War Against the Sassanids

Eastern Front, 785 AD

[Justin] In a rousing oration at the Hippodrome, now known as the In Defense of Chersonesus & Constantine Tzimikies, Ephrem of Constantinople, whose ancestral family came from Antioch after its fall to Khosrau I and his Persian host in 505 AD, garnered the necessary support to continue the invasion of the Western Sassanid provinces. "Armenia fell soon after the occupation of Aleppo and the Byzantines have helped defend Azerbaijan and the Eastern Themes for over 3 centuries since. Remember the words God spoke to John the Baptist? He said unto him",

‘And again they spring upon the words of the man in which he says ‘for each form works with the communion of the other that which is proper to it: the Word accomplishes that which is of the Word and the body completes that which is of the body’. You say, ‘behold he has spoken of two persons and preached two proper activities.’

Ephrem continued, 'But neither the reading nor the context demands such an understanding. For where does he say each form works as apart from the other? Or where does he omit that it is in the union of natures, each in communion of the other? The Byzantine State has and will always coexist with a Christian neighbor to its East.'
During the lengthy discussions concerning the continuing aggression with Persia, Justin and his inner circle of advisors developed a plan for possible peace and a permanent end to the border disputes on the Eastern fringes of the Empire.
Justin rose to speak, "We the Governing body of the Eastern Empire, propose a return of the Armenian Kingdom, lost in 510 AD to the Sassanids and Byzantine States. Both of our nations are culpable in the destruction of Imereti I’s Kingdom. Our proposed reunified Armenia would comprise the regions of: Armenia, Edessa, Carhae, Aleppo, Cilicia, Vaspurakan, Taman, Cappadocia, Lazica and Abasigia. Azerbaijan and its Eastern territories would remain under Persian control. Byzantium would retain the island of Cyprus and Persia would retain Lebanon and Syria; all territories conqueored from the 1st Armenian Kingdom."
He continued, "This Kingdom could be the culmination of Marcus Said’s dream. Remember the bastard son of Azer, born of an Orthodox mother and a father of the ZCR? He hoped in vain for a harmonious Christian & Zoroastrian kingdom where both faiths were practiced without persecution."

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