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The Battle of Nineveh, 627: Heraclius breaks Persia

Byzantine Empire · 12 December 627 · East Rome vs Sasanian Persia · ~6 min read · Updated October 2026

By Echoes of Battle

Heraclius defeats the Persians, a fresco by Piero della Francesca

At a glance

East Roman (Byzantine) EmpireEmperor Heraclius
vs
Sasanian PersiaGeneral Rhahzadh
Date
12 December 627
Location
Near the ruins of Nineveh, in modern Iraq
Period
Byzantine-Sasanian War of 602 to 628
Outcome
Decisive Byzantine victory
By the numbers
SideStrengthLosses
Byzantine EmpireTens of thousands (figures uncertain)Relatively light
Sasanian PersiaA comparable field armyHeavy; their commander killed

Ancient figures are uncertain and vary widely between sources.

Quick answer

At the Battle of Nineveh on 12 December 6271, the East Roman emperor Heraclius defeated a Sasanian Persian army near the ruins of Nineveh in Mesopotamia. The victory was the climax of Heraclius's daring counteroffensive deep into Persian territory and shattered the Sasanian war effort. Within months the Persian king Khosrow II was overthrown and the long war ended, leaving both empires exhausted on the eve of the Arab conquests.

After years in which the Persians had overrun the Roman East, the emperor Heraclius did the unthinkable: he marched deep into the enemy's heartland and forced a battle near the ancient ruins of Nineveh. The victory there broke the Persian war effort.

An empire on the brink

For a generation the Sasanian Persians had torn into the East Roman empire, taking Syria, Egypt and Jerusalem and even carrying off the relic of the True Cross2. By the 620s the empire seemed close to ruin, and Constantinople itself had survived a combined siege only in 6262.

Both faces of a worn silver coin with a crowned bust and a fire altar, beside a centimetre scale
Silver drachm of Khosrow II, the Persian king whose armies overran the Roman East, struck at Ram Hormuz. The obverse shows his crowned bust, the reverse a fire altar with two attendants. The Portable Antiquities Scheme, Stuart Wyatt, CC BY 2.0

Heraclius strikes east

Rather than defend, Heraclius gambled on a bold counteroffensive, marching his army through Armenia3 and into the Persian heartland of Mesopotamia, allied with the Turks of the steppe. By late 627 he had drawn the Persian army under Rhahzadh to battle near the ruins of Nineveh.

The battle near Nineveh

On 12 December 627 the two armies fought a long and hard engagement. The Romans held and then broke the Persian line; the Persian commander Rhahzadh was killed, by tradition in single combat with the emperor himself4, though the details are uncertain. The Persian army was defeated and its field force shattered.

Gold coin with two crowned facing busts, a bearded emperor and his son
Gold solidus of Heraclius and his son Heraclius Constantine, struck in 629 to 631, soon after the victory over Persia. Metropolitan Museum of Art. CC0
Heraclius marched into the heart of Persia and came back having broken an empire.

The fall of Khosrow

Heraclius pressed on toward the Persian capital, plundering the royal palaces1. The disaster discredited the Persian king Khosrow II, who was overthrown and killed in 6285. His successor made peace, returning the conquered provinces and the True Cross to the Romans2.

Small painting of a barefoot man carrying a large cross through a crowd at night
Heraclius, stripped of his royal robes, carries the True Cross into Jerusalem, a panel by Adam Elsheimer from the Frankfurt altarpiece of the Exaltation of the True Cross, about 1603 to 1605. Public domain

Why Nineveh mattered

Nineveh ended the last great war between Rome and Persia, a rivalry of centuries, in a decisive Roman victory. Yet both empires were left exhausted, and within a decade the armies of the new Islamic caliphate would strip the Byzantine East and break Persia's armies, and by 651 the Sasanian empire was gone. Meet the emperor who won it, Heraclius.

Frequently asked questions

When and where was the Battle of Nineveh?

It was fought on 12 December 627 near the ruins of Nineveh, in modern Iraq, during the Byzantine-Sasanian War.

Who won the Battle of Nineveh?

The East Roman (Byzantine) empire under the emperor Heraclius, decisively.

Why was the Battle of Nineveh important?

It shattered the Sasanian war effort, led to the overthrow of the Persian king Khosrow II, and ended the long war between Rome and Persia.

Did Heraclius really fight in single combat?

Tradition says he killed the Persian commander Rhahzadh in single combat, but the accounts are uncertain and may be embellished.

What happened after the battle?

Heraclius advanced on the Persian capital, Khosrow II was overthrown in 628, and Persia returned the conquered provinces and the relic of the True Cross.

Sources and notes

Numbered notes in the text point to the works below.

  1. Theophanes the Confessor, Chronographia (The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor, trans. Cyril Mango and Roger Scott, Oxford University Press, 1997), Annus mundi 6118, the 627 campaign: battle on Saturday 12 December, sack of Dastagerd. ↩ a b
  2. Walter E. Kaegi, Heraclius, Emperor of Byzantium (Cambridge University Press, 2003). ↩ a b c
  3. Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Heraclius” ↩
  4. Karwansaray Publishers (Medieval Warfare), “Single Combat? The Duel between Heraclius and Razhadh at the Battle of Nineveh” ↩
  5. James Howard-Johnston, Witnesses to a World Crisis: Historians and Histories of the Middle East in the Seventh Century (Oxford University Press, 2010). ↩
  6. Wikipedia, “Battle of Nineveh (627)”

March into Persia with Heraclius

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