The Last Byzantine–Sasanian War

500,000

estimated total dead

Each dot below represents 1,000 human lives. Scroll to watch the scale unfold.

Military Dead

200,000 soldiers killed in combat, from wounds, or from disease. Each = 1,000 lives.

Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire — 100,000 military dead

Sasanian Persian Empire — 100,000 military dead

Civilian Dead

300,000 civilians killed — from violence, famine, disease, and displacement. Wars are not fought only by soldiers.

Civilian dead — 300,000

Deadliest Engagements

The Fall of Jerusalem40,000

incl. 35,000 civilians

The Siege of Constantinople20,000

incl. 2,000 civilians

The Persian Conquest of Egypt15,000

incl. 5,000 civilians

Heraclius's Invasion of Persia12,000

incl. 4,000 civilians

The Fall of Antioch8,000

incl. 3,000 civilians

The Battle of Nineveh6,000

Heraclius's First Campaign5,000

The Fall of Khosrow and the Peace500

For Perspective

How Byzantine–Sasanian War's dead compare to other conflicts and events.

Byzantine–Sasanian War — total dead500,000

Christians reportedly killed at Jerusalem (614)35,000

Avar-Persian besiegers repelled at Constantinople80,000

Total military dead, both empires (est.)200,000

Years the two empires had warred (Rome vs Persia)700

Milestones of Loss

700 dead

The war of 602–628 was the last round of a Roman–Persian rivalry that had lasted some seven centuries — and it exhausted both empires so completely that the Arabs swept them away within a generation.

35,000 dead

The death toll in the 614 sack of Jerusalem is given by some sources as tens of thousands; the figures are disputed and probably exaggerated, but the massacre and the loss of the True Cross shocked the Christian world.

200,000 dead

Casualty figures for the war are broad estimates; beyond battle deaths, the repeated invasions, sieges, deportations, and the ongoing Plague of Justinian killed enormous numbers of soldiers and civilians on both sides.

All figures are historical estimates and vary across sources. The true human cost of war is impossible to fully quantify — these numbers represent the best scholarly consensus. Each number was a person with a name, a family, and a life unlived.