Maurice, seeing an opportunity to end the prolonged war to the advantage of Constantinople, assists Khosrau II to regain the Persian throne.
He sends an imperial army of thirty-five thousand men under Narses into Mesopotamia through Syria.
At the same time a five thousand-man expeditionary force in Armenia advanced through Caucasian Iberia into Media (modern Azerbaijan).
Bahram retreats to Azerbaijan but is finally defeated at the Battle of Blarathon by a combined army led by John Mystacon, Narses, and Khosrau II.
Bahram, fleeing to the Turks in Central Asia, settles in Ferghana, but will be murdered some time after by a hired assassin sent by Khosrau II.