Jewish revolt against Heraclius

The revolt against Heraclius was a Jewish insurrection against the Byzantine Empire across the Levant, coming to the aid of the Sasanian Persia during the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628. The revolt began with the Battle of Antioch (613) and culminated with the conquest of Jerusalem in 614 by Persian and Jewish forces and the establishment of Jewish autonomy. The revolt ended with the departure of the Persian troops and an eventual surrender of Jewish rebels to the Byzantines in the year 625 (or 628).

Background
During an early stage of Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, Khosrau II decided on a tactical move to establish a military alliance with the Jewish population of the Sasanian Empire, with a promise to re-establish Jewish rule over the Land of Israel (Palaestina province of Byzantine Empire at that time). Following Khosrau II's pact with Nehemiah, son of Jewish Exilarch, a Jewish army of about 20,000 was recruited in Persia and marched together with Persian troops towards the Levant.

Persian invasion
Following the victory in Antioch, the joint Sasanian-Jewish army commanded by Shahrbaraz arrived to Palaestina Prima and conquered Caesaria Maritima. The army was then joined by Benjamin of Tiberias (according to Jewish sources a man of immense wealth), who enlisted and armed additional Jewish soldiers from Tiberias, Nazareth and from the mountain cities of Galilee. Together they marched on Jerusalem. Later, they were joined by the Jews of the southern parts of the country and supported by a band of Arabs. The united forces took Jerusalem in July 614.

According to Jewish sources, after the conquest of Jerusalem, Nehemiah ben Hushiel had been appointed the ruler of Jerusalem. He began making arrangements to rebuild the Temple and to sort out genealogies to establish a new High Priesthood.

Christian rebellion
Several months after the Persian conquest, a riot occurred in Jerusalem, in which the Jewish governor Nehemiah was killed by a band of young Christians, along with his "council of the righteous". Shortly, the events escalated into a full-scale Christian rebellion, resulting in a battle of Jews and Christians inside Jerusalem. In the aftermath many Jews were killed and survivors fled to Caesarea, still held by the Persian Army.

Persian reaction was ruthless - Persian Sasanian general Xorheam assembled his troops and went and encamped around Jerusalem and besieged in for 19 days. Eventually, digging beneath the foundations of the Jerusalem, they destroyed the wall and on the 19th day of the siege, the Judeo-Persian forces took Jerusalem. For three days they were slaughtering almost all the people in the city and allegedly burned the place down.

According to Antiochus Strategos, whose perspective appears to be that of a Byzantine Greek and shows an antipathy to the Jews, tens of thousands of Christians—the lowest estimate is 30,000—were massacred during the conquest of the city. 37,000 were reportedly deported by the Persians and many more thousands sold as slaves to the Jews. Strategos wrote that Jews purchased Christians to kill them. The Jewish community had no time for the monuments attesting the ascendancy of Christian orthodox culture in the city, and all monasteries and churches were burned down. Modern archaeological assessment of Jerusalem didn't however find significant sign of destruction - neither in Churches or in habitation areas.

In the following months the Jews swept through the Land of Israel, destroyed the monasteries, and expelled or killed the monks. Bands of Jews from Jerusalem, Tiberias, Galilee, Damascus, and even from Cyprus, united and undertook an incursion against Tyre in the north, having been invited by the 4,000 Jewish inhabitants of that city to attack the Christians on Easter night. The expedition, however, miscarried, as the Christians of Tyre learned of the impending danger, and seized the 4,000 Tyrian Jews as hostages. The Jewish rebels destroyed the churches around Tyre, but were avenged by the Christians by killing two thousand of their Jewish prisoners. The Jewish besiegers, to save the remaining prisoners, withdrew.

The Sasanian Jewish Commonwealth
Though there are limited sources on what happened in the following years, it appears Jews were given permission to run the region, and they did so effectively for the next five years. The Jews of Jerusalem gained complete control over the city, and much of Judea became an autonomous Jewish province of the Sasanian Empire.

Overall, the Jewish rebels conjugated with the Persian Army took the upper hand in the struggle and secured rule over much of the Diocese of the East. When news of the destruction in Jerusalem reached Khosrau, he was terrified - he did not intend to rival Christians that far. He commanded that the Jews be driven from the city, and the king's order was quickly implemented, with great urgency. The Jewish troops were stationed outside the Eastern Gate of the Temple Mount.

The Byzantine response was swift - to counter the Jewish insolence there was the largest ever meeting of Merovingian Bishops, the Fifth Council of Paris in Gaul. They decided that all Jews holding military or civil positions must accept baptism, together with their families. Massive Jewish persecutions began to occur throughout Byzantine Empire.

The distrust between the Jews and Khosrau reached its lowest point, when it was said that Khosrau had acted treacherously and plotted the assassination of Nehemiah. The distrust between former allies resulted in the deportation of many Jews to Persia. Meanwhile, the Persian troops over-ran Jordan, Israel and the whole of the Sinai Peninsula, and reached the frontiers of Egypt. Arabia was split between pro-Persian and pro-Byzantine tribes.

Restoration of Byzantine rule
The sources greatly diverge on what happened in the aftermath of the revolt. According to some sources, in 625 the Byzantine army reconquered the territory, and amnesty was granted to Benjamin of Tiberias and the Jews who had joined the Persians. In 628, after the defeat and death of Khosrau II, Heraclius came as victor into Jerusalem. The Jews of Tiberias and Nazareth, under the leadership of Benjamin of Tiberias, changed sides and joined him. It is even claimed that Benjamin accompanied Heraclius himself during his entry into the city. In 629, the situation escalated, resulting in a wide scale massacre of Jewish population throughout Jerusalem and Galilee, ensuing with tens of thousands of Jews put to flight from Palaestina to Egypt. According to Eutychius (887-940), the Emperor would have kept peace with the Jews, had not fanatic monks instigated him to a massacre.

According to Abrahamson's summary, in 617, Khosrau issued an order to grant amnesty to Byzantine prisoners as a gesture. He further ordered Jewish soldiers to leave Jerusalem and forbade Jews to settle within a three mile radius of the city. The Persians also placed a Christian priest named Modestos over the city as governor. Despite Khasrau's orders, the Jewish soldiers continued to encamp outside golden gate of Jerusalem. Two years later, Khasrau withdrew all support from Jewish autonomy and Byzantine troops became able to attack the Jewish soldiers, trapped outside the golden gate. The Byzantine attack on Jewish contingent resulted in a slaughter of some 20,000 Jewish troops. Heraclius, unsatisfied with Persian gestures, went on a rampage killing every Jew found in the country. Men, women and children are killed without mercy. By 622 CE, the Roman Emperor Heraclius had assembled an international army against the Persians. He had retaken all Judea (Palaestina Prima) from the Sasanian Persians.

Aftermath
After the defeat of the Persian Empire, a new threat, the Arab Islamic Empire, had emerged in the region. Heraclius sought to consolidate and secure his gains. Though he had previously granted the Jews amnesty for their revolt, he would not risk another likely revolt in a war with the Arabs.

Heraclius experienced a most exquisite triumph as he knelt in the rebuilt church to receive the blessings of the patriarch that extraordinary day. Apologists would say afterwards that only because of the adamant demands of the patriarch and the local clergy did the Emperor rescind his pledge of amnesty and reluctantly authorize the forced baptism and massacre of the Empire's Jews.

In 638, the Byzantine Empire completely lost control of Judea to the Arabs. The Arab Islamic Empire under Caliph Umar conquered Jerusalem and the lands of Mesopotamia, the Levant, and Egypt.

Archaeological evidence
In 2013, a golden treasure was found in the Old City of Jerusalem by archaeologists, containing a large cash of Persian period coins from 5th-early 7th centuries and a golden medallion. According to Hebrew University archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar, the contents of the discovery in early September 2013 were two bundles containing thirty-six gold coins, gold and silver jewelry, and a gold medallion, ten centimeter in diameter, adorned with images of a menorah, (Temple candelabrum) a shofar, (ram’s horn) and a Torah scroll. The finding was discovered in a ruined Byzantine public structure a mere 50 meters from the Temple Mount’s southern wall. The way the items were found suggests one bundle was carefully hidden underground, whereas the second was apparently abandoned in haste and scattered across the floor. Given dating, Dr. Mazar suggested the items were abandoned in the context of the Persian conquest of Jerusalem. Since there was only a small Jewish presence in Jerusalem during the Byzantine period, Mazar thinks the treasure was brought to the city by Jewish emissaries after the Persian conquest in 614 CE.

In literature
The events of the Persian-Byzantine struggle in the Levant and the consequent Arab conquest inspired several apocalyptic Jewish writings of the early Middle Ages. Among those are the Apocalypse of Zerubbabel, which is partially attributed to the events between the Persian conquest of Palaestina and subsequent Muslim conquest of Syria (614-625 and 634 respectively).