HERACLIUS 610AD Follis of Syracuse Sicily Ancient Medieval Byzantine Coin i48820

Item: i48820

 Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

610 A.D. – January 11, 641 A.D. –

 Bronze Follis 20mm (3.76 grams)

Struck at Syracuse in Sicily

 Reference: Sear 1110

No legend. Constans (on left), with long beard, and Constantine IV (on right),
beardless, standing facing, each wearing crown; Constans wears military attire,
and holds long cross; his son wears chlamys and holds globe cross.
Large M; above; monogram 35; in exergue, SCL; to left, Heraclius, beardless,
standing facing, wearing crown and chlamys, and holding globe cross; to right,
similar figure of Tiberius.

You are bidding on the exact

Guarantee of Authenticity.

Flavius Heraclius Augustus (Greek:

Φλάβιος Ἡράκλειος; known in English

as Heraclius, or Herakleios; c. 575 – February 11, 641) was a

Byzantine Emperor

of

Armenian

origin, who ruled the

Eastern Roman

Empire or Byzantine Empire
. He was in power for over thirty years, from October 5, 610 to

February 11, 641 and was responsible for abandoning the use of

Latin
in favour

of the

Greek

language in official documents, further

Hellenising

the Empire. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his

father, also named

Heraclius
,

the viceregal

Exarch of

Africa
, successfully led a revolt against the unpopular usurper

Phocas
.

Heraclius’ reign was marked by several military campaigns. The year Heraclius

came to power, the Byzantine Empire was threatened on multiple fronts. Heraclius

immediately had to fight the

invasion of

the Empire by the

Sassanians
who

were ruled by the Persian king

Khosrau

Parvez
. The first battles of the campaign ended in defeat for the

Byzantines; and the Persian army fought their way to the gate of Constantinople,

the capital. The Persian army attacked the city from the east while an army of

Avars, Slavs, and Bulgars attacked it from the west and from the sea. However,

because Constantinople was protected by a strong navy and impenetrable walls,

Heraclius was able to avoid total defeat. Soon after this, he initiated a

campaign to rebuild and reform the military. Following this success Heraclius

moved into Persian territory in 627 and won a decisive battle at

Nineveh

defeating the Persian army. He was the first Emperor to

engage the Muslims

, and, in the Islamic world, he is seen as something of an

ideal ruler who studied the

Qur’an
, was a

true believer of Islam, and viewed

Muhammad
as

the true prophet, the messenger of God.

After his victory over the

Sassanid Empire
,

he faced a new threat with the rising power of

Islam
. The

Persians were quickly defeated by the Islamic forces and in 634 the latter

invaded Syria, defeating the emperor’s brother

Theodore

. Heraclius eventually lost Syria in a string of battles. Within a

short period of time the Arabs would conquer Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Egypt.

In religious matters, Heraclius is remembered as the driving force in

converting the peoples migrating to the

Balkan Peninsula

. At his request

Pope

John IV
(640-642) sent

Christian

teachers and missionaries to the

Dalmatia
,

newly Croatian

Provinces settled by

Porga
, and his

clan who practiced

Slavic
paganism.

He tried to repair the schism in the Christian church in regard to the

Monophysites

by promoting a compromise doctrine called

Monothelitism

; however, this philosophy was rejected as

heretical
by

both sides of the dispute.

//

 Early

life

 Origins

Heraclius was the eldest son of

Heraclius

the Elder
and Epiphania, an

Armenian

family from Cappadocia

.

Beyond that, there is little specific information known about his ancestry. His

father was a key general during Emperor

Maurice’s

war with

Bahrām Chobin
,

usurper of the

Sassanid Empire
,

during 590.

After the war, Maurice appointed

Heraclius

the Elder
to the position of

Exarch
of

Africa
.

 Revolt

against Phocas and accession to Emperor

In 608, Heraclius the Elder renounced his loyalty to the Emperor

Phocas
, who had

overthrown Maurice six years earlier. The rebels issued coins showing both

Heraclii dressed as consuls

, though neither of them explicitly claimed the imperial title at

this time.^[6]

Heraclius’ younger cousin

Nicetas

launched an overland invasion of

Egypt

; by 609, he had defeated Phocas’ general

Bonosus
and

secured the province. Meanwhile, the younger Heraclius sailed eastward with

another force via Sicily

and Cyprus

.

As he approached

Constantinople

, he made contact with leading leaders and planned an attack

to overthrow

aristocrats

in the city, and soon arranged a ceremony where he was crowned

and acclaimed as emperor. When he reached the capital, the

Excubitors
,

an elite Imperial Guard unit led by Phocas’ son-in-law

Priscus
,

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 said in reply, “And will you rule better?” With that, Heraclius became so

enraged 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 October 5, 610, Heraclius was crowned for a second time, this time in the

Chapel of St. Stephen within the Great Palace, and at the same time married

Fabia, who took the name

Eudokia

. After her death in 612, he married his niece

Martina
in

613; this second marriage was considered

incestuous
and

was very unpopular.^[9]

In the reign of Heraclius’ 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 by

Patriarch

Sergius to prevent and later dissolve the marriage.

 War

against Persia

 To

the brink of defeat

During his

Balkan Campaigns

, Emperor

Maurice

and his family were murdered by

Phocas
in

November 602 after a mutiny.^[10]

Khosrau II

(Chosroes) of the

Sassanid Empire

had been restored to his throne by Maurice and they had remained allies.

3][A Thus, the Persian King Khosrau II seized the pretext to attack the

Eastern Roman Empire, and reconquer the Roman province of Mesopotamia.^[11]

Khosrau had at his court a man who claimed to be Maurice’s son Theodosius; and

Khosrau demanded that the Romans accept this Theodosius as Emperor.

The war initially went the Persians’ way, partly because of Phocas’ brutal

repression and the succession crisis that ensued as the general Heraclius sent

his nephew

Nicetas

to attack Egypt

, 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”, was eventually deposed by Heraclius, who sailed to Constantinople

from Carthage

with an icon affixed to the prow of his ship.

By this time, the Persians had conquered Mesopotamia and the Caucasus, and in

611 they overran Syria and entered Anatolia. A major counter-attack led by

Heraclius two years later was decisively defeated outside

Antioch
by

Shahrbaraz

and

Shahin

, and the Roman position collapsed; the Persians devastated parts of

Asia Minor, and captured

Chalcedon

across from Constantinople on the

Bosporus

.

Over the following decade the Persians were able to conquer

Palestine

and Egypt (by mid-621 the whole province was in their hands)

and to devastate Anatolia,

4][A while the

Avars and

Slavs

took advantage of the situation to overrun the

Balkans
,

bringing the Roman Empire to the brink of destruction. In 613, the Persian army

took Damascus

with the help of the

Jews
,

seized Jerusalem

in 614, damaging the

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

and capturing the

True Cross

and afterwards capturing

Egypt
in

616.

With the Persians at the very gate of Constantinople, Heraclius thought of

abandoning the city and moving the capital to Carthage, but was convinced to

stay by the powerful church figure

Patriarch Sergius

. 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.^[17]

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.^[18]

 Byzantine

Empire strikes back

On April 5, 622, Heraclius left Constantinople, entrusting the city to

Sergius and general

Bonus

as regents of his son. He assembled his forces in Asia Minor, probably in

Bithynia
,

and, after he revived their broken morale, he launched a new counter-offensive,

which took on the character of a holy war; an

acheiropoietos

image 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.

He would stay on campaign for several years.

On March 25, 624 Heraclius left again Constantinople with his wife,

Martina
, and

his two children; after he celebrated

Easter
in

Nicomedia on April 15, he campaigned in the Caucasus, winning a series of

victories in Azerbaijan and Armenia against Khosrau and his generals Shahrbaraz,

Shahin and

Shahraplakan

.

In 626 the Avars and Slavs besieged Constantinople, supported by a Persian army

commanded by Shahrbaraz, 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’ brother Theodore.

With the Persian war effort disintegrating, Heraclius was able to bring the

Gokturks

of the

Western Turkic Khaganate

,

Ziebel

, who

invaded Persian Transcaucasia

. Heraclius exploited divisions within the

Persian Empire, keeping the Persian general

Shahrbaraz

neutral by convincing him that Khosrau had grown jealous of him

and 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 under Rhahzadh

at the

Battle of Nineveh

.

Continuing south along the Tigris he sacked Khosrau’s great palace at Dastagird

and was only prevented from attacking Ctesiphon by the destruction of the

bridges on the Nahrawan Canal. Discredited by this series of disasters, Khosrau

was overthrown and killed in a coup led by his son

Kavadh II, who at once

sued for peace, agreeing to withdraw from all occupied territories.

In 629 Heraclius restored the

True Crosss

to Jerusalem

in a majestic ceremony.

Heraclius took for himself the ancient Persian title of “King

of Kings” after his victory over Persia. Later on, starting in 629, he

styled himself as

Basileus
,

the Greek word for “sovereign”, and that title was used by the Roman Emperors

for the next 800 years. The reason Heraclius chose this title, over previous

Roman terms such as Augustus, has been attributed by some scholars to having to

do with Heraclius’ Armenian origins.

Heraclius’ defeat of the Persians had been the end game in a war that had

been on and off for almost 800 years. It was then that

Alexander

the Great
had totally defeated the Persians. After Heraclius’ victory over

the Persian Empire left it in disarray which it never recovered. In 633 the new

Islamic State slowly devoured the Persians until the

Muslim conquest of Persia

led to the end of the

Sassanid Empire

in 644, and the

Sassanid dynasty

in 651.

 War

against the Arabs

 Background

The Islamic Prophet

Muhammadd

had recently succeeded in unifying all the

nomadic
tribes of

the

Arabian Peninsula

. The Arabs, who had been too divided in the past to pose a

military threat, now comprised one of the most powerful states in the region,

and were animated by their new conversion to

Islam
.

Heraclius fell ill soon after his triumph over the Persians and never took the

field again.

Islamic sources record that Heraclius dreamt of the coming Arab invasion.

Historian

Al-Tabari

wrote that Heraclius dreamt of a new kingdom of the “circumcised

man” that be victorious against all its enemies.

After telling his court his dream his patricians who did not know of the rise of

Islam in Arabia, “advised him to send orders to behead every Jew in his

dominion.”

It was only when a

Bedouin

trader speaking of a man uniting the tribes of Arabia under a new religion was

brought before the Emperor did the Heraclius and his court realize that the

kingdom of the “circumcised man” was not the Jews but the new Islamic Empire.

When the Muslim Arabs attacked

Syria
and

Palestine

in 634, he was unable to oppose them personally in battle. Although he remained

strategically in charge of operations, his generals failed him in battle. The

Battle of Yarmouk

in 636 resulted in a crushing defeat for the larger Roman

army; within three years, the

Levant
had been

lost again. By the time of Heraclius’ death, on February 11, 641, most of Egypt

had fallen as well.

 Islamic

view of the Emperor

^[36]

Owing to his role as the Eastern Roman Emperor at the time Islam emerged, he was

remembered in

Arabic

literature
, such as the Islamic

hadith
and

sira

. They viewed him favourably, and early Muslims were never enemies of

Heraclius, as evidenced in the Quranic verses about the Perso-Roman wars below:

002 – 005: The Romans have been defeated [From Persians]. In the nearer

He will. He is the Mighty, the Merciful..

The

Swahili

“Utendi wa Tambuka“,

an

epic poem

composed in 1728 at

Pate

Island (off the shore of present-day

Kenya
) and

depicting the wars between the Muslims and Byzantines from the former’s point of

view, is also known as Kyuo kya Hereḳali (“The book of Heraclius”). This

reflects the considerable impression which this Emperor made on his Muslim foes,

being still prominently remembered by Muslims more than a millennium after his

death and at a considerable geographical and cultural distance.

In Arabic histories he is seen as a just ruler of great piety, who studied

the Qur’an
.

The 14th-century historian Ibn Kathir (d. 774/1373) 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.”^[36]

Islamic history even goes as far as claiming that Heraclius recognized

Muhammad
as

the true prophet and proclaimed him the messenger of God.

According to Arab sources, he tried to convert the ruling class of the Empire,

but they resisted so strongly that he reversed his course and claimed that he

was just testing their faith in Christianity.

His status as a true believer in Islamic texts is seen as a way to legitimize

Muhammad
as

the true prophet: if a foreign emperor, who is viewed as an almost perfect

ruler, believes in Islam’s message, then

Muhammad

must be the true prophet and voice of God. 

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 the True 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’ reign, and he reorganized the military with great success.

Ultimately, the reformed imperial army halted the Muslims in

Asia Minorr

and held on to

Carthage

for 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 around the understanding

of the true nature of

Christ
. Most of

the inhabitants of these provinces were

Monophysites

who rejected the

Council

of Chalcedon
.

Heraclius tried to promote a compromise doctrine called

Monothelitism

; however, this philosophy was rejected as

heretical
by

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 its raison d’être

and was eventually abandoned.

One of the most important legacies of Heraclius was changing the official

language of the Eastern Roman Empire from

Latin

to Greek in 620.

Others include the conversation of the nomadic peoples settling in the Balkan

region. At his request

Pope

John IV
(640-642) sent

Christian

teachers and missionaries to the

Dalmatia
,

newly Croatian

Provinces settled by

Porga
, and his

clan who practiced

Slavic
paganism.

Up to the 20th century he was credited with establishing the

Thematic system

but modern scholarship now points more to the 660s, under

Constans

II
.

The modern day border of Turkey can be attributed to Heraclius. This border

was Heraclius’ line of defence in Eastern Anatolia which would permanently

define the border between lands Islamised by Arabs in the first flush of Islamic

conquest and those which would only be Islamised many centuries later — by

Turks. It was this ethnic and cultural dividing line which, at the dissolution

of the

Ottoman Empire
,

would in 1925 become the eastern border of the present

Turkish Republic

Edward Gibbonn in

his work

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 of Scipio and Hannibal, no bolder

enterprise has been attempted than that which Heraclius achieved for the

deliverance of the empire.^[46]

 Recovery

of the True Cross

Despite his actual heterodox theology, Heraclius was long remembered

favourably in the Western church for his reputed feat in recovering the

True Cross
,

which had been captured by the Persians. As Heraclius approached the capital

Khosrau fled from his favourite residence,

Dastgerd

(near Baghdad
),

without offering resistance. Meanwhile, some of the Persian grandees freed his

eldest son Kavadh II

, whom Khosrau II had imprisoned, and proclaimed him King on the

night of 23–4 February , 628.

Kavadh 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

peace negotiator to sue for peace in 628.^[29]

After a tour of the Empire he returned the cross on March 21, 630.

The story was included in the

the famous 13th century compendium of hagiography, and he

is sometimes shown in art, as in

sequence of

frescoes

painted by

Piero

della Francesca
in

Arezzo
, or a

similar sequence on a small altarpiece by

Adam Elsheimer

(Städel,

Frankfurt). Both of these show scenes of Heraclius and

Constantine I

‘s mother

Saint Helena

, traditionally responsible for the excavation of the cross. The

scene usually shown is Heraclius carrying the cross; according to the Golden

Legend he insisted on doing this as he entered Jerusalem, against the advice

of the Patriarch. At first (shown above), when he was on horseback, 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.

Probably because he was one of the few Eastern Roman emperors widely known in

the West, the

Late Antique
Colossus

of Barletta was considered to depict Heraclius.

 Familyyamily

Heraclius was married twice: first to Fabia Eudokia, a daughter of Rogatus,

and then to his niece

Martina
.

He had two children with Fabia and at least nine with Martina most of whom were

sickly children.

5][A^[51]

Of Martina’s children at least two were

disabled
,

which was seen as punishment for the illegality of the marriage: Fabius

(Flavius) had a

paralyzed

neck and Theodosios, who was a

deaf-mute
,

married Nike, daughter of Persian general

Shahrbaraz

or daughter of Niketas, cousin of Heraclius.

Two of Heraclius’ children would become Emperor: Martina’s son

Constantine

Heraclius (Heraklonas)
, from 638 – 641, and

Heraclius Constantine (Constantine III)

, his son from Eudokia, from

February, 641 – May, 641.^John

Athalarichos, who conspired a plot against Heraclius with his cousin, the

magister Theodorus, and the Armenian noble

David Saharuni
.

6][A When Heraclius discovered the plot he had Atalarichos’ nose and

hands cut off and he was

exiled
to

Prinkipo
,

one of the

Princes’ Islands

.

Theodorus had the same treatment but was sent to Gaudomelete (possibly modern

day Gozo Island
)

with additional instructions to cut off one leg.

During the last years of Heraclius’ life, it became evident that a struggle

was taking place between Heraclius Constantine and Martina, who was trying to

position her son Heraklonas in line for the throne. When Heraclius died, in his

will

he left the empire to both Heraclius Constantine and Heraklonas to rule jointly

with Martina as Empress.