Heraclius, with Heraclius Constantine, AR Hexagram, AD 615-638. NGC VF 4/5,2/5

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Heraclius, with Heraclius Constantine, AR Hexagram, AD 615-638. NGC Ch 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.Revolt against Phocas and In 608, Heraclius the Elder renounced his loyalty to the EmperorPhocas, who had overthrown Maurice six years earlier. The rebels issued coins showing both Heraclii dressed ashypatos, though neither of them explicitly claimed the imperial title at this time. Heraclius’s younger cousinNicetaslaunched an overland invasion ofEgypt; by 609, he had defeated Phocas’s generalBonosusand secured the province. Meanwhile, the younger Heraclius sailed eastward with another force viaSicilyandCyprus. As he approachedConstantinople, he made contact with prominent leaders and planned an attack to overthrowaristocratsin the city. When he reached the capital, theExcubitors, an elite Imperial Guard unit led by Phocas’s son-in-lawPriscus, deserted to Heraclius, and he entered the city without serious resistance. When Heraclius captured Phocas, he asked him “Is this how you have ruled, wretch?” Phocas’s reply”And will you rule better?”so enraged Heraclius that he beheaded Phocas on the spot.He later had the genitalia removed from the body because Phocas had raped the wife of Photius, a powerful politician in the city. On 5 October 610, Heracliuswas crownedin the Chapel of St. Stephen within theGreat Palace. He then marriedFabia, who took the name Eudokia. After her death in 612, he married his nieceMartinain 613; this second marriage was consideredincestuousand was very unpopular. In the reign of Heraclius’s two sons, the divisive Martina was to become the center of power and political intrigue. Despite widespread hatred for Martina in Constantinople, Heraclius took her on campaigns with him and refused attempts byPatriarchSergius to prevent and later dissolve the marriage. ByzantineSasanian War of 602628 Initial Persian advantage 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. Heraclius in 613616 (aged 3841) with his sonHeraclius Constantine. 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. 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. Arab Wars Arab-Byzantine troop movement from September 635 to just before the event of the Battle of Yarmouk By 630, the Arabs had unified all the tribes of theHijaz, previously too divided to pose a serious military challenge to the Byzantines or the Persians. They composed one of the most powerful states in the region. The first conflict between the Byzantines and the Arabs was theBattle of Mu’tahin September 629. A small Arabs skirmishing force attacked the province ofArabiain response to the Arabs ambassador’s death at the hands of theGhassanidRoman governor, but were repulsed. Since the engagement was a Byzantine victory, there was no apparent reason to make changes to the military organization of the region. The Roman military wasn’t accustomed to fighting Arab armies at scale, much like the Islamic forces of Hijaz who had no prior experience in their engagements against the Romans. Even theStrategicon of Maurice, amanual of warpraised for the variety of enemies it covers, does not mention warfare againstArabsat any length. The religious zeal of the Arab army, which was a recent development following the rise ofIslam, ultimately contributed to the latter’s success in its campaigns against the Romans. The following year, the Arabs launched an offensive into theArabahsouth ofLake Tiberias, takingal-Karak. Other raids penetrated into theNegev, reaching as far asGaza. TheBattle of Yarmoukin 636 resulted in a crushing defeat for the larger Byzantine army; within three years, theLevanthad been lost again. Heraclius died of an illness on 11 February 641; and most of Egypt had fallen by that time as well. LegacyEdit See also:Byzantine Empire under the Heraclian dynasty Battle between Heraclius’s army and Persians underKhosrow II. Fresco byPiero della Francesca, ca. 1452 Looking back at the reign of Heraclius, scholars have credited him with many accomplishments. He enlarged the Empire, and his reorganization of the government and military were great successes. His attempts at religious harmony failed, but he succeeded in returning theTrue Cross, one of the holiest Christian relics, to Jerusalem. Accomplishments Although the territorial gains produced by his defeat of the Persians were lost to the advance of the Muslims, Heraclius still ranks among the great Roman emperors. His reforms of the government reduced the corruption which had taken hold in Phocas’s reign, and he reorganized the military with great success. Ultimately, the reformed Imperial army halted the Muslims inAsia Minorand held on toCarthagefor another 60 years, saving a core from which the empire’s strength could be rebuilt. The recovery of the eastern areas of the Roman Empire from the Persians once again raised the problem of religious unity centering on the understanding of the true nature ofChrist. Most of the inhabitants of these provinces wereMonophysiteswho rejected theCouncil of Chalcedon. Heraclius tried to promote a compromise doctrine calledMonothelitismbut this philosophy was rejected ashereticalby both sides of the dispute. For this reason, Heraclius was viewed as a heretic and bad ruler by some later religious writers. After the Monophysite provinces were finally lost to the Muslims, Monotheletism rather lost itsraison d’treand was eventually abandoned. TheCroatsandSerbsofByzantine Dalmatiainitiated diplomatic relations and dependencies with Heraclius.The Serbs, who briefly lived in Macedonia, becamefoederatiand were baptized at the request of Heraclius (before 626).At his request,Pope John IV(640642) sent Christian teachers and missionaries toDuke Porga and his Croats, who practicedSlavic paganism.He also created the office ofsakellarios, a comptroller of the treasury. Up to the 20th century he was credited with establishing theThematic systembut modern scholarship now points more to the 660s, underConstans II.under Heraclius returns the True Cross to Jerusalem, anachronistically accompanied bySaint Helena. 15th century, Spain Edward Gibbon, inThe History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, wrote: Of the characters conspicuous in history, that of Heraclius is one of the most extraordinary and inconsistent. In the first and last years of a long reign, the emperor appears to be the slave of sloth, of pleasure, or of superstition, the careless and impotent spectator of the public calamities. But the languid mists of the morning and evening are separated by the brightness of the meridian sun; the Arcadius of the palace arose the Caesar of the camp; and the honor of Rome and Heraclius was gloriously retrieved by the exploits and trophies of six adventurous campaigns. […] Since the days ofScipioandHannibal, no bolder enterprise has been attempted than that which Heraclius achieved for the deliverance of the empire. Recovery of the True Cross Heraclius was long remembered favourably by the Western church for his reputed recovery of theTrue Crossfrom the Persians. As Heraclius approached the Persian capital during the final stages of the war, Khosrow fled from his favourite residence, Dastagird nearBaghdad, without offering resistance. Meanwhile, some of the Persian grandees freed Khosrow’s eldest sonKavad II, who had been imprisoned by his father, and proclaimed him King on the night of 2324 February, 628. Kavad, however, was mortally ill and was anxious that Heraclius should protect his infant son Ardeshir. So, as a goodwill gesture, he sent the True Cross with a negotiator in 628. After a tour of the Empire, Heraclius returned the cross toJerusalemon 21 March 629 or 630. For Christians of Western Medieval Europe, Heraclius was the “first crusader”. The iconography of the emperor appeared in the sanctuary atMont Saint-Michel(ca. 1060), and then it became popular, especially in France, the Italian Peninsula, and the Holy Roman Empire.The story was included in theGolden Legend, the famous 13th-century compendium of hagiography, and he is sometimes shown in art, as inThe History of the True Crosssequence offrescoespainted byPiero della FrancescainArezzo, and a similar sequence on a small altarpiece byAdam Elsheimer(Stdel, Frankfurt). Both of these show scenes of Heraclius andConstantine I’s motherSaint Helena, traditionally responsible for the excavation of the cross. The scene usually shown is Heraclius carrying the cross; according to theGolden Legend, he insisted on doing this as he entered Jerusalem, against the advice of the Patriarch. At first, when he was on horseback (shown above), the burden was too heavy, but after he dismounted and removed his crown it became miraculously light, and the barred city gate opened of its own accord.Local tradition suggests that theLate AntiqueColossus of Barlettadepicts Heraclius. Some scholars disagree with this narrative, ProfessorConstantin Zuckermangoing as far as to suggest that the True Cross was actually lost, and that the wood contained in the allegedly-still-sealed reliquary brought to Jerusalem by Heraclius in 629 was a fake. In his analysis, the hoax was designed to serve the political purposes of both Heraclius and his former foe, the Persian generalShahrbaraz. Islamic view of Heraclius In early Islamic and Arab histories, Heraclius is the most popular Roman emperor, who is discussed at length. Owing to his role as Roman emperor at the time Islam emerged, he is remembered inArabic literature, such as the Islamichadithandsira. TheSwahiliUtendi wa Tambuka, anepic poemcomposed in 1728 atPateIsland (off the shore of present-dayKenya) and depicting the wars between the Muslims and Byzantines from the former’s point of view, is also known asKyuo kya Hereali(“The Book of Heraclius”). In that work, Heraclius is portrayed as declining the Prophet’s request to renounce his belief in Christianity: he is therefore defeated by the Muslim forces. In Muslim tradition, he is seen as a just ruler of great piety, who had direct contact with the emerging Islamic forces. The 14th-century scholarIbn Kathir(d. 1373) went even further, stating that “Heraclius was one of the wisest men and among the most resolute, shrewd, deep and opinionated of kings. He ruled the Romans with great leadership and splendor.” Historians such as Nadia Maria El-Cheikh andLawrence Conradnote that Islamic histories even go so far as claiming that Heraclius recognized Islam as the true faith andMuhammadas its prophet, by comparing Islam to Christianity. Islamic historians often cite a letter in which they claim Heraclius wrote to Muhammad: “I have received your letter with your ambassador and I testify that you are the messenger of God found in our New Testament. Jesus, son of Mary, announced you.” According to the Muslim sources reported by El-Cheikh, he tried to convert the ruling class of the Empire, but they resisted so strongly that he reversed course and claimed that he was just testing their faith in Christianity. El-Cheikh notes that these accounts of Heraclius add “little to our historical knowledge” of the emperor; rather, they are an important part of “Islamickerygma,” attempting to legitimize Muhammad’s status as a prophet. Most Western academic historians view such traditions as biased and proclamatory and of little historical value. Furthermore, they argue that any messengers sent by Muhammad to Heraclius would not have received an imperial audience or recognition. According to Kaegi, there is no evidence outside of Islamic sources to suggest Heraclius ever heard of Islam,and it is possible that he and his advisors actually viewed the Muslims as some special sect of Jews

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Frequently Asked Questions About Heraclius, with Heraclius Constantine, AR Hexagram, AD 615-638. NGC VF 4/5,2/5 in My Website

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