WEBVTT 00:00:02.069 --> 00:00:06.619 The wind pushes, and the steppe moves before it. 00:00:06.620 --> 00:00:13.109 Clouds sweep overhead, the short grass bends, and the only fixed points in the rolling landscape 00:00:13.109 --> 00:00:19.050 are a snowcapped mountain and the distant silhouette of Mren cathedral. 00:00:19.050 --> 00:00:23.460 As you walk a lonely hour from the nearest village, and wind whirls dust through the 00:00:23.460 --> 00:00:30.588 whispering grass, details of the cathedral become visible: the conical tower, a lichen-spotted 00:00:30.588 --> 00:00:32.429 roof, empty windows. 00:00:32.429 --> 00:00:39.119 At last, clambering over the ruins that surround the church, you step inside. 00:00:39.119 --> 00:00:44.759 Light spills through a collapsed wall, illuminating a floor torn apart by treasure hunters. 00:00:44.759 --> 00:00:51.199 Faded figures of Christ and the prophets gaze down on the naked apse. 00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:54.519 Over one of the side doors is a sculpted panel. 00:00:54.518 --> 00:00:59.189 Although the stone is weathered, two figures are still visible, standing on either side 00:00:59.189 --> 00:01:00.669 of a crucifix. 00:01:00.670 --> 00:01:07.109 It’s far from obvious now, but fourteen centuries ago, when the church was new, few 00:01:07.109 --> 00:01:09.590 would have mistaken its meaning. 00:01:09.590 --> 00:01:17.710 This relief almost certainly commemorates March 21, 630, the day the Roman emperor Heraclius 00:01:17.709 --> 00:01:22.949 formally returned the True Cross, the most sacred of all Christian relics, to the Church 00:01:22.950 --> 00:01:26.269 of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. 00:01:26.269 --> 00:01:31.590 The restoration of the True Cross put a symbolic close to a war that had lasted a generation 00:01:31.590 --> 00:01:34.810 and come very close to destroying the Roman Empire. 00:01:34.810 --> 00:01:40.629 Heraclius had won that war with a series of daring campaigns launched from the high steppes 00:01:40.629 --> 00:01:45.849 of Armenia – not far from the place where, just after the war’s end, an Armenian prince 00:01:45.849 --> 00:01:50.769 built Mren Cathedral to celebrate his part in the victory. 00:01:50.769 --> 00:01:56.000 Mren Cathedral was built near the ancient world’s most contested boundary: the frontier 00:01:56.000 --> 00:01:59.670 between the Roman and Persian empires. 00:01:59.670 --> 00:02:04.900 For seven centuries, beginning with the great conquests of Pompey, the eastern edge of the 00:02:04.900 --> 00:02:09.650 Roman world ran from the Armenian plateau to the Arabian Desert. 00:02:09.650 --> 00:02:14.510 The most hotly contested part of this frontier was always the center, where it bisected the 00:02:14.509 --> 00:02:16.379 fertile plains of northern Mesopotamia. 00:02:16.379 --> 00:02:23.259 But in times of war, any section of the thousand-mile border might become the center of a major 00:02:23.259 --> 00:02:25.199 conflict. 00:02:25.199 --> 00:02:30.000 Many of the wars between the Persians and Romans devolved into sieges of the fortress-cities 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:32.939 guarding the Mesopotamian frontier. 00:02:32.939 --> 00:02:39.770 Otherwise, conflicts tended to consist of raids and counter-raids, back and forth, century 00:02:39.770 --> 00:02:46.099 after century, none really changing, or really expected to change, a balance of power that 00:02:46.099 --> 00:02:49.370 seemed settled in the natural order of things. 00:02:49.370 --> 00:02:54.879 Then, at the end of the sixth century, that balance was shattered forever. 00:02:54.879 --> 00:03:01.340 Before we begin the story of the cataclysmic final war between Rome and Persia, a word 00:03:01.340 --> 00:03:03.680 about this video’s sponsor. 00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:10.069 Babbel is a language learning app that uses short interactive lessons based in real-world 00:03:10.069 --> 00:03:11.259 conversations. 00:03:11.259 --> 00:03:17.169 I’ve spent quite a bit of time in Turkey, and I 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frontier. 00:04:07.080 --> 00:04:12.580 One September morning in the year 590, the Roman sentries at Circesium, a border fort 00:04:12.580 --> 00:04:18.090 in northern Mesopotamia, were startled to see a group of Persians in court dress galloping 00:04:18.089 --> 00:04:19.250 from the east. 00:04:19.250 --> 00:04:24.720 The riders drew up beneath the gates; and their leader, a man of about twenty, called 00:04:24.720 --> 00:04:29.590 up in passable Greek, asking for an audience with the commanding officer. 00:04:29.589 --> 00:04:33.909 When the gates were opened, the young Persian revealed that he was Khosrow, the newly-crowned 00:04:33.910 --> 00:04:37.630 King of Persia, and that he was fleeing a palace coup. 00:04:37.629 --> 00:04:43.509 The commander at Circesium sent the refugee king and his retainers to general headquarters 00:04:43.509 --> 00:04:46.469 in nearby Hierapolis. 00:04:46.470 --> 00:04:52.050 From there, Khosrow dispatched a delegation to Emperor Maurice, promising generous territorial 00:04:52.050 --> 00:04:55.699 concessions in exchange for Roman aid. 00:04:55.699 --> 00:05:01.009 Maurice agreed; and the following spring, Roman forces flooded into Persia, seizing 00:05:01.009 --> 00:05:04.949 the capital and decisively defeating the rebels. 00:05:04.949 --> 00:05:08.180 Khosrow was re-installed as king. 00:05:08.180 --> 00:05:13.250 Then, in 602, Maurice was deposed in a mutiny. 00:05:13.250 --> 00:05:18.879 The usurper, Phocas, executed the emperor and his six sons, displaying their heads in 00:05:18.879 --> 00:05:21.870 Constantinople’s main forum. 00:05:21.870 --> 00:05:27.689 There were rumors, however, that Theodosius, Maurice’s eldest son and heir, had escaped 00:05:27.689 --> 00:05:34.839 by bribing the executioner; and a few weeks later, a man claiming to be Theodosius appeared 00:05:34.839 --> 00:05:37.869 at the Persian court. 00:05:37.870 --> 00:05:42.959 certainly aware that the real Theodosius was dead, Khosrow launched a massive attack on 00:05:42.959 --> 00:05:47.699 the Roman frontier, ostensibly to restore the rightful emperor. 00:05:47.699 --> 00:05:53.269 In a series of grueling sieges, the Persians seized one after another of the Mesopotamian 00:05:53.269 --> 00:05:58.000 fortress-cities, breaking through the inmost line of defenses just as the Romans plunged 00:05:58.000 --> 00:05:59.610 into a civil war. 00:05:59.610 --> 00:06:04.550 The Roman governor of Africa had raised the standard of rebellion against Phocas, and 00:06:04.550 --> 00:06:09.629 sent a fleet under his son Heraclius to Constantinople. 00:06:09.629 --> 00:06:14.659 After gaining the allegiance of Egypt, Heraclius sailed on to the capital and personally beheaded 00:06:14.660 --> 00:06:16.280 Phocas. 00:06:16.279 --> 00:06:19.929 He was crowned emperor shortly afterward. 00:06:19.930 --> 00:06:25.310 Taking advantage of the chaos at Constantinople, Khosrow occupied territory far inside the 00:06:25.310 --> 00:06:26.589 old frontier. 00:06:26.589 --> 00:06:30.269 Antioch fell, followed by Damascus. 00:06:30.269 --> 00:06:35.399 Heraclius, who had been trying to shore up the collapsing Danube frontier, marched to 00:06:35.399 --> 00:06:39.620 Syria at the head of the largest army he could scrape together. 00:06:39.620 --> 00:06:45.509 His ill-trained troops, however, were defeated, and he was forced to retreat. 00:06:45.509 --> 00:06:51.379 In 614, after a brief siege, the Persians took Jerusalem, burned most of the city’s 00:06:51.379 --> 00:06:54.680 churches, and captured the True Cross. 00:06:54.680 --> 00:06:59.560 The loss of this relic, revered throughout the Empire as the instrument of Christ’s 00:06:59.560 --> 00:07:04.819 Passion, was a serious blow to Roman morale, especially after the Cross was carried back 00:07:04.819 --> 00:07:09.430 to the Persian capital, and installed in the private chapel of Khosrow’s Christian wife 00:07:09.430 --> 00:07:11.769 Shirin. 00:07:11.769 --> 00:07:16.479 As one Persian army began to conquer Egypt, another marched across Anatolia to the Asian 00:07:16.480 --> 00:07:19.169 suburbs of Constantinople. 00:07:19.168 --> 00:07:23.870 Desperate to end the war, Heraclius attempted to negotiate with Khosrow, promising dramatic 00:07:23.870 --> 00:07:27.629 territorial concessions if the Persian forces would withdraw. 00:07:27.629 --> 00:07:34.230 By this point, however, Khosrow had achieved too much to return to the old status quo. 00:07:34.230 --> 00:07:40.030 Syria, Palestine, and Egypt were annexed to the Persian Empire, and a Persian camp was 00:07:40.029 --> 00:07:44.789 established across the Bosporus from Constantinople. 00:07:44.790 --> 00:07:49.639 In the meantime, the Avars and Slavs swept over the Danube, and occupied most of the 00:07:49.639 --> 00:07:52.370 Balkans and Greece. 00:07:52.370 --> 00:07:54.980 Little remained of the Roman Empire. 00:07:54.980 --> 00:07:58.689 Heraclius, however, continued to fight. 00:07:58.689 --> 00:08:04.490 Melting down the gold and silver plate of Constantinople’s churches to pay his soldiers, 00:08:04.490 --> 00:08:09.668 he reorganized Rome’s last army, supplementing the usual heavy infantry with brigades of 00:08:09.668 --> 00:08:14.069 archers and light cavalry for fast-moving skirmishes. 00:08:14.069 --> 00:08:19.180 With this force, he began to attack the Persian armies in Anatolia, and scored a series of 00:08:19.180 --> 00:08:20.430 minor victories. 00:08:20.430 --> 00:08:26.680 After outlasting a Persian counter-attack on Constantinople, he made the bold decision 00:08:26.680 --> 00:08:32.649 to base his army in and around Armenia, where he could disrupt enemy troop movements and 00:08:32.649 --> 00:08:35.829 launch raids into the Persian heartland. 00:08:35.830 --> 00:08:39.520 This strategy proved remarkably successful. 00:08:39.519 --> 00:08:45.549 From bases in Armenia and the Caucuses, Heraclius attacked cities throughout northern Mesopotamia, 00:08:45.549 --> 00:08:49.299 forcing the Persians to withdraw troops from the conquered territories and engage with 00:08:49.299 --> 00:08:50.990 him. 00:08:50.990 --> 00:08:56.610 After Heraclius inflicted serious defeats on Persia’s two best generals, Khosrow ordered 00:08:56.610 --> 00:09:01.570 a massive assault on Constantinople, knowing that the Roman Empire would collapse if the 00:09:01.570 --> 00:09:03.050 city was taken. 00:09:03.049 --> 00:09:08.459 Heraclius managed to crush one of the Persian armies marching on the capital. 00:09:08.460 --> 00:09:15.120 The other, however, eluded him, and joined a colossal force of Avars and Slavs in a coordinated 00:09:15.120 --> 00:09:17.399 attack on the Roman capital. 00:09:17.399 --> 00:09:22.949 The Roman navy managed to keep the Persians on the Asian side of the Bosporus, sinking 00:09:22.950 --> 00:09:28.690 the fleet of dugout canoes the Avars sent to bring their allies across. 00:09:28.690 --> 00:09:33.890 On the European side, 80,000 men hurled themselves against the fortifications. 00:09:33.889 --> 00:09:39.439 But the city’s towering triple walls held, and every assault was repulsed. 00:09:39.440 --> 00:09:44.360 After six weeks, the Slavs and Avars retreated in disorder, and the Persians withdrew to 00:09:44.360 --> 00:09:46.039 their camp. 00:09:46.039 --> 00:09:51.689 Enraged, Khosrow ordered the execution of Shahrbaraz, the Persian general responsible 00:09:51.690 --> 00:09:53.750 for coordinating the siege. 00:09:53.750 --> 00:09:58.799 Heraclius, however, managed to intercept the messenger, and forwarded the death warrant 00:09:58.799 --> 00:10:05.549 to Shahrbaraz with his compliments, suggesting that the Persian general might find it expedient 00:10:05.549 --> 00:10:07.189 to switch sides. 00:10:07.190 --> 00:10:12.420 Shahrbaraz did so, and withdrew his entire army to Syria. 00:10:12.419 --> 00:10:18.019 Having neutralized Khosrow’s best general, Heraclius resumed his offensive, allying himself 00:10:18.019 --> 00:10:22.669 with the nomadic Khazars to ravage Persian territory. 00:10:22.669 --> 00:10:28.610 On a foggy morning in December 627, near the ruins of Nineveh, he encountered the largest 00:10:28.610 --> 00:10:30.879 remaining Persian army. 00:10:30.879 --> 00:10:36.299 The ensuing battle was savage – supposedly, Heraclius killed the enemy general in single 00:10:36.299 --> 00:10:40.519 combat – but the Romans were victorious. 00:10:40.519 --> 00:10:45.939 The next day, Heraclius marched on the now undefended Persian capital. 00:10:45.940 --> 00:10:51.110 When Khosrow refused to negotiate a peace, he was deposed and executed by his nobles, 00:10:51.110 --> 00:10:54.300 who immediately began talks to end the war. 00:10:54.299 --> 00:10:59.139 The frontier was restored to its original place, all Persian troops were recalled home, 00:10:59.139 --> 00:11:04.809 and Heraclius began a triumphal march back to Constantinople. 00:11:04.809 --> 00:11:09.419 Along the way, he stopped in Armenia, where he spent a few weeks receiving the submission 00:11:09.419 --> 00:11:10.620 of the local nobles. 00:11:10.620 --> 00:11:16.490 As he marched homeward, Heraclius passed within a few miles of the newly-dug foundations of 00:11:16.490 --> 00:11:22.830 Mren Cathedral, which one of the greatest Armenian princes had just begun to construct. 00:11:22.830 --> 00:11:27.030 Although the design of this new church borrowed from both Persian and Roman architectural 00:11:27.029 --> 00:11:32.009 styles, its dome was likely inspired by Hagia Sophia. 00:11:32.009 --> 00:11:38.179 It was at that church, in September 629, that Heraclius celebrated his victory over the 00:11:38.179 --> 00:11:43.389 Persians, the True Cross suspended on gilded chains over the high altar. 00:11:43.389 --> 00:11:48.799 The following year, during a tour of the territories recovered from the Persians, Heraclius restored 00:11:48.799 --> 00:11:53.000 the relic to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. 00:11:53.000 --> 00:11:57.759 Back in Armenia, Heraclius’ restoration of the True Cross was chosen as the subject 00:11:57.759 --> 00:12:01.269 of the relief over the north door of Mren Cathedral. 00:12:01.269 --> 00:12:07.539 As a sign of his humility before God, the emperor was shown without crown or scepter. 00:12:07.539 --> 00:12:12.789 The warhorse standing a short distance from him, however, reminds the viewer of Heraclius’ 00:12:12.789 --> 00:12:17.399 campaign to save the Empire, concluded only a few years before. 00:12:17.399 --> 00:12:21.240 As the cathedral rose, the Roman Empire was at peace. 00:12:21.240 --> 00:12:26.399 But before construction was completed, and before Rome or Persia could rebuild their 00:12:26.399 --> 00:12:30.169 militaries, a new threat emerged. 00:12:30.169 --> 00:12:35.329 Fast-moving armies of Arab horsemen, unified and fired by the new religion of Islam, tore 00:12:35.330 --> 00:12:41.060 through the eastern frontier, and swiftly conquered Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. 00:12:41.059 --> 00:12:46.569 By the time Mren cathedral was completed, around 640, the world Heraclius had fought 00:12:46.570 --> 00:12:49.360 so hard to restore was vanishing. 00:12:49.360 --> 00:12:52.950 The Persian Empire would disintegrate within a decade. 00:12:52.950 --> 00:12:58.050 And although the Roman Empire would survive, it would emerge from ordeal much smaller and 00:12:58.049 --> 00:13:00.329 profoundly changed. 00:13:00.330 --> 00:13:05.520 In this sense, the years in which Mren Cathedral was constructed mark the end of the antique 00:13:05.519 --> 00:13:10.389 world, and the beginning of a new and very different era. 00:13:10.389 --> 00:13:15.069 Through the ensuing centuries, as Arab and Byzantine raiding parties passed back and 00:13:15.070 --> 00:13:21.620 forth to the south, a town grew up around Mren cathedral; but then borders shifted, 00:13:21.620 --> 00:13:26.700 and trade routes moved, and the town sank back into the steppes. 00:13:26.700 --> 00:13:31.730 Six hundred years of abandonment have drawn the cathedral, brick by brick, down to the 00:13:31.730 --> 00:13:33.420 whispering grass. 00:13:33.419 --> 00:13:39.909 Birds call in the dome, and the sun shines through the collapsing walls as the wind pushes, 00:13:39.909 --> 00:13:43.389 and the steppe moves before it. 00:13:43.389 --> 00:13:47.659 If you enjoyed this video, please consider supporting toldinstone on Patreon. 00:13:47.659 --> 00:13:53.949 You might also enjoy my book, Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants. 00:13:53.950 --> 00:13:55.569 Thanks for watching.