[00:02] The wind pushes, and the steppe moves before
it.
[00:06] Clouds sweep overhead, the short grass bends,
and the only fixed points in the rolling landscape
[00:13] are a snowcapped mountain and the distant
silhouette of Mren cathedral.
[00:19] As you walk a lonely hour from the nearest
village, and wind whirls dust through the
[00:23] whispering grass, details of the cathedral
become visible: the conical tower, a lichen-spotted
[00:30] roof, empty windows.
[00:32] At last, clambering over the ruins that surround
the church, you step inside.
[00:39] Light spills through a collapsed wall, illuminating
a floor torn apart by treasure hunters.
[00:44] Faded figures of Christ and the prophets gaze
down on the naked apse.
[00:51] Over one of the side doors is a sculpted panel.
[00:54] Although the stone is weathered, two figures
are still visible, standing on either side
[00:59] of a crucifix.
[01:00] It’s far from obvious now, but fourteen
centuries ago, when the church was new, few
[01:07] would have mistaken its meaning.
[01:09] This relief almost certainly commemorates
March 21, 630, the day the Roman emperor Heraclius
[01:17] formally returned the True Cross, the most
sacred of all Christian relics, to the Church
[01:22] of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.
[01:26] The restoration of the True Cross put a symbolic
close to a war that had lasted a generation
[01:31] and come very close to destroying the Roman
Empire.
[01:34] Heraclius had won that war with a series of
daring campaigns launched from the high steppes
[01:40] of Armenia – not far from the place where,
just after the war’s end, an Armenian prince
[01:45] built Mren Cathedral to celebrate his part
in the victory.
[01:50] Mren Cathedral was built near the ancient
world’s most contested boundary: the frontier
[01:56] between the Roman and Persian empires.
[01:59] For seven centuries, beginning with the great
conquests of Pompey, the eastern edge of the
[02:04] Roman world ran from the Armenian plateau
to the Arabian Desert.
[02:09] The most hotly contested part of this frontier
was always the center, where it bisected the
[02:14] fertile plains of northern Mesopotamia.
[02:16] But in times of war, any section of the thousand-mile
border might become the center of a major
[02:23] conflict.
[02:25] Many of the wars between the Persians and
Romans devolved into sieges of the fortress-cities
[02:30] guarding the Mesopotamian frontier.
[02:32] Otherwise, conflicts tended to consist of
raids and counter-raids, back and forth, century
[02:39] after century, none really changing, or really
expected to change, a balance of power that
[02:46] seemed settled in the natural order of things.
[02:49] Then, at the end of the sixth century, that
balance was shattered forever.
[02:54] Before we begin the story of the cataclysmic
final war between Rome and Persia, a word
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[04:04] Back to the Roman frontier.
[04:07] One September morning in the year 590, the
Roman sentries at Circesium, a border fort
[04:12] in northern Mesopotamia, were startled to
see a group of Persians in court dress galloping
[04:18] from the east.
[04:19] The riders drew up beneath the gates; and
their leader, a man of about twenty, called
[04:24] up in passable Greek, asking for an audience
with the commanding officer.
[04:29] When the gates were opened, the young Persian
revealed that he was Khosrow, the newly-crowned
[04:33] King of Persia, and that he was fleeing a
palace coup.
[04:37] The commander at Circesium sent the refugee
king and his retainers to general headquarters
[04:43] in nearby Hierapolis.
[04:46] From there, Khosrow dispatched a delegation
to Emperor Maurice, promising generous territorial
[04:52] concessions in exchange for Roman aid.
[04:55] Maurice agreed; and the following spring,
Roman forces flooded into Persia, seizing
[05:01] the capital and decisively defeating the rebels.
[05:04] Khosrow was re-installed as king.
[05:08] Then, in 602, Maurice was deposed in a mutiny.
[05:13] The usurper, Phocas, executed the emperor
and his six sons, displaying their heads in
[05:18] Constantinople’s main forum.
[05:21] There were rumors, however, that Theodosius,
Maurice’s eldest son and heir, had escaped
[05:27] by bribing the executioner; and a few weeks
later, a man claiming to be Theodosius appeared
[05:34] at the Persian court.
[05:37] certainly aware that the real Theodosius was
dead, Khosrow launched a massive attack on
[05:42] the Roman frontier, ostensibly to restore
the rightful emperor.
[05:47] In a series of grueling sieges, the Persians
seized one after another of the Mesopotamian
[05:53] fortress-cities, breaking through the inmost
line of defenses just as the Romans plunged
[05:58] into a civil war.
[05:59] The Roman governor of Africa had raised the
standard of rebellion against Phocas, and
[06:04] sent a fleet under his son Heraclius to Constantinople.
[06:09] After gaining the allegiance of Egypt, Heraclius
sailed on to the capital and personally beheaded
[06:14] Phocas.
[06:16] He was crowned emperor shortly afterward.
[06:19] Taking advantage of the chaos at Constantinople,
Khosrow occupied territory far inside the
[06:25] old frontier.
[06:26] Antioch fell, followed by Damascus.
[06:30] Heraclius, who had been trying to shore up
the collapsing Danube frontier, marched to
[06:35] Syria at the head of the largest army he could
scrape together.
[06:39] His ill-trained troops, however, were defeated,
and he was forced to retreat.
[06:45] In 614, after a brief siege, the Persians
took Jerusalem, burned most of the city’s
[06:51] churches, and captured the True Cross.
[06:54] The loss of this relic, revered throughout
the Empire as the instrument of Christ’s
[06:59] Passion, was a serious blow to Roman morale,
especially after the Cross was carried back
[07:04] to the Persian capital, and installed in the
private chapel of Khosrow’s Christian wife
[07:09] Shirin.
[07:11] As one Persian army began to conquer Egypt,
another marched across Anatolia to the Asian
[07:16] suburbs of Constantinople.
[07:19] Desperate to end the war, Heraclius attempted
to negotiate with Khosrow, promising dramatic
[07:23] territorial concessions if the Persian forces
would withdraw.
[07:27] By this point, however, Khosrow had achieved
too much to return to the old status quo.
[07:34] Syria, Palestine, and Egypt were annexed to
the Persian Empire, and a Persian camp was
[07:40] established across the Bosporus from Constantinople.
[07:44] In the meantime, the Avars and Slavs swept
over the Danube, and occupied most of the
[07:49] Balkans and Greece.
[07:52] Little remained of the Roman Empire.
[07:54] Heraclius, however, continued to fight.
[07:58] Melting down the gold and silver plate of
Constantinople’s churches to pay his soldiers,
[08:04] he reorganized Rome’s last army, supplementing
the usual heavy infantry with brigades of
[08:09] archers and light cavalry for fast-moving
skirmishes.
[08:14] With this force, he began to attack the Persian
armies in Anatolia, and scored a series of
[08:19] minor victories.
[08:20] After outlasting a Persian counter-attack
on Constantinople, he made the bold decision
[08:26] to base his army in and around Armenia, where
he could disrupt enemy troop movements and
[08:32] launch raids into the Persian heartland.
[08:35] This strategy proved remarkably successful.
[08:39] From bases in Armenia and the Caucuses, Heraclius
attacked cities throughout northern Mesopotamia,
[08:45] forcing the Persians to withdraw troops from
the conquered territories and engage with
[08:49] him.
[08:50] After Heraclius inflicted serious defeats
on Persia’s two best generals, Khosrow ordered
[08:56] a massive assault on Constantinople, knowing
that the Roman Empire would collapse if the
[09:01] city was taken.
[09:03] Heraclius managed to crush one of the Persian
armies marching on the capital.
[09:08] The other, however, eluded him, and joined
a colossal force of Avars and Slavs in a coordinated
[09:15] attack on the Roman capital.
[09:17] The Roman navy managed to keep the Persians
on the Asian side of the Bosporus, sinking
[09:22] the fleet of dugout canoes the Avars sent
to bring their allies across.
[09:28] On the European side, 80,000 men hurled themselves
against the fortifications.
[09:33] But the city’s towering triple walls held,
and every assault was repulsed.
[09:39] After six weeks, the Slavs and Avars retreated
in disorder, and the Persians withdrew to
[09:44] their camp.
[09:46] Enraged, Khosrow ordered the execution of
Shahrbaraz, the Persian general responsible
[09:51] for coordinating the siege.
[09:53] Heraclius, however, managed to intercept the
messenger, and forwarded the death warrant
[09:58] to Shahrbaraz with his compliments, suggesting
that the Persian general might find it expedient
[10:05] to switch sides.
[10:07] Shahrbaraz did so, and withdrew his entire
army to Syria.
[10:12] Having neutralized Khosrow’s best general,
Heraclius resumed his offensive, allying himself
[10:18] with the nomadic Khazars to ravage Persian
territory.
[10:22] On a foggy morning in December 627, near the
ruins of Nineveh, he encountered the largest
[10:28] remaining Persian army.
[10:30] The ensuing battle was savage – supposedly,
Heraclius killed the enemy general in single
[10:36] combat – but the Romans were victorious.
[10:40] The next day, Heraclius marched on the now
undefended Persian capital.
[10:45] When Khosrow refused to negotiate a peace,
he was deposed and executed by his nobles,
[10:51] who immediately began talks to end the war.
[10:54] The frontier was restored to its original
place, all Persian troops were recalled home,
[10:59] and Heraclius began a triumphal march back
to Constantinople.
[11:04] Along the way, he stopped in Armenia, where
he spent a few weeks receiving the submission
[11:09] of the local nobles.
[11:10] As he marched homeward, Heraclius passed within
a few miles of the newly-dug foundations of
[11:16] Mren Cathedral, which one of the greatest
Armenian princes had just begun to construct.
[11:22] Although the design of this new church borrowed
from both Persian and Roman architectural
[11:27] styles, its dome was likely inspired by Hagia
Sophia.
[11:32] It was at that church, in September 629, that
Heraclius celebrated his victory over the
[11:38] Persians, the True Cross suspended on gilded
chains over the high altar.
[11:43] The following year, during a tour of the territories
recovered from the Persians, Heraclius restored
[11:48] the relic to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher
in Jerusalem.
[11:53] Back in Armenia, Heraclius’ restoration
of the True Cross was chosen as the subject
[11:57] of the relief over the north door of Mren
Cathedral.
[12:01] As a sign of his humility before God, the
emperor was shown without crown or scepter.
[12:07] The warhorse standing a short distance from
him, however, reminds the viewer of Heraclius’
[12:12] campaign to save the Empire, concluded only
a few years before.
[12:17] As the cathedral rose, the Roman Empire was
at peace.
[12:21] But before construction was completed, and
before Rome or Persia could rebuild their
[12:26] militaries, a new threat emerged.
[12:30] Fast-moving armies of Arab horsemen, unified
and fired by the new religion of Islam, tore
[12:35] through the eastern frontier, and swiftly
conquered Syria, Palestine, and Egypt.
[12:41] By the time Mren cathedral was completed,
around 640, the world Heraclius had fought
[12:46] so hard to restore was vanishing.
[12:49] The Persian Empire would disintegrate within
a decade.
[12:52] And although the Roman Empire would survive,
it would emerge from ordeal much smaller and
[12:58] profoundly changed.
[13:00] In this sense, the years in which Mren Cathedral
was constructed mark the end of the antique
[13:05] world, and the beginning of a new and very
different era.
[13:10] Through the ensuing centuries, as Arab and
Byzantine raiding parties passed back and
[13:15] forth to the south, a town grew up around
Mren cathedral; but then borders shifted,
[13:21] and trade routes moved, and the town sank
back into the steppes.
[13:26] Six hundred years of abandonment have drawn
the cathedral, brick by brick, down to the
[13:31] whispering grass.
[13:33] Birds call in the dome, and the sun shines
through the collapsing walls as the wind pushes,
[13:39] and the steppe moves before it.
[13:43] If you enjoyed this video, please consider
supporting toldinstone on Patreon.
[13:47] You might also enjoy my book, Naked Statues,
Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants.
[13:53] Thanks for watching.