Antiquity
Massacre of Jews by Heraclius after the Byzantine reconquest
628-629·Jérusalem, Galilée
The toll is reproduced exactly as the source states it — never rounded, never added to another. Tolls overlap from one event to the next.
Palestine had been conquered by the Sassanid Persians fifteen years earlier, and part of the Jewish communities of Galilee — around Benjamin of Tiberias, who financed troops — had rallied to the victors, hoping to regain access to Jerusalem, which had been forbidden since Hadrian.
The Byzantine reconquest reversed the situation. Heraclius received Benjamin's submission and granted him, it is said, amnesty; but the monks of Jerusalem and the clergy caused it to be broken, standing as guarantors of perjury and instituting a fast to atone for it. Reprisals struck Jerusalem, Galilee, and the coastal region; many fled toward Egypt and the desert.
Ten years later, the Arab conquest brought Byzantine domination over the region to an end and reopened the city.
- Period :
- Antiquity
- Type :
- Massacre
- Region :
- Land of Israel
- Country :
- Terre d'Israël
Eutychios d'Alexandrie ; chroniques syriaques et coptes du VIIᵉ siècle.