Heraclius (Byzantine)

Heraclius seized the Byzantine throne in 610, in the middle of a disastrous war with Sasanian Persia. In 614 the Persians, joined by Jewish fighters, took Jerusalem and carried the relic of the True Cross off to Ctesiphon. Heraclius struck back deep into Persia, won at Nineveh in 627, and on 21 March 630 brought the Cross back to Jerusalem in a triumphal entry. On the way he had been hosted by Benjamin of Tiberias, a wealthy Jew who accepted baptism, and he had promised the Jews an amnesty.

Pressed by the clergy, he broke that promise: Jews were massacred, the old ban on living in Jerusalem was reimposed, and in 632 he ordered the forced baptism of Jews across the empire. According to the chronicler Eutychius of Alexandria, Egyptian Christians kept a fast in penance for the broken oath. Within a few years Arab armies defeated his forces at the Yarmuk (636), and Byzantine rule over the Land of Israel ended for good.