Heraclius (Greek: Ἡράκλειος, romanized: Hērákleios, Arabic: هِرَقْل, romanized: Hiraql; c. 575 – 11 February 641) was Byzantine emperor from 610 to 641. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the Exarch of Africa, led a revolt against the unpopular emperor Phocas.
Heraclius's reign was marked by wars against the Persians and the Arabs. Heraclius immediately took charge of the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 upon his accession, but his leadership initially did little to stem Persian ascendency in the war; after personally losing the Battle of Antioch (613), the Persians were able to take Syria and Egypt, reducing the Empire to Asia Minor. Heraclius, however, avoided total defeat and initiated reforms to rebuild and strengthen the military. Heraclius drove the Persians out of Asia Minor and pushed deep into their territory, defeating them in 627 at the Battle of Nineveh and devastating much of Mesopotamia. The Persian Shah Khosrow II was overthrown and executed by his son Kavad II, who soon sued for a peace treaty, agreeing to withdraw from all occupied territory. Heraclius won the war, but his Empire was deeply strained.
Heraclius soon lost many of his newly regained lands to the Rashidun Caliphate. Emerging from the Arabian Peninsula, the Arabs quickly conquered the Sasanian Empire. In 636, the Arabs marched into Syria, defeating Heraclius's brother Theodore. Within a short period of time, the Arabs conquered Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Egypt. Heraclius responded with reforms that allowed his successors to combat the Arabs and avoid total destruction.
Heraclius entered diplomatic relations with the Serbs in the Balkans. He tried to repair the schism in the Christian church regarding the non-Chalcedonians by promoting a compromise doctrine called monothelitism. The Church of the East (commonly called Nestorian) was also involved in the process. Eventually, this project of unity was rejected by all sides of the dispute. During his reign, the Greek language, widely spoken throughout the empire, became the official language of the state, replacing Latin.
The origin of Heraclius is a topic of debate among scholars, largely centered on his father's origins. He was the eldest son of Heraclius the Elder, who is considered of Armenian origin. Walter Kaegi considers Heraclius's Armenian origin "probable" and notes that Heraclius's mother, Epiphania, was probably of Cappadocian origin, which complicates the issue, since the term at the time could mean regions as far as Euphrates. Alexander Vasiliev also considers the Armenian origin probable based on the 7th century Armenian historian Sebeos, who claimed that Heraclius was related to the Arsacid dynasty of Armenia, but finds it contradictory to the assertion that Heraclius had "light golden hair". Elizabeth Redgate considers his Armenian origin likely. Anthony Kaldellis argues that there is no primary source that states that Heraclius [the Elder] was an Armenian and that the assertion is based on an erroneous reading of Theophylact Simocatta. In a letter, Priscus, a general who had replaced Heraclius the Elder, wrote to him "to leave the army and return to his own city in Armenia", which Kaldellis interprets as the command headquarters of Heraclius the Elder, and not his hometown. Beyond that, little is known about his origin. His father was a general in Emperor Maurice's war against the usurper Shah Bahram Chobin of the Sasanian Empire, in 590. After the war, Maurice appointed Heraclius the Elder to the position of Exarch of Africa.
There is little information about Heraclius's life prior to becoming an emperor. He had a reputation for a good education, but little was known about where and when he received it. Kaegi speculates that he was "bilingual (Armenian and Greek) from an early age, but even this is uncertain". Kaegi adds that Heraclius's military successes later in life likely drew on the experience of his father, whose earlier service provided insights in recruiting troops and taking strategic risks in difficult terrain. This knowledge is presumed to have been passed down orally over Heraclius’s early years rather than through written records.
Revolt against Phocas and accession
In 608, Heraclius the Elder renounced his loyalty to the Emperor Phocas, who had overthrown Maurice six years earlier. Phocas was an unpopular ruler who was invariably described in historical sources as a "tyrant", an illegitimate king under the rules of succession. The rebels issued coins depicting both Heraclii dressed as hypatos, though neither explicitly claimed the imperial title at this time. Heraclius's younger cousin Nicetas launched an overland invasion of Egypt; by 609, he had defeated Phocas's 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 prominent leaders and planned an attack to overthrow the aristocrats in the city. When he reached the capital, the Excubitors, an elite Imperial Guard unit led by Phocas's 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's reply—"And will you rule better?"—so enraged Heraclius that he beheaded Phocas on the spot. The genitalia were removed from the body because Phocas had raped the wife of Photius, a powerful politician in the city.
On 5 October 610, Heraclius was crowned in the Chapel of St. Stephen within the Great Palace.. Heraclius arrived on 3 October, a Saturday. However, the chronicle later states that he entered the city on 6 October, "a Monday". The 5th is clearly intended. He then married Fabia, who took the name Eudokia. After her death in 612, he married his niece Martina in 622 or 623, despite the scandalous reaction in both the ecclesiastical and secular sections of Byzantine society. The choice of marrying Martina was driven by the desire to address the legitimacy questions following Maurice's murder by consolidation of power aimed at establishing a family royal dynasty and a stable regency while being away on campaigns. However, the choice created new stability problems as his children were born with defects due to incestuous marriage and controversies from internal family tensions.
Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628
During his Balkan campaigns, Emperor Maurice and his family were murdered by Phocas in November 602 after a mutiny. The Persian King Khosrow II of the Sasanian Empire had been restored to his throne by Maurice, and they had remained allies until the latter's death. Thereafter, Khosrow seized the opportunity to attack the Byzantine Empire and reconquer Mesopotamia. The Persians attempted to claim that Maurice's son Theodosius had escaped to Persia, but in reality had perished in massacre of Maurice's family, and attempted to split with some success the Byzantines; some cities, such as Theodosiopolis, were persuaded by the impostor to surrender.
The war initially went the Persians' way, partly because of Phocas's 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. By this time, the Persians had conquered Mesopotamia and the Caucasus, and in 611 they overran Syria and entered Anatolia. After gaining full personal control of the Byzantine armies, Heraclius led a counter-attack two years later to repel the Persian army. However, he was defeated near Antioch by Persian general Shahrbaraz and Shahin, resulting in the loss of Syria to the Persians. In the following years, 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, while the Avars and Slavs took advantage of the situation to overrun the Balkans, however the extent of penetration and devastation is unknown. 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 (618–622). The loss of Egypt significantly strained the budget of the Byzantine Empire.