True Cross Returns: Heraclius Restores Jerusalem's Holy Relic

Emperor Heraclius walked barefoot through the gates of Jerusalem, carrying the relic that Christendom believed was the cross on which Jesus had been crucified. The date was March 21, 630, and the True Cross was coming home after 15 years in Persian hands. Its return marked the climax of a war that had nearly destroyed the Byzantine Empire. The Sassanid Persians had captured Jerusalem in 614, massacring tens of thousands of Christians and seizing the True Cross from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The relic's loss was a spiritual catastrophe for Byzantine Christians, equivalent to losing the Ark of the Covenant. Emperor Heraclius spent the next decade rebuilding his shattered military, borrowing gold from the Church itself to finance what became a religious crusade centuries before the word existed. Heraclius launched his counter-offensive in 622, leading armies deep into Persian territory in a campaign that military historians consider one of the most remarkable comebacks in ancient warfare. He defeated the Persian army at the Battle of Nineveh in 627, and the Sassanid Empire collapsed into civil war. The Persian general Shahrbaraz negotiated the return of the True Cross as part of the peace settlement. The triumph was short-lived. Within a decade, Arab Muslim armies swept out of the Arabian Peninsula and conquered both Jerusalem and the entire Persian Empire. Heraclius, who had staked everything on restoring Christian control of the Holy Land, watched helplessly as a new power reshaped the map of the Middle East permanently. His victory, so hard-won, lasted barely seven years.