WI: Sassanids conquer Byzantium

At the very least this entails permanently pushing the Byzantines out of the Levant, Egypt and Anatolia as well as taking Constantinople. Basically restoring the borders of the
Achaemenids.


With the destruction of their main rival would they achieve some sort of unchallenged hegemony in the region or would there be another power with the strength and desire to form a counterweight to them?
 
I'm assuming you're referring to their war in the 7th Century specifically here? I don't think it's very plausible for the Sassanids to conquer Constantinople, the Romans had the superior navy and the Avars had no chance of getting past the walls. Not to mention that Heraclius was ravaging their land near Issus during the siege, meaning they would have to abandon it eventually. I guess we could say that Heraclius accepts Khosrau's peace offer prior to the siege, giving Persia Syria, Egypt and maybe Anatolia, leaving what's left of the Roman Empire as a client.

This would be a pyrrhic victory though, I don't think the Sassanids would fare much better here than in our timeline. The Arabs would still attack and the Persians would be extremely overextended. If the Arabs weaken the Persians enough the Romans will probably use the opportunity to retake Anatolia aswell, leaving us with a scenario pretty similar to our timeline in the end.
 
I'm assuming you're referring to their war in the 7th Century specifically here? I don't think it's very plausible for the Sassanids to conquer Constantinople, the Romans had the superior navy and the Avars had no chance of getting past the walls. Not to mention that Heraclius was ravaging their land near Issus during the siege, meaning they would have to abandon it eventually. I guess we could say that Heraclius accepts Khosrau's peace offer prior to the siege, giving Persia Syria, Egypt and maybe Anatolia, leaving what's left of the Roman Empire as a client.

This would be a pyrrhic victory though, I don't think the Sassanids would fare much better here than in our timeline. The Arabs would still attack and the Persians would be extremely overextended. If the Arabs weaken the Persians enough the Romans will probably use the opportunity to retake Anatolia aswell, leaving us with a scenario pretty similar to our timeline in the end.
I was actually thinking of going a bit earlier during the reign of Khosrau I and Justinian. Rome and Persia was basically going through a series of clusterfucks at the time and were suffering from long-standing issues but also had ridiculously competent leaders who were able to drag their countries back from the brink and match each other. Replace Justinian with an incompetent and/or give Khosrau a bit more luck and that could be enough to tip the scales and put the Sassanids in a much better position in the long run leading to a total Sassanid victory further down the line.
 
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