Heraclius, with Heraclius Constantine. 610-641. Byzantine Silver Hexagram NGC VF

Description: Heraclius, with Heraclius Constantine. 610-641. Byzantine Silver Hexagram NGC VF.Heraclius(Greek:,translit.Hrkleios; c. 575 11 February 641), wasEastern Roman emperorfrom 610 to 641. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father,Heraclius the Elder, theexarch of Africa, led a revolt against the unpopular usurperPhocas. Heraclius's reign was marked by several military campaigns. The year Heraclius came to power, the empire was threatened on multiple frontiers. Heraclius immediately took charge of theByzantineSasanian War of 602628. The first battles of the campaign ended in defeat for the Byzantines; the Persian army fought their way to theBosphorusbutConstantinoplewas protected by impenetrable walls and a strong navy, and Heraclius was able to avoid total defeat. Soon after, he initiated reforms to rebuild and strengthen the military. Heraclius drove the Persians out ofAsia Minorand pushed deep into their territory, defeating them decisively in 627 at theBattle of Nineveh. The Persian kingKhosrow IIwas overthrown and executed by his sonKavad II, who soon sued for a peace treaty, agreeing to withdraw from all occupied territory. This way peaceful relations were restored to the two deeply strained empires. However, Heracliussoon lostmany of his newly regained lands to theRashidun Caliphate. Emerging from theArabian Peninsula, the Muslims quickly conquered theSasanian Empire. In 636, the Muslims marched intoRoman Syria, defeating Heraclius's brotherTheodore. Within a short period of time, the Arabs conqueredMesopotamia,ArmeniaandEgypt. Heraclius responded with reforms which allowed his successors to combat the Arabs and avoid total destruction. Heraclius entered diplomatic relations with theCroatsandSerbsin theBalkans. He tried to repair the schism in the Christian church in regard to theMonophysites, by promoting a compromise doctrine calledMonothelitism. TheChurch of the East(commonly called Nestorian) was also involved in the process.Eventually this project of unity was rejected by all sides of the dispute.Heraclius was the eldest son ofHeraclius the Elderand Epiphania.His father,Heraclius the Elder, is almost universally recognized as being ofArmenianorigin.His mother, Epiphania, was probably ofCappadocianorigin.Walter Kaegiconsiders Heraclius Armenian origin "probable" and speculates that he was presumably "bilingual (Armenian and Greek) from an early age, but even this is uncertain."According to the 7th century Armenian historianSebeos, Heraclius was related to theArsacid dynasty of Armenia.Elizabeth Redgateconsiders his Armenian origin likely.However,Anthony Kaldellisargues that there is not a single primary source that says that Heraclius [the Elder] was an Armenian and that the assertion is based on an erroneous reading ofTheophylact Simocatta. In a letter,Priscus, a general who had replaced Heraclius the Elder, wrote to him "to leave the army and return to his own city in Armenia". Kaldellis interprets it as the command headquarters of Heraclius the Elder, and not his home town.Nevertheless, beyond that, there is little specific information known about his origin. His father was a key general during EmperorMaurice'swar withBahram Chobin, usurper of theSasanian Empire, during 590.After the war, Maurice appointed Heraclius the Elder to the position ofExarchofAfrica. During hisBalkan campaigns, EmperorMauriceand his family were murdered byPhocasin November 602 after a mutiny.Khosrow II(Chosroes) of theSasanian Empirehad been restored to his throne by Maurice, and they had remained allies until the latter's death.Thereafter, Khosrow seized the opportunity to attack the Byzantine Empire and reconquerMesopotamia.Khosrow had at his court a man who claimed to be Maurice's sonTheodosius, and Khosrow demanded that the Byzantines accept this Theodosius as emperor. The war initially went the Persians' way, partly because of Phocas's brutal repression and the succession crisis that ensued as the general Heraclius sent his nephewNicetasto attackEgypt, enabling his son Heraclius the younger to claim the throne in 610.Phocas, an unpopular ruler who is invariably described in historical sources as a "tyrant" (in its original meaning of the word, i.e. illegitimate king by the rules of succession), was eventually deposed by Heraclius, who sailed to Constantinople fromCarthagewith an icon affixed to the prow of his ship. By this time, the Persians had conquered Mesopotamia and theCaucasus, and in 611 they overran Syria and entered Anatolia. A major counter-attack led by Heraclius two years later was decisively defeated outsideAntiochbyShahrbarazandShahin, and the Roman position collapsed; the Persians devastated parts of Asia Minor and capturedChalcedonacross from Constantinople on theBosporus. Over the following decade the Persians were able to conquerPalestineand Egypt (by mid-621, the whole province was in their hands) and to devastate Anatolia,while theAvarsandSlavstook advantage of the situation to overrun theBalkans, bringing the Empire to the brink of destruction. In 613, the Persian army tookDamascuswiththe help of the Jews, seizedJerusalemin 614, damaging theChurch of the Holy Sepulchreand capturing theTrue Cross, and afterwards capturingEgyptin 617 or 618.[25]When the Sasanians reachedChalcedonin 615, it was at this point, according toSebeos, that Heraclius had agreed to stand down and was about ready to allow the Byzantine Empire to become a Persianclient state, even permitting Khosrow II to choose the emperor.In a letter delivered by his ambassadors, Heraclius acknowledged the Persian empire as superior, described himself as Khosrow II's "obedient son, one who is eager to perform the services of your serenity in all things", and even called Khosrow II the "supreme emperor".Khosrow II nevertheless rejected the peace offer, and arrested Heraclius' ambassadors. With the Persians at the very gate of Constantinople, Heraclius thought of abandoning the city and moving the capital to Carthage, but the powerful church figurePatriarch Sergiusconvinced him to stay. Safe behind the walls of Constantinople, Heraclius was able to sue for peace in exchange for an annual tribute of a thousand talents of gold, a thousand talents of silver, a thousand silk robes, a thousand horses, and a thousand virgins to the Persian King.The peace allowed him to rebuild the Empire's army by slashing non-military expenditure, devaluing the currency, and melting down, with the backing of Patriarch Sergius, Church treasures to raise the necessary funds to continue the war. Byzantine counter-offensive and resurgence On 4 April 622, Heraclius left Constantinople, entrusting the city to Sergius and generalBonusas regents of his son. He assembled his forces in Asia Minor, probably inBithynia, and, after he revived their broken morale, he launched a new counter-offensive, which took on the character of a holy war; anacheiropoietosimage of Christ was carried as a military standard. The Roman army proceeded to Armenia, inflicted a defeat on an army led by a Persian-allied Arab chief, and then won a victory over the Persians under Shahrbaraz.Heraclius would stay on campaign for several years.On 25 March 624,he again left Constantinople with his wife,Martina, and his two children; after he celebratedEasterin Nicomedia on 15 April, he campaigned in the Caucasus, winning a series of victories in Armenia against Khosrow and his generals Shahrbaraz, Shahin, andShahraplakan.In the same year theVisigothssucceeded in recapturingCartagena, capital of the western Byzantine province ofSpania, resulting in the loss of one of the few minor provinces that had been conquered by the armies ofJustinianI.In 626 the Avars and Slavs supported by a Persian army commanded by Shahrbaraz,besieged Constantinople, but the siege ended in failure (the victory was attributed to the icons of the Virgin which were led in procession by Sergius about the walls of the city),while a second Persian army under Shahin suffered another crushing defeat at the hands of Heraclius's brother Theodore. With the Persian war effort disintegrating, Heraclius was able to bring theGokturksof theWestern Turkic Khaganate, underZiebel, whoinvaded Persian Transcaucasia. Heraclius exploited divisions within the Persian Empire, keeping Shahrbaraz neutral by convincing him that Khosrow had grown jealous of him and had ordered his execution. Late in 627 he launched a winter offensive into Mesopotamia, where, despite the desertion of his Turkish allies, he defeated the Persians underRhahzadhat theBattle of Nineveh.Continuing south along the Tigris he sacked Khosrow's great palace atDastagirdand was only prevented from attacking Ctesiphon by the destruction of the bridges on the Nahrawan Canal. Discredited by this series of disasters, Khosrow was overthrown and killed in a coup led by his sonKavad II, who at once sued for peace, agreeing to withdraw from all occupied territories.In 629 Heraclius restored theTrue CrosstoJerusalemin a majestic ceremony. Heraclius took for himself the ancient Persian title of "King of Kings" after his victory. Later on, starting in 629, he styled himself asBasileus, the Greek word for "sovereign", and that title was used by the Byzantine emperors for the next 800 years. The reason Heraclius chose this title over previous Roman terms such asAugustushas been attributed by some scholars to hisArmenianorigins. Heraclius's defeat of the Persians ended a war that had been going on intermittently for almost 400 years and led to instability in the Persian Empire.Kavad IIdied only months after assuming the throne, plunging Persia into several years of dynastic turmoil and civil war.Ardashir III, Heraclius's allyShahrbaraz, and Khosrow's daughtersBoranandAzarmidokhtall succeeded to the throne within months of each other. Only whenYazdgerd III, a grandson of Khosrow II, succeeded to the throne in 632 was there stability. But by then the Sasanid Empire was severely disorganised, having been weakened byyears of war and civil strifeover the succession to the throne. The war had been devastating, and left the Byzantines in a much-weakened state. Within a few years both empires were overwhelmed by the onslaught of the Arabs,ultimately leading to theArab conquest of Persiaand thefall of the Sasanian dynastyin 651.

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