Byzantine Empire
Phocas –
Emperor: November 23, 602 – October 5, 610 A.D. –
Bronze Pentanummium 11mm (1.67 grams)
Katane
in Sicily mint
Reference: Rare, possibly unpublished type
Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Phocas right.
Large V; CAT around; 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.
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