Early in 590 a palace revolt overthrew Hormazd IV and appointed his son Khusrau II to the throne. Hormazd was murdered soon after, possibly with the involvement of his son. However, Varhran Chobin, a capable and ambitious general with an army at his back, marched on Ctesiphon with the aim of gaining the throne for himself. Khusrau fled to Constantinople, where he sought refuge with the Byzantine Emperor Maurice. Varhran Chobin was crowned emperor, but lacked popular support from the people, clergy and noble families. With military support from the Byzantines, a large number of Armenian mercenaries and other noble families in Iran, Khusrau drove Varhran Chobin out of Ctesiphon, and restored himself as emperor. Varhran Chobin was later assassinated by agents of Khusrau, and although his uncle Vistahm put up determined resistance, by 601 Iran was brought under his sole rule.

There followed for a few years a period of peace in the region. In 602 however, the Byzantine Emperor Maurice and his family were brutally murdered in Constantinople by the usurper Phocas. Under the pretext of avenging a dear friend, Khusrau renewed hostilities. The Persian forces seized Armenia and Mesopotamia, and after the deposition of Phocas by Herakleios, Persian power expanded rapidly, taking advantage of the chaos of civil war. Soon, the Persians had taken the provinces of Palestine, Egypt and Anatolia, until they were within sight of Constantinople itself. The war seemed won, and Sasanian ascendancy assured. However, in a brilliant stroke, Herakleios led troops by sea to Armenia, where he outmanoeuvred three Sasanian armies. He wrought havoc, raiding the countryside, and even destroyed one of the Sasanian’s holiest temples in Azerbaijan.

The Sasanians withdrew. Khusrau instructed his armies to intercept the Byzantines, but by this point, opinion was beginning to turn against the Shah. Herakleios, marching south, destroyed one of Khusrau’s favourite palaces at Dastagird, and was soon laying siege to Ctesiphon.

It was in his palace at Ctesiphon that Khusrau’s nobles turned on the emperor. Led by one of his own sons, Shiroe, he was imprisoned, and Shiroe was proclaimed Shah, with the regnal name of Kavad. In front of Khusrau’s own eyes, Kavad had most of his brothers and half-brothers killed, before eventually ordering his own father’s death, on February 28, 628.

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