Ashina Rangan makes another visit to Emperor…

The emperor conducts a tour of the newly conquered Tuyuhun territory later in the spring, and sends several generals to chase down Murong Fuyun.

The Sui forces engage Murong Fuyun's remaining forces, with mixed success, but Murong Fuyun is forced to flee to Dangxiang tribes.

Emperor Yang tries to impose Murong Fuyun's son Murong Shun, whom Murong Fuyun had earlier sent to Sui as a hostage, as Tuyuhun's new khan, but the Tuyuhun people will not accept him, and Murong Shun is forced back to Sui territory.

Emperor Yang also receives twenty-seven rulers of Xiyu (Western Regions) kingdoms in an audience at Zhangye (in modern Zhangye, Gansu).

Ashina Rangan, khagan of the Easturn Turks, dies in late 609 and is succeeded by his son Shibi Khan Ashina Duojishi.

Pursuant to Tujue customs, Ashina Duojishi requests permission from Emperor Yang of Sui to marry Ashina Rangan's wife Princess Yicheng (the daughter of a clansman of Emperor Yang).

Emperor Yang agrees.

The fate of the deposed Lakhmid king Al-Nu'man III ibn al-Mundhir after his arrival at Ctesiphon is largely disputed, even in near-contemporary sources; he was either immediately executed or imprisoned for a period of time and then executed, but in 609 he is certainly dead and his former friend Iyas ibn Qabisah al-Ta'i, an Arab of the tribe of Tayy, has been installed, marking the end of the dynasty, although Nu'man's son al-Mundhir will try to revive the kingdom during the Ridda wars (632-33) and will rule the Bahrain region for a short period of eight months until he is captured.

At an indeterminate date, an open clash between the Persians and their Arab auxiliaries, on one hand, and Arab tribesmen, on the other, occurs at Dhi Qar.

According to certain Muslim traditions, the battle took place in the year 623 or 624.

Modern scholars have narrowed this range to 604-11.

Arab sources number the Persian force at two thousand soldiers, with three thousand Arabs led by Iyas ibn Qabisah.

The Arab force opposing the Persians, with their Arab auxiliaries, is from the Bakr ibn Wa'il, a large tribal confederation whose territory extends from southwestern Iraq into the eastern Arabian peninsula.

The most prominent constituent tribe is the Banu Shayban, the other groups being the Banu 'Ijl, Banū Zohl, Banu Qays ben Thalaba, Banu Taym Allah ben Thalaba, and Banu Yashkor.

These groups do not seem to have coordinated their efforts on the battlefield, nor did they have a single commander in chief.

Rather, leadership seems to have shifted among various warriors.

Nevertheless, the Banu Bakr defeat the combined Persian and Arab forces.

Some scholars, apparently influenced by the Muslim tradition, have interpreted the battle of Dhi Qar as part of a prolonged Arab rebellion against the Persians, which culminated in the Muslim conquest of the Persian empire.

As Shaybani tribesmen, led by Mosannā ben Haresa, assisted in the conquest of Iraq, it has been argued that the Bakr, and especially the Shayban, had followed a distinct anti-Sasanian policy since Dhi Qar.

Scholars have shown, however, that the Shayban who supported the Muslims and those who were prominent at Dhi Qar belonged to different, even rival clans; some Shaybani leaders allied themselves with the Persians after Dhi Qar, and others even opposed the Muslims during the conquest of Iraq.

The battle of Dhi Qar thus appears to have had ideological and symbolic meaning for the Arabs far beyond its military and political significance.

Emperor Yang visits Jiangdu again in 610, and this time elevates Jiangdu's importance so that it effectively becomes a third capital.

The Visigoths have fought the imperial forces in Spania during the reign of the usurper Witteric, although Isidore of Seville is dismissive of Witteric's accomplishments, writing that "although he frequently fought battles against the Roman soldiers, he did not win any adequate glory except for capturing some soldiers at Sagunto with the help of his generals."

The campaign against Sagunto probably took place in 605.

It was probably during his reign, as well, that Bigastrum (near Cartago Nova) is taken, for its bishop appears in a council of Toledo in 610.

In the twelfth year of his reign, Theuderic II, Frankish King of Burgundy, had sent bishop Aridius of Lyons and the constable Eborin to ask Witteric for his daughter's hand in marriage.

Although the envoys had given their word that she would not be disowned by Theuderic, and she had been received by the king in Chalon-sur-Saône in 606, the regent (the queen-grandmother) Brunhilda and Theodoric's sister Teudila (or Teudilana) had alienated him from her.

Theuderic had then disgraced her by sending her back without her dowry.

Incensed, Witteric had entered into a quadruple alliance with Theodebert II of Austrasia, Clothar II of Neustria, and Agilulf of the Lombards to effect his deposition and death.

Despite their mutual fear of Theuderic, their alliance had not accomplished anything; according to Fredegar, "Theuderic got wind of it [the alliance] but treated it with utter contempt."

In April 610, a faction of Catholic nobles assassinates Witteric during a banquet, and has his body dragged ignominiously through the streets (Witteric is buried without honor).

The nobles then proclaim Gundemar, duke of Narbonne, king.

Gundemar continues a policy of amity with Clothar and Theudebert.

To this end, he sends grand sums of money to support their cause against their relative (cousin and brother, respectively) Theuderic .. At other times, he demonstrates a politic of hostility against Brunhilda.

Phocas' persecution of the Monophysite Christian sect and of the Jews brings him the hatred of the Eastern provinces, and in the capital, he grows increasingly tyrannical.

To contemporaries, the coincidence of pestilence, endemic warfare, and social upheaval seems to herald the coming of the Antichrist, the resurrection of the dead, and the end of the world.

Heraclius the Elder had been a key general during Emperor Maurice's war with Bahrām Chobin, usurper of the Sassanid Empire, during 590.

After the war, Maurice had appointed him to the position of Exarch of Africa.

Fear of the Persians, together with general discontent, lead to an appeal to the Exarch, who in 610 equips an expeditionary force commanded by Heraclius the Younger, the Exarch’s eldest son by Epiphania, of an Armenian family from Cappadocia, probably of Arsacid descent.

The devout Heraclius places his fleet under the protection of an icon of the Virgin against Phocas, stigmatized in the sources as the “corrupter of virgins.” In the course of his voyage along the northern shores of the Mediterranean, Heraclius adds to his forces.

Heraclius arrives at Constantinople in October 610 to be hailed as a savior.

With the warm support of the Green faction, he quickly bests his enemy, decapitating Phocas and, with him, those whom Phocas had advanced to high civil and military office.

There are, in consequence, few experienced counselors to aid Heraclius, for few among the men of prominence under Phocas—and earlier under Maurice—survive to greet the new emperor of the crumbling state, occupied by invaders and wracked with internal dissension.

Slavs are swarming over the Balkan Peninsula; the Persians have occupied extensive parts of Anatolia; the Avars, who rule over the Slavic and other tribes that occupy the region between the Don and the Alps, exact tribute.

With its economy disrupted, its administration disorganized, its army depleted and demoralized, its factions engaging in civil strife, its peasants enfeebled by excessive exactions, its religious dissenters alienated by persecution, and its authority challenged by a powerful aristocracy, the empire lacks the strength necessary to expel the invaders, and possibly even to survive.

A messenger from Goguryeo's King King Yeong-yang to Ashina Rangan happened to be present when Emperor Yang was visiting Ashina Rangan in 607, and Ashina Rangan had introduced him to Emperor Yang.

Emperor Yang had ordered Gao Yuan to come visit him, offering to reward him if he did so and to punish him if he did not do so.

Gao Yuan had not responded, and by 611, Emperor Yang, insulted by the lack of response, is preparing a campaign against Goguryeo.

With Sui appearing to be in its prime, both governmental officials and the people are initially in support of a campaign to conquer Goguryeo.

Emperor Yang goes to Zhuo Prefecture in spring 611 and announces the campaign against Goguryeo.

Several hundred men are conscripted, and it is said that even before they could get to Zhuo Prefecture, disease and fatigue had already caused much loss of life.

In response, a number of conscripted soldiers desert and become agrarian rebels.

Emperor Yang, angry that Western Tujue's khan Ashina Daman, while nominally submissive, had refused to visit him, has Pei Ju persuade Ashina Daman's subordinate khan Ashina Shegui to rebel in 611 against Ashina Daman, promising to give him a Sui princess in marriage.

Ashina Shegui thus rebels against Ashina Daman, forcing Ashina Daman to flee, first to Gaochang, then to Sui.

Emperor Yang accepts Ashina Daman's submission, and thereafter divides his people into three groups, while leaving Ashina Daman as titular khan, although he will never allow Ashina Daman to return to his people.