古典时期最后一场也是最长的战争发生在七世纪初。它在意识形态上受到控制，并沿着波斯-罗马边境的全长作战，吸收了草原世界的所有可用资源和大国。这场冲突以前所未有的规模肆虐，它的结束结束了历史的经典阶段。尽管如此，它在战争史上留下了一个明显的空白。本书旨在最终填补这一空白。
战争于603年夏天开始，当时波斯军队在罗马边境发动了协同攻击。25年后，在皇帝赫拉克利乌斯最后一次孤注一掷地反攻波斯人的美索不达米亚腹地之后，战争停止了。詹姆斯·霍华德·约翰斯顿（James Howard Johnston）将这一时期零散零碎的证据拼凑在一起，形成了一个连贯的戏剧性事件的故事，并介绍了关键人物土耳其人、阿拉伯人和阿瓦尔人，以及波斯人和罗马人，还参观了发生战斗的广袤土地。个人的决定和行动，尤其是赫拉克利乌斯，一位才华横溢的将军，以及影响士气的各种非物质因素占据了中心舞台，但同时也对交战帝国和20世纪20年代波斯占领下的中东的潜在结构给予了应有的关注。其结果是，在古典史的最后一集中，一场具有巨大意义的冲突形成了一部坚实基础的批判性历史。
The Last Great War of Antiquity by James Howard-Johnston
The last and longest war of classical antiquity was fought in the early seventh century. It was ideologically charged and fought along the full length of the Persian-Roman frontier, drawing in all the available resources and great powers of the steppe world. The conflict raged on an unprecedented scale, and its end brought the classical phase of history to a close. Despite all this, it has left a conspicuous gap in the history of warfare. This book aims to finally fill that gap.
The war opened in summer 603 when Persian armies launched co-ordinated attacks across the Roman frontier. Twenty-five years later the fighting stopped after the final, forlorn counteroffensive thrusts of the Emperor Heraclius into the Persians’ Mesopotamian heartland. James Howard-Johnston pieces together the scattered and fragmentary evidence of this period to form a coherent story of the dramatic events, as well as an introduction to key players-Turks, Arabs, and Avars, as well as Persians and Romans- and a tour of the vast lands over which the fighting took place. The decisions and actions of individuals-particularly Heraclius, a general of rare talent-and the various immaterial factors affecting morale take centre stage, yet due attention is also given to the underlying structures in both belligerent empires and to the Middle East under Persian occupation in the 620s. The result is a solidly founded, critical history of a conflict of immense significance in the final episode of classical history.
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