PHOCAS 602AD Rare Possibly Unpublished Pentannumium Katane Byzantine Coin i54109

Item: i54109

Authentic Ancient 

Coin of:

Bronze Pentanummium 12mm (1.86 grams) Katane mint
Reference: Rare, possibly unpublished type
Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Phocas right.
Large V between pellet on left, and K above pellet in field to right; all within 
wreath.

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Flavius Phocas (Φωκάς, Phokas) 
was
Byzantine Emperor
from 602 to 610. He usurped 
the throne from the Emperor
Maurice
, and was himself overthrown by
Heraclius
after losing a civil war.

 Origins

Almost nothing is known of Phocas’s early life, although he may have been a 
native of Thrace
. The name of his father, is unknown, his 
mother was named Domentia (or
Domentzia
). He had at least two brothers,
Comentiolus
and
Domentziolus
.

By 600, he was a subaltern officer in the

Byzantine army that served during
Maurice’s Balkan campaigns
, and apparently was 
viewed as a leader by his fellow soldiers. He was a member of a delegation sent 
by the army in that year to
Constantinople
to submit grievances to the 
government. The
Avars
had defeated the Byzantines in 598, had 
taken a large number of prisoners, and demanded a ransom. Maurice refused to pay 
and all the prisoners were killed, causing consternation among the army. The 
delegation’s complaints were rejected, and, according to several sources, Phocas 
himself was slapped and humiliated by prominent court officials at this time.

 Accession

In 602, having created unrest in the legions by reforms intended to reduce 
the expenses of their maintenance, Maurice ordered the Balkan army, then 
campaigning against the Avars, to winter on the north side of the
Danube
, the unprotected far side of the river’s
protective boundary
. The army almost 
immediately revolted and marched on the capital, with Phocas at its head. Within 
a month, Maurice’s government had collapsed, the emperor abdicated and fled the 
city, and the “Green” faction in Constantinople acclaimed Phocas as emperor. He 
was crowned in the Church of St. John the Baptist and his wife
Leontia
was invested with the rank of Augusta. 
Maurice, who represented little genuine threat, was dragged from his monastic 
sanctuary at Chalcedon
, and killed along with his five sons. 
It is said that he had to watch as his sons were executed in front of his eyes. 
The bodies were thrown in the sea and the heads of all were exhibited in 
Constantinople before Phocas made arrangements for a
Christian
burial for the relics of his deeply 
pious predecessor.

Phocas’s rule was welcomed at first by many because he lowered taxes, which 
had been high during the reign of Maurice. Fulsome letters of courtly praise 
from
Pope 
Gregory I are attested. The pope, Saint Gregory, appreciated his 
acceptance of the reforms he had begun. The agrarian reforms of the Church in
Italy
and particularly in
Sicily
had been followed in Egypt by the 
Orthodox Patriarchs. The reform consisted in naming “rectores” as administrators 
of the latifunds and eliminating all sort of contractors and parasites who 
exploited the tenant farmers, reducing them to misery, while undermining the 
income of the owners.

The Church needed money to pay for hospitals, maternities, orphanotrophies – 
all social infrastructures that the state had left to the clergy. Phocas faced 
great opposition and was regarded by many as a “populist”. His coup d’état was 
the first violent regime change in Constantinople since its foundation by
Constantine
. He is reported to have responded 
to this opposition with cruelty, allegedly killing thousands in an effort to 
keep control of the government. This was probably an exaggeration. No histories 
actually written under Phocas survive, and thus we are dependent for information 
on historians writing under his successors, who had an interest in blackening 
Phocas’ reputation.^{[citation 
needed]}

 Reign

Column of Phocas
, the last monument 
erected in the
Roman forum
.

The
Column of Phocas
was the last Imperial monument 
ever to be erected in the
Roman forum
. In Phocas’s reign, the Byzantines 
were sovereign over the city of

Rome, although the

Pope was the most powerful figure resident in the city. Phocas tended 
to support the popes in many of the theological controversies of the time, and 
thus enjoyed good relations with the papacy. Phocas gave the

Pantheon to
Pope Boniface IV
for use as a church and 
intervened to restore
Smaragdus
to the
Exarchate of Ravenna
. In gratitude Smaragdus 
erected in the Roman Forum a gilded statue atop the rededicated “Column 
of Phocas” (illustration, right), which featured a new 
inscription on its base in the emperor’s honour. The fluted
Corinthian column
and the marble plinth on 
which it sits were already standing in situ, scavenged previously from 
yet other monuments.

Despite popularity Phocas enjoyed early on during his reign, it was during 
his reign that the traditional frontiers of the Byzantine Empire began to 
collapse. The Balkans had been pacified under Maurice, the Avars and
Slavs
having been kept at bay. With the removal 
of the army from the Danube after 605, the way was paved for new attacks which 
were to put an end to the Byzantine Balkans. In the east, the situation was 
grave. The Persian
King
Khosrau II
had been helped onto his throne 
years earlier by Maurice during a civil war in Persia. Now, he used the death of 
his erstwhile patron as an excuse to break his treaty with the empire. He 
received at his court an individual claiming falsely to be Maurice’s son 
Theodosius. Khosrau arranged a coronation for this pretender and demanded that 
the Byzantines accept him as emperor. He also took advantage of the difficulties 
in the Byzantine military, coming to the aid of
Narses
, a Byzantine general who refused to 
acknowledge the new emperor’s authority and who was besieged by troops loyal to 
Phocas in
Edessa
. This expedition was part of a war of 
attrition Khosrau waged against Byzantine forts in northern Mesopotamia, and by 
607 or so he had advanced Persian control to the
Euphrates
.

 Overthrow 
and death

In 608, the
Exarch of Africa
and his son, both named
Heraclius
, began a revolt against Phocas, 
issuing coins depicting the two of them in
consular
(though not imperial) regalia. Phocas 
responded with executions, among them of the ex-Empress Constantina and her 
three daughters.
Nicetas
, a nephew of Heraclius the Elder, led 
an overland invasion of
Egypt
; the younger Heraclius began to sail 
westward with another force via
Sicily
and
Cyprus
. With the outbreak of civil war came 
serious urban rioting in
Syria
and
Palestine
; Phocas sent his general Bonosus to 
quell the disturbances and reconquer Egypt. Bonosus dealt with the eastern 
cities so harshly that his severity was remembered centuries later. He then took 
almost the entire eastern army with him to Egypt, where he was defeated by 
Nicetas after some hard fighting. The Persians took advantage of this conflict 
to occupy a significant part of the eastern provinces and even begin a 
penetration into Anatolia.

By 610, the younger Heraclius had reached the vicinity of Constantinople, and 
most of the military loyal to Phocas had gone down in defeat or defected. Some 
prominent Byzantine aristocrats came to meet Heraclius, and he arranged to be 
crowned and acclaimed as Emperor. When he reached the capital, the
Excubitors
, an elite imperial guard unit led by 
Phocas’s own son-in-law
Priscus
, deserted to Heraclius, and he entered 
the city without serious resistance. Phocas was captured and brought before 
Heraclius, who asked, “Is this how you have ruled, wretch?” Phocas replied, “And 
will you rule better?” Enraged, Heraclius personally killed and beheaded Phocas 
on the spot. Phocas’s body was mutilated, paraded through the capital, and 
burned.