The History of the World Podcast, written and presented by Chris Hasler.

Volume 4, The Medieval World

Episode 7, The Byzantine Empire, Part 2. Oh, you know. The year is 628 and the political situation in the Middle East is Grinn.

The Byzantine's are in control of the lands of the Eastern Mediterranean,

but they are lucky to still be in existence following an Allied siege of their capital city

conducted by the Sasanian Persians and the Avars.

The Siege failed and the Sasanian Persians collapsed into civil war soon afterwards, enabling the

Byzantine to reclaim lands lost during the war between the Byzantine and the Sasanians

over the last two and a half decades. The Emperor of the Byzantine Empire was Heraclius.

Heraclius had changed the official language of the empire to Greek,

turning his back on the traditional Roman language of Latin

and moving the empire closer to the population

who were mainly Greek speakers.

With the reclamation of former Byzantine lands to the Byzantine's would come the Holy City of Jerusalem.

This was bad news for the Jews who had benefited from the expulsion of the

Byzantine's from Jerusalem as now they feared the consequences of the Holy City coming

under the rule of a Christian empire.

When Constantine the Great's mother, Helena,

traveled to Jerusalem in the fourth century,

she recovered a Christian relic called

The True Cross, which she would claim to be

the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified.

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