PHOCAS 602AD Pentanummium Rare Authentic Ancient Medieval Byzantine Coin i40311

Item: i40311

Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

Byzantine Empire


Phocas

– Byzantine Emperor: 23
November 602 A.D. – 5 October 610 A.D.
Bronze Pentanummium 16mm (1.41 grams)
Struck at the mint of Constantinopole November 23, 602
A.D. – October 5, 610 A.D.
Reference: Sear 647
Ò Ν FOC PP AV – Diademed,
draped and cuirassed bust right, beardless.
Large u.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured,

Authenticity.

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.^[

neededcitation]

 Reign

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.