Early medieval Europe (500–1000)Politics and state

Phocas overthrows Maurice

Ordered to spend the winter beyond the Danube, the Balkan army mutinied and marched on Constantinople under the centurion Phocas. He was crowned emperor on 23 November 602 and had Maurice and his sons executed, and Khosrow II of Persia used the murder of his former patron as the pretext for a new war.

Date: 23 November 602exact dateDate in the Julian calendar
Place: Constantinopletoday: Istanbul, Turkey · Balkans and Anatolia
Participants: Phocas, Maurice, Byzantine Empire
Threads: Early medieval Europe (500–1000)
Also known as: Usurpation of Phocas; Mutiny of 602; Узурпация Фоки; Мятеж 602 года; Phokas

In the autumn of 602 Maurice, hoping to build on his generals’ recent victories over the Slavs, ordered the army to winter in Slav territory north of the Danube. The exhausted soldiers, already angered by earlier cuts in pay, refused, raised the centurion Phocas as their leader and marched on the capital, demanding that Maurice give up the throne to his son Theodosius or to Theodosius’s father-in-law Germanus. When riots broke out in Constantinople, Maurice fled across the Bosporus with his family on 22 November and sent Theodosius to seek help from Khosrow II. The next day Patriarch Cyriacus crowned Phocas in the church of St John the Baptist at the Hebdomon outside the walls, and on 25 November he entered the city. On 27 November Maurice was beheaded at the harbour of Eutropius near Chalcedon after being made to watch the execution of his five younger sons. Rumours that Theodosius had escaped persisted, and the Persians later made use of a pretender in his name.

Phocas’s eight-year reign is known from uniformly hostile sources, many written under his successor. Distrusting the capital’s elite, he gave high commands to his relatives and met conspiracies with executions — Maurice’s widow Constantina and her daughters were put to death around 605. From 603 the Persians invaded the eastern provinces; Phocas made peace with the Avars in 604 to free troops for the East, but by 610 the Persians had taken the fortresses of Mesopotamia and crossed the Euphrates. In the West Pope Gregory the Great welcomed his accession, and Phocas later gave the Pantheon to Pope Boniface IV, who consecrated it as a church in 609. In 608 the exarch of Africa, Heraclius the Elder, rebelled; his son Heraclius took Constantinople on 5 October 610 and had Phocas beheaded.

For later Byzantine writers and many modern historians Phocas was an incompetent tyrant who laid the empire open to its enemies; others stress that this picture was painted under Heraclius, whose dynasty had every reason to blacken him. Either way, his coup ended the peace of 591 with Persia and began the last war between the two empires, which lasted until 628.

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Connections

Causes and preconditions

Maurice’s Balkan campaigns582–602 · Balkans and AnatoliaThe mutiny broke out when Maurice ordered the Danube army to winter beyond the river

Consequences

Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628602–628 · Middle East and EgyptKhosrow II went to war claiming to avenge Maurice, his former protector
Reign of Heraclius5 October 610 – 11 February 641 · Balkans and AnatoliaThe revolt against Phocas brought Heraclius to the throne in 610

Related events

Hadrian’s Pantheonbetween 114 and 118 – between 125 and 128 · Western and Central EuropePhocas gave the Pantheon to Pope Boniface IV, who consecrated it as a church in 609

Same participants

Avar campaign against the Antes602 · Eastern Europevia Byzantine Empire

Same place

Founding of Constantinople11 May 330 · Balkans and Anatolia
Theodosian Walls of Constantinoplebetween 404 and 408 – 413 · Balkans and Anatolia
Imperial school in the Capitol of Constantinople27 February 425 · Balkans and Anatolia
Reign of Theodosius II1 May 408 – 28 July 450 · Balkans and Anatolia
Theodosian Code15 February 438 · Balkans and Anatolia
Council of Chalcedon8 October – 1 November 451 · Balkans and Anatolia
Nika riots13–18 January 532 · Balkans and Anatolia
Corpus Juris Civilis7 April 529 – 16 November 534 · Balkans and Anatolia
Construction of Hagia Sophia23 February 532 – 27 December 537 · Balkans and Anatolia
Plague of Justinian541–549 · Balkans and Anatolia
Reign of Justinian I1 August 527 – 14 November 565 · Balkans and Anatolia
Jordanes and Procopius describe the Sclaveni and the Antesbetween 550 and 554 · Balkans and Anatolia
Silkworm eggs are smuggled to Constantinoplebetween 552 and 554 · Balkans and Anatolia
Avar–Persian siege of Constantinople29 June – 7 August 626 · Balkans and Anatolia
Invention of Greek firec. 672 · Balkans and Anatolia
First Arab siege of Constantinople674–678 · Balkans and Anatolia
Third Council of Constantinople7 November 680 – 16 September 681 · Balkans and Anatolia
Second Arab siege of Constantinoplebetween 15 July and 15 August 717 – 15 August 718 · Balkans and Anatolia
Byzantine Iconoclasmbetween 726 and 730 – 11 March 843 · Balkans and Anatolia
Rus’ attack on Constantinople18 June – 4 August 860 · Balkans and Anatolia
Oleg’s campaign against Constantinople907 · Balkans and Anatolia
Rus’–Byzantine Treaty of 9112 September 911 · Balkans and Anatolia
Igor’s campaigns against Byzantium11 June 941 – 944 · Balkans and Anatolia
Rus’–Byzantine Treaty of 944between 944 and 945 · Balkans and Anatolia
Olga’s visit to Constantinople and her baptism9 September – 18 October 957 · Balkans and Anatolia
Sack of Constantinople12–13 April 1204 · Balkans and Anatolia
Reconquest of Constantinople25 July 1261 · Balkans and Anatolia
Fall of Constantinople29 May 1453 · Balkans and Anatolia
Accession of Suleiman the Magnificent30 September 1520 · Balkans and Anatolia

Adjacent events in the thread

Gregorian mission to the Anglo-Saxons597 · Western and Central Europe
Sutton Hoo ship burialbetween 610 and 635 · Western and Central Europe

Meanwhile in the world

Other regions, within a year of this event

Western and Central Europe

Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britainbetween 410 and 449 – between 550 and 625

South Asia

The Pallava monuments of Mamallapurambetween 600 and 630 – between 700 and 728

Southeast Asia and Oceania

Chenla absorbs Funanbetween 550 and 600 – between 627 and 637
Óc Eo, the port of Funanbetween 1 and 100 – between 601 and 700

North America

Basketmaker III: pottery, beans and the bow on the Colorado Plateauc. 500 – c. 750
The Late Woodland period in eastern North Americac. 500 – c. 1000

Latin America

The burning of Teotihuacan’s ceremonial centrebetween 550 and 650
Wari culture and the Middle Horizon state in the Central Andesc. 600 – c. 1000
Nazca culture and the Nazca Linesbetween 200 and 100 BC – between 500 and 800

The same period

6027th century

Sources

Wikipedia (English): Phocas
Wikipedia (English): Maurice (emperor)
Wikipedia (English): Pantheon, Rome
Wikipedia (Russian): Фока (византийский император)
Wikipedia (Russian): Маврикий (император)
Wikipedia (Russian): Пантеон (Рим)
Olster D. M. The Politics of Usurpation in the Seventh Century: Rhetoric and Revolution in Byzantium. — Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1993.
Kaegi W. E. Heraclius, Emperor of Byzantium. — Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.