Home > Battle of Nineveh (627)

During a six-year campaign, the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius had driven the Persians from Asia Minor back into their own territories, but the Persian Kasrâ Khosrau II still refused to make peace. On December 12, 627, the main armies of Heraclius, in personal command, and Khosrau's army commanded by the general Rhahzadh, met at Nineveh. As many as 100,000 soldiers may have been engaged in the battle.

The battle was closely contested, but Heraclius' superior generalship won the day, and Rhahzadh was killed in the fighting. Finally, the Persian army was driven from the field and Persia lay open to the Byzantine army. The next year, Persia accepted Heraclius' peace terms.