenia were captured; the Persian occupation cut off a principal Byzantine recruiting ground. After defeating Byzantine garrisons in the Nile Valley, Chosroes marched across the Lybian Desert as far as Cyrene. These victories cut off the usual grain supplies from Egypt to Constantinople. Under Chosroes II the Persians virtually eliminated the Byzantines from all their Asiatic and Egyptian provinces, expanding Sassanid dominions to the extent of the Empire of Darius.

The able Persian generals Shahrvaraz and Shahin led the Sassanid armies through Mesopotamia, Armenia and Syria into Palestine and Asia Minor. They took Antioch in 611, Damascus in 613, and then Jerusalem in 614 (sending a shock through the whole Christian world). At Jerusalem the Christian defenders refused to give up the city. It was taken by assault after three weeks and given over to the sack. The Persians carried off the True Cross to Ctesiphon. Within another four years they had conquered Egypt and were in control of Asia Minor, as far as Chalcedon, opposite of Constantinople on the shores of the Bosporus. No shah of Persia since Cyrus had achieved such military successes.^[7][8]