Emperor of Byzantium (610-641). In 608, his father, the exarch of Carthage, revolted and dispatched
a fleet under the command of Heraclius, to Constantinople. Along the way, in Egypt,
Heraclius joined forces with his cousin Nicetas who was able to capture Cyrenaica and Egypt
from Phocas' general Bonosos. Heraclius' fleet continued on to Constantinople where he
entered into secret negotiations with one of Phocas' top military leaders, Priscus.
With the support of Priscus, the patriarch Sergius I, and the faction of the Greens, Heraclius
was able to seize the city, have Phocas beheaded and became emperor on
October 5, 610 AD.
Heraclius, the son of the exarch of Carthage, Heraclius, was
born around the year 575. When he was crowned as emperor in 610 AD,
he married Fabia, who then took the name Eudocia. From this marriage,
Heraclius had a daughter, Eudocia, and a son Heraclius Constantine
who was proclaimed as co-emperor in 613. Suffering from epilepsy, Fabia
died in 612 and Heraclius married his niece Martina in 613. With Martina,
Heraclius had nine children of which four died in infancy. Heraclius' marriage
to Martina was never received favorably by either the people of Constantinople or the Church.
When Heraclius first came to the throne in 610, the Byzantine Empire was being attacked
from numerous sides. In the west, the Avars and Slavs were expanding into the northern
Balkans. The Slavs controlled the Danube regions, Thrace, Macedonia, and were soon
invading Central Greece and the Peloponnesus. In the east, meanwhile, the Persians
under the rule of Chosroes had begun a series of successful attacks on the empire resulting
in the loss of Damascus in 613, Jerusalem in 614 (destroying the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
and capturing the Holy Cross) and Egypt in 619. Recognizing the difficulty in fighting on
two opposing fronts at the same time, Heraclius signed a peace treaty with the Avars in
619, and focused on the eastern half of the empire. In the spring of 622, Heraclius left
Constantinople for Asia Minor and began training his troops over the summer, focusing
on a more involved role for the Byantine cavalry.
In the autumn, Heraclius' army
invaded Armenia and soon won several victories over the Persians. The Avars,
in the meantime, became restless and Heraclius was forced to renegotiate the
peace treaty with them at a much higher tribute level. Heraclius then returned
to the army and for the next several years unsuccessfully attempted to break through
the Persian army and into Persia. In August of 626 while Heraclius and his army were
in Lazica away from Constantinople, a Persian army attacked the city from the east while
an army of Avars, Slavs, and Bulgars attacked from the west and from the sea.
On August 10, the Byzantine navy was able to defeat the opposing fleet and then
rout the combined Slav and Avar land force. With the defeat of their allies, the Persians
retreated to Syria. The victory was was attributed to the direct intervention of the Mother of God
The entire population gathered at the CHURCH OF PANAGIA OF BLACHERNAE with the famous icon and in
an all-night vigil they sang standing the Akathistos Hymn in praise of the Virgin Mary.
In the autumn of 627, Heraclius began to work his way into Persian territory winning
an important battle in December at Nineveh during which most of the Persian army
was destroyed. As Heraclius continued to move further into Persian territory, Chosroes
was deposed and succeeded by his son Kavadh-Siroe whose first act was to secure a
treaty with Heraclius. The treaty was very favorable to the Byzantines and returned
all the former Byzantine territories to the empire. Within a few short months, Kavadh-Siroe
fell ill and died after naming Heraclius as guardian of his son, Chosroes II. For all
practical purposes, the Persian Empire no longer existed. In 630 Heraclius traveled to
Jerusalem where he returned the Holy Cross to the city among much acclaim.
The defeat of the Persians created a larger problem for the Byzantine empire.
The struggle between the Byzantines and the Persians had worn down both
sides and the defeat of the Persians allowed the Arabs to quickly absorb what
remained of the Persian empire. It also removed the buffer between the Arabs
and the Byzantines allowing the two empires to come into contact and conflict.
In 634 the Arab armies invaded Syria and defeated Theodore, the emperor's
brother, in a string of battles. Heraclius raised a large army that attacked the
Arabs near the Yarmuk, a tributary of the Jordan, in the fall of 636. After a successful
beginning, the larger Byzantine army was defeated allowing the conquest of Syria.
The Byzantine defeat also led to the Arabs quickly taking Mesopotamia, Armenia
and eventually Egypt.
That time was a major religious problem.
The eastern areas, particularly Armenia, Syria, and Egypt believed in monophysitism, Christ
having one nature composed of both divine and human elements. The other areas of the
empire followed the orthodox view expressed at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 that
decreed Christ had two natures united in one person. In an effort to bridge the gap
between the two views and bring them back together, the Patriarch of Constantinople,
Sergius, promoted the concept of monoenergism which proposed that the two natures of
Christ had one energy. While this was received favorably at first, monoenergism soon had
vocal opponents, among them the monk Sophronius who became patriarch of Jerusalem in
634 AD. The opposition to monoenergism led Sergius to propose a new doctrine that of
monotheletism, the belief in a single will in Christ. Heraclius supported the new doctrine of
Sergius and put it forth in an edict known as the Ekthesis, and posted it in the narthex of
Hagia Sophia in 638. This failed to settle the controversy as it was rejected by the Orthodox,
and the Monophysites.
During the last years of Heraclius' life, it became evident that a struggle was
taking place between Heraclius' son from his first marriage,
and his second wife Martina who was trying to position her son in line for
the throne. On the 11th of February 641, Heraclius died and in his will left the empire to
both Heraclius Constantine and Heraclonas to rule jointly with Martina as Empress and
mother of both.
