The most damaging of the wars fought between East Rome and Sasanian Persia brought the classical phase of west Eurasian history to a dramatic close. This book explores the balance of power between the two empires, look at events through Roman, Armenian and Arab eyes, and focuses on the climax of the final conflict in the 620s. '... [James Howard-Johnston] has provided a first-rate introduction to the period in the form of this collection of studies, published initially between 1983 and 2004, brought together now in the Variorum series. ... this work will be the basis upon which future studies of Byzantium and Iran in the early seventh century will proceed. The editors of the Variorum series have done scholarship a great service in bringing together nine tightly focused and intricately linked studies.' Early Medieval Europe