The previous part is here: https://bartoll.se/2023/11/history-matrix-part43/
All parts of this series can be found here: https://bartoll.se/world-playbook-quickstart/
In 573 AD, after Emperor Justin II refused to pay the annual tribute to Persian King Khosrau I, the Byzantine–Sassanid War was reignited. After a six-month siege, King Khosrau I captured the Byzantine/Roman stronghold of Dara.
Also, a smaller Persian army crossed the Euphrates River and ravaged Syria. The cities of Apamea and Antiochia were plundered.
In Europe, the Frankish King Sigibert I went to war against his half-brother Chilperic I of Neustria after being persuaded by his wife Brunhilda.
In 574 AD, Emperor Justin II retired as ruler due to what was described as ‘recurring seizures of insanity.’ He abdicated the throne in favor of his general Tiberius. Justin proclaimed him Caesar and adopted him as his own son.
Towards the winter of 574, Caesar Tiberius and Empress Sophia reached a one-year truce with the Persians, at the cost of 45,000 solidi. However, the truce only applied to the Mesopotamian front, and in the Caucasus, the war continued.
In Europe, the Lombard King Cleph was murdered by a guard who was said to have been a slave he had mistreated. For the next decade, the Lombard Kingdom was governed by independent duchies (Rule of the Dukes.)
It was also said that yet another a major volcanic eruption occurred in the Antarctic.
In 575 AD, the Frankish infighting continued as Sigibert I pursued his half-brother Chilperic I, and conquered the cities of Poitiers and Tournai.
While Sigibert was proclaimed new king of Neustria by the nobles, he was assassinated at Vitry-en-Artois (Northern Gaul) by hirelings of Fredegund.
Childebert II succeeded his father Sigibert I as king of Austrasia. His mother Brunhilda became regent and asked for protection from Guntram, king of Burgundy.
In Brittania, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of East Anglia was divided into the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk.
In 576 AD, a Persian army under King Khosrau I attacked the cities of Theodosiopolis and Caesarea, but failed to capture them. Khosrau was forced to retreat and sacked Sebasteia for supplies. On the way home, he was intercepted by a Byzantine force commanded by Justinian, the magister militum of the East, and the Persian army was severely defeated near Melitene. The royal baggage was captured, and many Persians drown as they tried to escape across the Euphrates.
In Europe, the Visigoths under King Liuvigild established the capital of their kingdom in Toledo, located in central Spain.
In 577 AD, the Byzantine force commanded by Justinian continued their expedition and invaded Caucasian Albania, where they launched raids across the Caspian Sea against the Persians.
During the summer, Caesar Tiberius, the Byzantine co-ruler, established a naval base at Derbent on the Caspian Sea to construct a Byzantine fleet.
During the winter, Justinian retired as commander of the East army and Maurice was appointed commander-in-chief in his place, despite complete lack of military experience.
In Egypt, the Roman-Egyptian Temple of Dendur, once built by Caesar Augustus in 31 BC after defeating Mark Antony and Egyptian Queen Cleopatra, and to honor the ancient Gods of Isis, Horus, and Osiris, was converted for use as a Christian (Coptic) Church.
In 578 AD, retired Emperor Justin II died, and Caesar Tiberius who had co-ruled with his wife Sophia now succeeded him as ‘Emperor Tiberius II Constantine’ of the Byzantine Empire.
In 579 AD, King Khosrau I reached out for peace with the Byzantine Empire, but died before an agreement could be reached. The Mesopotamian front became stalemated, and new commander Maurice fortified the borders in Armenia and Syria.
Persian King Khosrau I was succeeded by his son Hormizd IV, who refused to give up territories and broke off negotiations with the Byzantine Empire.
In Europe, influenced by agents of the church interested in infiltrating Spain, Hermenegild, son of Visigothic king Liuvigild, rebelled against his father in Seville and declared himself as Catholic.
In Italy, once again Rome was under siege, this time by the Lombards.
In 580 AD, being under siege, the Roman Senate sent an embassy to Constantinople with a gift of 3,000 pounds of gold to Emperor Tiberius II, along with a plea for help against the Lombards.
Meanwhile, the Lombards drove the last Ostrogoths out of Italy across the Alps. During this time period, the Lombards began to adopt Roman titles, names, and traditions.
In Britannia, Æthelberht succeeded his father Eormenric as king of Kent.
In 581 AD, a Byzantine army commanded by Maurice, supported by Ghassanid forces under King Al-Mundhir III, attacked the Persian capitol of Ctesiphon, but failed to capture it.
As an excuse for their failure, Maurice accused Al-Mundhir III of treason, and brought him to Constantinople to face trial.
After the arrest of his father, Al-Nu’man VI revolted against the Byzantine Empire.
Maurice, the once unexperienced commander and now son-in-law to Emperor Tiberius II, after only being in service for three years and failing at Ctesiphon, wrote an encyclopedic work on the science of war (the Strategikon,) which through his political influence had a major impact on the military system.
In August of 582 AD, Emperor Tiberius II Constantine, age 47, died of what was suspected to be deliberately poisoned food. He was, of course, succeeded by his son-in-law (and killer) Maurice, the former power-hungry commander of the Eastern Byzantine army and author of the Strategikon.
In Persia, an army sent by Al-Nu’man VI crossed the Euphrates River and attacked the city of Constantina. The army was wiped out by the Byzantines.
In 583 AD, the Visigothic King Liuvigild formed an alliance with the Byzantines and laid siege to Seville (Southern Spain.) He also summoned his rebellious son Hermenegild back to Toledo, and forced him to abandon his Roman Catholic faith.
In 584 AD, Frankish King Chilperic I of Neustria was stabbed to death while returning from a hunt near Chelles, after a 23-year reign over a territory extending from Aquitaine to the northern seacoast of what later would be France. His wife Fredegund, who had paid for his assassination, seized his wealth and fled to Paris with her son Chlothar II, where she persuaded the nobles to accept him as legitimate heir while she served as regent.
In Italy, being threatened by a Frankish invasion, the Lombards re-established a unified monarchy after a 10-year interregnum (Rule of the Dukes.) They elected Authari (son of Cleph) as their king and gave him the capital of Pavia (Northern Italy.)
In Spain, the Visigoths under King Liuvigild captured the city of Seville. Liuvigild’s rebellious son Hermenegild took refuge in a church at Córdoba, but was arrested and banished to Valencia.
Meanwhile, the Slavs and the Avars pushed south on the Balkan Peninsula, ravaging the cities of Athens and Corinth, and also threatened the Long Walls of Constantinople.
In 585 AD, the Visigoths under King Liuvigild devastated the Suevic Kingdom in Gallaecia (northwest Spain) – and Liuvigild reintroduced the Arian Church among the Sueves. In Valencia, his rebellious son Hermenegild was murdered. Pope Gregory held Liuvigild responsible for Hermengild’s death and asserted that his son died because of his Catholic faith.
In 586 AD, King Liuvigild died at Toledo after an 18-year reign and was succeeded by his second son Reccared I. According to Pope Gregory in the Catholic chronicles, Liuvigild fell ill in 586 and on his deathbed he repented. He wept for seven days and “embraced the Catholic faith” before he “gave up the ghost.”
In the Byzantine Empire, Emperor Maurice rejected a peace proposal from the Persians in exchange for renewed payments in gold. Shortly afterwards, a Byzantine army under command of Philippicus defeated the Sassanid Persians and re-captured the city of Dara.
Meanwhile, the advancing Avars besieged Thessalonica in central Macedonia, the second city of the Byzantine Empire.
In 587 AD, Emperor Maurice built more fortifications along the Danube frontier, trying his best to separate the Byzantine Empire from the realm of the Avars and Slavs.
In Spain, the new king of the Visigoths, Reccared I renounced Arianism and, like his rebellious brother, adopted Catholicism. Many Visigothic nobles followed his example.
In 588 AD, the Franks and Burgundians under King Guntram and his nephew Childebert II invaded Northern Italy. However, the Lombards had been preparing for their invasion for four years under their new king and defeated them easily.
In 589 AD, during the Third Council of Toledo, called by King Reccared I of the Visigoths, Catholicism was made the official religion of the entire Visigothic kingdom. From this point on, the Visigothic kingdom of Hispania (Spain) became a Catholic governed kingdom that identified with the former Roman Empire. New Visigoth laws and legal codes eliminated the distinction between Romans and Goths and permitted intermarriage between the two peoples. It also laid the foundation of Catholic noble bloodlines and ‘elite families’ (Borgia) out of Spain that later would have great influence in the dealings of the Catholic church and the foundation of the Jesuit Order in 1534 AD.
In Italy, paid historians claimed that a plague once again hit Rome. To strengthen their deceit, they claimed that Pope Pelagius II died of the ‘sickness.’
In reality, Rome had recently been flooded by slaves by orders of archdeacon Gregory, causing food shortages and some civil unrest, and many of them, including poor citizens of Rome died, contributing to the illusion of a “plague.”