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Hello everyone, and welcome to the history of Byzantium. Episode 49, the man who lived too long.

The Battle of Yarmuk destroyed the Roman ability to defend Palestine and Syria. With Heraclius

now back next to the Bosphorus, events moved quickly in the two areas of the empire adjacent to the

Levant. In 638, as the conquering Arabs took control of northern Syria, the man put in charge of Roman

Mesopotamia was feeling extremely vulnerable. The governor, John Cateus, seeing the Muslim forces

gathering on his doorstep, disobeyed the emperor's orders and agreed to pay the Arabs 1300 pounds of

gold a year not to cross the Euphrates River. News also reached Heraclius that the governor of Egypt,

who was also the patriarch, if you remember, Cyrus or Kiraus, as he was more likely to be known,

had done the same. The emperor was deeply unhappy with this situation, as he needed all the

revenue the empire could muster to keep armies in the field. Around this time, we hear of more

seizures of church gold and silver, including a raid on the Pope's palace in Rome.

And this influx of wealth would surely only encourage the Arabs into more conquest.

The following year, 639, the emperor was proven correct. When neither Byzantine governor

kept up the payments, the Muslims marched in. In Mesopotamia, Heraclius had actually fired John

and replaced him with another general, Tallah meyus, but it was a pointless reshuffling.

The Roman province boarded both Syria and now Arab-controlled Iraq, so there was no way the Muslims

...