AFTER YEARS OF CONSTANT WARFARE, the Emperor Heraclius concluded peace terms with the defeated Sasanians in 628, and as a result the Byzantines regained control of Palestine. Heraclius himself came to Jerusalem to return the True Cross and while there installed Modestus as the Patriarch of Jerusalem and dealt with the Jews who had supported the Sasanians. He also reestablished Byzantine authority throughout the area, but was soon to disrupt the ecclesiastical hierarchy by his doctrine of Monothelitism . The Byzantines were quickly to lose control of the area once again when the Muslims invaded in the course of the 630s.

Heraclius’ Visit to Jerusalem

The peace terms arranged in 628 provided for Sasanian withdrawal from Byzantine territory. Heraclius enabled the Persians in Edessa, Palestine, Jerusalem, and other Roman cities to travel through Byzantine territory unharmed while peacefully withdrawing to Persia. The evacuation may not have been either prompt , smooth or thorough, although there are no reported incidents relating to Palestine. Michael the Syrian records that the Sasanians evacuated Egypt, Palestine, and all the territory of the Romans, apparently in the second half of 629. In any event, no Sasanians were left in the area by the time Heraclius came in the spring of 630, nor at the time of the Muslim raid to Mu’ta in 8/September 629.

Heraclius personally took back to Jerusalem the relics of the True Cross, which the Sasanians had taken to Persia in 614. This incident is widely reported. Sebēos in particular reports Heraclius’ joyful return to Jerusalem with the True Cross, adding that he “put each of the vessels of the churches back in its place; and he gave wealth and incense to all the churches and inhabitants of the city” . Both Pantaleon, a monk in Jerusalem (NN) and Sophronius wrote about the Restoration of the Cross, the former wrote a homily and the latter a poem.

The year when Heraclius came to Jerusalem is notoriously difficult to establish. The literary sources for the events in the Sasanian Empire during the first years after Heraclius’ victory are particularly unclear as to when and how Heraclius recovered the True Cross. The Acts of Anastasius the Persian, however, explicitly state that Heraclius came to Jerusalem in the third indiction, September 629 to August 630, while the accounts of the capture of Jerusalem furnish the date of March, probably 630, making March 630 the most likely date.