Editing Phocas (section)

===Foreign conflict===
Despite the executions of the previous emperor and his dynastic successors, Phocas remained in a precarious position, which led him to devote his energy to purging enemies and destroying conspiracies.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Because of this focus, and the local resistance he faced all throughout the Byzantine Empire, he was unable to confront foreign attacks on the empire's frontiers. The [[Pannonian Avars|Avars]] and [[Slavs]] launched numerous raids into the Balkan provinces of the Byzantine Empire, and the [[Sassanian Empire]] launched [[Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628|an invasion of the eastern provinces]] of the empire.

The Avars were able to take all land in the Balkans north of Thessalonica. The populations of Christian cities were slaughtered or captured. The Byzantines transferred most of their forces to the eastern front due to the threat from the Persians.

The Sassanid Persians had formerly been at peace with Maurice as a result of a treaty they made with him in 591. After Phocas usurped and killed Maurice, the Persians invaded the empire in 603.{{sfn|Kleinhenz|2017|p=890}} The Sassanids rapidly occupied the eastern provinces, leading the ''[[Magister militum per Orientem]]'', [[Narses (magister militum per Orientem)|Narses]], to defect to their side. Phocas swiftly dealt with him, by inviting him to Constantinople under the promise of safe conduct, then having him burnt alive when he arrived. By 607, the Sassanids had occupied [[Mesopotamia (Roman province)|Mesopotamia]], [[Byzantine Syria|Syria]], and much of [[Byzantine Anatolia|Asia Minor]], as far as the [[Bosphorus]].{{sfn|Carr|2015|p=80}}

By the time his reign ended in 610, the Persians had already crossed the Euphrates and taken Zenobia. Contemporary accounts describe the Persians as being very brutal to the occupied population. The 'miracle of St Demetrios' described the carnage:

<blockquote>[T]he devil raised the whirlwind of hatred in all the East, Cilicia, Asia, Palestine and all the lands from there to Constantinople: the factions, no longer content simply to spill blood in public places, attacked homes, slaughtered women, children, the aged, and the young who were sick; those whose youth and frailty impeded their escape from the massacre, [saw] their friends, acquaintances, and parents pillaged, and after all that, even set on fire so that the most wretched inhabitant was not able to escape.<ref name="Ekonomou">Ekonomou, Andrew. ''Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes.'' Lexington books, 2007</ref>{{page needed|date=February 2025}}</blockquote>