[Torie]

Moreover, Heraclius' thema system (that was barely introduced when the Muslims actually did come along) would've been in full effect and halted the Muslims just as the more rudimentary system did in Anatolia

Thanks for making that all perfectly clear. LOL. I thought you meant Hercules for a moment, and at that point, I was really confused. :)

Why do you waste your time with the sans culotte? :)

[AntiGuv]

hehe.. Emperor Heraclius was the greatest Byzantine emperor who saved the Eastern Roman Empire from its death throes, beating back the Persians who had conquered Syria and Egypt as well as the assorted Central European heathenry that had conquered the Balkans and threatened Italy. In the 610s he also reformed the military system that would make the Byzantine Empire a force to be reckoned with for the next six centuries. That was the thema system, which was a hereditary network of citizen armies tied to the land as feudalistic military units.

[Sam Hill]

You never played Stratego?

[AntiGuv]

When the Muslims attacked Syria in 634 it was merely seven years after Heraclius' triumph over the Persians in 627. The Persians were themselves attacked in 637. Had the equivalent attacks instead taken place twenty years later they should've easily been beaten back by both the Byzantines and the Sassanids.