Deviation Actions
Description
For 2 decades, the Sassanid armies were winning battles and seizing Roman cities... And they were virtually unopposed !
Every confrontation led to a new withdrawal, a new humiliation for Phocas and his successor Heraclius.
Heraclius, son of the exarch of Carthage, knew energetic decisions had to be taken : devaluation, appropriation of the clergy financial resources,
reduction of the soldiers' and civil servants' pay... Then he finally launched his campaigns into Anatolia in 623 AD.
The situation was critical : the Sassanids were in position of rebuilding the Achaemenid empire (Persian Empire (Achaemenid Dynasty) in 500 BC)
while in Europe, Slavs and Avars were devastating the Balkans...
Heraclius chose to be bold to surprise the Persians. Instead of staying inside the walls of his capital to protect the remnants of his empire, he sent his armies
far away in Persian lands... And he allied himself with Turkic peoples... This strategy was so reckless that it actually worked ! In less than 5 years, Heraclius
regained all that was once lost... Khosrow II, no longer undefeatable, contested amongst the Persian nobility, is overthrown in 628 AD...
Peace was back in the Middle East, the elephants graveyard...
Now, this is a HUGE nitpick and it's very debatable but, I personally don’t think that Anatolia should be shown as entirely conquered by the Persians. Cilicia was definitely lost after the failure of the attempt to recapture Antioch and cities like Ancyra and Chalcedon were occupied by Sassanid armies but, unlike in Syria, Egypt and Palestine were Mazbans were dispatched to govern the regions, the Persians had decisive control only over the western cost of Asia Minor where was Sharbaraz. And even then, that didn’t stopped Heraclius from leaving Constantinople and go to train his new army in Cilicia (according to Theophane) and he was virtually unopposed until he finally started to march against Mesopotamia where Khosrow recalled his armies from the west, which proves that effective Persian control in eastern Tukey wasn’t as strong as in other conquered territories.
I just think that showing Anatolia in maybe a lighter shade of purple would’ve been a bit more clear but then again, a solid color shows much better how close Khosrow was to becoming a new Darius.
And also, I just noticed that small green point in Arabia... Probably nothing important...