602 AD: A large roman army, forced to winter across the Danube, revolts and elevates one of their own, who assumes the name Constantine (a worse incompetent than Phocas was OTL), to the purple. Maurice, fully aware of the danger, cobbles together a mixed force of Alans, Mercenaries and Roman soldiers from the East, moving to meet the usurper on his march to Constantinople. Many of the aristocratic families remain neutral, not particularly liking Maurice's parsimony, but unsure of the leadership of a lowborn soldier who claims the name Constantine. The battle is joined at Adrianople. The professional army of Constantine, trained by Maurice's own generals, fares well in the battle, nearly winning the day. Maurice's hodgepodge army is unable to directly challenge Constantine in the field, and retreats during daylight with most of his army still intact, making camp under the walls of the city. That night Maurice takes personal command of the army (as he often expressed a desire to do OTL, but never had the opportunity), ordering a charge late at night into Constantine's camp with an elite group of Roman cataphracts. The heavy cavalry from the East quickly smashes the lighter troops of Constantine's army, and drives them from the field.
Actual casualties are light, but the morale of Constantine's army is broken and when a message from Maurice is distributed thorughout the camp, offering amnesty and the relief from the frontier warfare, most of the men accept and desert during the night. Constantine finds himself with only a few of his most loyal men, and rides north to seek help from the Avars. With the army once again under his control, Maurice marched north to capture Constantine, but when he realized the Avars will reach him first, he decided to send a typically byzantine proposal to them. In exchange for the head of Constantine, Maurice will restore the old Danube frontier and will no longer campaign north of the river (which would anger the troops again anyway). He will also deliver a vast sum of gold and silks to the Avar Khan and undertake a modest annual tribute. Though this is nothing like what Maurice's predecessors offered them, the Avars grudgingly accept, having been through the terrible war with Maurice, though adding that they will not kill Constantine until the gold is delivered. Though posessing a nearly empty treasury by now, Maurice nonetheless raises additional money by confiscating the property of some of the aristocrats who didn't lift a finger to help him. As agreed, the Avars hacked Constantine to pieces and dumped his body in the Danube, a sign of their pact with the Romans and also a warning against further trespass. The Danube would remain unbroken during Maurice's reign, and the Avars eventually came around to a cautious alliance with the Romans against the Lombards and Franks.
The experience changed Maurice, and henceforth we see him being very accomodating with the army. His parsimonious nature continues with other aspects of the empire, however, and the aristocrats never forgot his seizure of property which would cause difficulties towards the end of his reign. Many of them bide their time and seek to undermine him at every turn. Meanwhile, Sassanid Persia continues to expand in every direction except towards the Romans, and builds a line of castles along the Roman border, sending a clear message to the Romans...
610 AD: With the help of a contingent of Avars, Maurice invades Pavia and defeats the Lombards in a pitched battle near Milan. Moving south he forces the Lombard lords of Tuscany and Benevento to submit to his authority, though he allows them to keep a measure of local autonomy, under the careful watch of the Exarch Heraclius (same as OTL, but installed as an Exarch in Ravenna instead of Carthage). The bulk of Italy is thus restored to Imperial rule, though Exarch Heraclius would have much work to do to rebuild the shattered economy of the area, which had been depopulated since Justinian's time. The extreme northern regions of Pavia remain under the control of a few local Lombard lords holding out against the Romans.
613 AD: The Franks, wary of the waxing power of the Romans, march east to Pannonia and begin raiding northern Italy and Dalmatia. Childeric II ascends to the throne of the Austrasian Kingdom, and conquers Nuestria. After raiding the porous frontier in Pavia, which is littered with the remnants of Lombard power and the newly formed Exarchate of Ravenna, Childeric sends a sizable army to occupy Pannonia. Exarch Heraclius sends a small but well-trained army north in response, and it meets a larger Imperial force with a sizable Avar contingent sent by Emperor Maurice. The combined army defeats Childeric, but fails to destroy the bulk of his army, and Childeric is able to preserve the majority of his forces.
615 AD: The economy of north africa is recovering under Exarch Tiberius and Italy begins it's long journey to restoration under Heraclius. The constant raids of the Franks and Lombard remnants continue to plague Heraclius, who struggles to hold on to the conquests of Maurice. Maurice, for his part, seems to be slipping slowly into ill-health, and the question of succession becomes all the more prominent. His son, Tiberius, already invested as an Exarch, seems a logical choice, but the popular (at least among the military) Heraclius weilds enormous support as well. The aristocratic families seem keen to exact some sort of revenge on Maurice and his family.
616 AD: Maurice dies in his sleep, and the succession is almost immediately contested. Tiberius possesses the strongest claim and was named successor by Maurice (who, until his dying day, suffered from a bit too much nepotism), but Heraclius is supported by the bulk of the military and is raised to the purple by the army. In any event, Tiberius's inept behavior in the following months arouses the general hatred of the citizenry, who are desperate for relief from Maurice's tax policies. Heraclius marches on Constantinople with a massive army, and is crowned emperor in St. Sophia without too much violence. Tiberius is captured and brought before Heraclius, who spares him in an act of mercy and ships him off to a monastery. Maurice's daughter Sophia is married to Heraclius to strengthen his claim to the throne.
620 AD: The Franks, stymied by Heraclius, are forced to turn elsewhere for conquests. Marching south with a massive army, Childeric II attempts the conquest of Spain. The Visigoths manage to lose several battles in the Pyrennes, and the Franks easily overwhelm the several key territories in northern Iberia. When King Sisebut appeals to the Romans for aid, Heraclius responds with strict neutrality. While intensely interesed in developments in the region, he does not wish to distract the resurgent Franks and possibly provoke a war with them. Peace more or less falls over the Empire for the next decade.
627AD: Most of northern Spain has been conquered by the Franks, but wary of the growing power of the Franks, Heraclius begins to tacitly support Sisebut.
629 AD: Franks take Toledo and nearly destroy the Visigothic kingdom until Heraclius launches a massive attack on Frankish territories. His armies push into Gaul for the first time in well over a century. Childeric, desperate to stop the advances, offers to withdrawl from most of the conquered territories and cede some minor cities in Pavia. The Visigoths are forced to become vassals of Constantinople as part of the agreement. Heraclius abandons the conquests in Gaul as it is doubtful he ever really wanted them in the first place. Nonetheless the Romans and Franks maintain very troubled relations over the next century.
635 AD: Massive Islamic armies under Caliph Omar cross into Palestine, officially beginning the Holy War. As one of the most brutal and long-lived conflicts in human history, this war was to proceed uninterrupted for nearly 200 years. At Damascus, the local Roman army was defeated and badly mauled. Heraclius sent his son Constantius, by now a military genius educated in the Maurican mold, with a large Roman army with a core of heavy cataphracts. The battle of Antioch results in a draw, leaving both sides horribly mangled. The Arabs are forced to retreat from Antioch, but the Roman army, so thoroughly devestated, is unable to oppose a second Islamic army and is soon forced into the city, already beleagured with supply problems.
636 AD: A third Roman army is dispatched from Egypt into Palestine, recovering Jerusalem and forcing the Islamic army beseiging Antioch to rush south to defend their rear. By now a third Arab army has also entered the region, and Roman limitanei are dispatched to hassle them and keep the two main armies from uniting. An embassy dispatched to Ctesiphon to seek a Sassanid alliance against the Arabs fails to reach Ctesiphon and is intercepted by Arab raiders. Nonetheless, the Sassanid armies, badly mauled and reeling into central Media, are unable to help the Romans in any case.
638 AD: Constantius's army is annihilated at the battle of the Jordan. Constantius himself is among the fallen and Heraclius flies into a rage, demanding the heads of the Arab leaders (some begin to suspect he has gone insane). Arab armies advance over Palestine and Syria, overruning the area except for Antioch, which holds out for a time. They begin the invasion of Egypt the following year. An inventor in Alexandria creates the first explosive powder, a napalm-like concotion that is later called "Greek Fire." In the battle for Alexandria shortly thereafter, the Arabs are surprised and defeated after the use of the invention on the walls of the city and by the ships guarding the harbor against the improvised Arab fleet. Another Roman army is hastily assembled, with a large contingent of Alans, Avars and Slavs, most of them mercenaries. The army is hurriedly shipped east and manages to halt the Arab advance in the Tauras mountains.
Sassanid King Khosaru II is killed by disgruntled nobles in central Media. The Sassanid Empire falls into anarchy with each noble fighting each other and the muslims. Islamic armies occupy Media and push on to the outlying lands of Persia, which still resist them somewhat effectively. The Interregnum lasts for 3 years.
Frankish armies, taking advantage of the general mayhem, invade Italy. However, with their recent war with the Visigoths, the Exarch of Italy manages to forge an alliance with the Visigoths and stir up enough trouble to slow the Franks down considerably. Nonetheless several cities in Pavia fall to the Frankish army.
641 AD: A different branch of the Sassanid dynasty ascends to power with the crowning of Yazdigerd III. With a somewhat Heraclian effort (couldn't resist the pun), he manages to cobble together a large army and defeat an Arab army near the Caspian sea. Although Mesopotamia cannot be recovered, the frontier begins to stablize around the remnants of the Sassanid Empire. Yazdigerd begins the long process of rebuilding a government largely destroyed by the muslims. An embassy from Emperor Heraclius finally reaches Yazdigerd, and he readily accepts, beginning to coordinate attacks with the Romans. The desperation of Yazdigerd for preserving his empire even reaches China, establishing a flow of technological exchange between China, Persia and Romania.
643 AD: Roman armies are pushed out of southern Egypt after a the Arabs cross by sea instead of the Sinai. Alexandria and the Nile delta hold out. Sensing danger, Exarch Pelagius marches out with a large army cobbled together from local Roman garrisons and north african tribes. The Arab army is utterly annhilated near Cyrenica, but they manage to hold on to their conquests in southern Egypt. The bloody warfare in Egypt halts grain shipments to Constantinople, causing panic and some say directly leading to the death of Heraclius to sickness shortly thereafter. Theodosius III ascends the throne peacefully, and his first action on the throne is to coordinate a massive push with the Sassanids. Roman armies pour from Anatolia and the Balkans (denuding the Danube frontier again, allowing hordes of Slavs to pour through) into Syria at about the same time a Sassanid army launches an attack on Media.
644 AD: Roman armies reoccupy Syria, meeting little resistance from the Muslims. Muslim armies retreat into Palestine for extended warfare. Portions of Media are recovered by the Sassanids. Heraclius dies peacefully and is succeeded by son and co-emperor Theodosius III.
647 AD: Arabs regroup and mass an army to retake Syria. The resulting war completely depopulates the region and it eventually falls to the Muslims. Only Antioch holds out against them.
Avar and Slav raiders beseige Adrianople and ravage much of the Balkans. Theodosius III dispatches a hodge-podge army of mercenaries and Italians against them, and manages to lift the seige. Many concessions toward autonomy are made to the authority of the Exarch of Ravenna for providing most of the troops for the campaign.
648 AD: Arab fleets take to the sea for the first time. Though they are outclassed at first by the Greek-fire equipped dromons of the Romans, the situation becomes increasingly desperate in following years.
652 AD: Sinai is taken and held by the Muslims. Alexandria and the nile delta hold out. Yazdigerd III personally leads a massive Sassanid army with a core of noble heavy cavalry into mesopotamia in a bid to retake Ctesiphon. The campaign begins well with a Sassanid victory near the Caspian sea. The next two years result in many easy gains for the Sassanids.
654 AD: Battle of Pontus, a series of smaller engagements in the Pontus region, result in a Roman victory. Arab advance into Anatolia is halted. The Romans are too weak by this point to take much advantage of the situation, and fail to launch any sort of counter-attack. Despite their defeat, the Arabs are able to derive great benefit from the brief lull in the war against the Romans. The full weight of the Arab forces comes down hard on the Sassanids and Yazdigerd III is defeated and captured. Brought before the Caliph, he is executed on the spot. Sassanid nobles immediately squabble over the throne, and the Arabs easily reconquer the lost territories. Many puppet Sassanid kings are created and subsequently deposed over the next decade.
