Reign of Heraclius
Heraclius seized the throne from Phocas and reigned for thirty years of extreme reversals. The Persians took Syria, Jerusalem and Egypt until his campaigns of 622–628 forced them to make peace; within a decade the Arabs overran the recovered provinces, and his attempt to reunite the church around the doctrine of one will failed.
- Date
- 5 October 610 – 11 February 641exact date · duration: ≈ 30 yearsDate in the Julian calendar
- Place
- Constantinopletoday: Istanbul, Turkey · Balkans and Anatolia
- Participants
- Heraclius, Phocas, Byzantine Empire, Khosrow II Parviz, Sasanian Empire, Avars, Rashidun Caliphate
- Threads
- Early medieval Europe (500–1000)
- Also known as
- Heraclius’s Persian campaigns; Персидские походы Ираклия; Ecthesis; Экфесис; Heraclian dynasty; Династия Ираклия
Heraclius was the son of Heraclius the Elder, exarch of Africa, who rebelled against Phocas in 608. While his cousin Nicetas took Egypt, the younger Heraclius sailed for Constantinople; the palace guard went over to him, and on 5 October 610 he was crowned and Phocas executed. The empire he inherited was falling apart. After defeating Heraclius himself near Antioch in 613, the armies of Khosrow II took Syria, captured Jerusalem in 614, carrying off the relic of the True Cross, and by 621 held Egypt, which fed the capital; the Avars and Slavs pressed into the Balkans. By some accounts Heraclius thought in 618 of moving his court to Carthage, but Patriarch Sergius and the people dissuaded him, and church treasures were melted down to pay for a new army.
On 4 April 622 Heraclius left the capital and for six years led the war in person, striking through Armenia and the Caucasus into Persian territory. In 626, while he was away, Constantinople withstood a siege by the Avars acting in concert with a Persian army; an alliance with the Western Turks brought their forces into Transcaucasia, and late in 627 Heraclius defeated the Persians near Nineveh and advanced towards Ctesiphon. Khosrow II was overthrown and killed by his son Kavad II, who made peace, agreeing to give back the occupied provinces. In 629 or 630 Heraclius restored the True Cross to Jerusalem, and from 629 he officially styled himself basileus, a title his successors kept.
The triumph did not last. Arab armies defeated the Byzantines at the Yarmuk in 636, Syria and Palestine were lost within a few years, and by the time Heraclius died on 11 February 641 most of Egypt had fallen. His church policy failed too: to win back the Miaphysites of the recovered provinces, he and Sergius promoted the doctrine of a single energy in Christ and then, in the Ecthesis of 638, of a single will; Rome rejected it, and it was condemned at the Sixth Ecumenical Council in 680–681. Historians often date to his reign the final shift from Latin to Greek as the language of government, although no law on it is recorded; he was long credited with creating the military themes, but modern scholarship places them later.
Connections
Causes and preconditions
- Phocas overthrows Maurice23 November 602 · Balkans and AnatoliaThe revolt against Phocas brought Heraclius to the throne in 610
Consequences
- Third Council of Constantinople7 November 680 – 16 September 681 · Balkans and AnatoliaMonothelitism was the compromise formula promoted by Heraclius and Patriarch Sergius
Includes
- Avar–Persian siege of Constantinople29 June – 7 August 626 · Balkans and Anatolia
Related events
- Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628602–628 · Middle East and EgyptHeraclius’s counter-offensive of 622–628, which from 624 carried the war into Persia, forced the Sasanians to make peace
- Battle of the Yarmuk15–20 August 636 · Middle East and EgyptThe army Heraclius sent to recover Syria was routed at the Yarmuk in 636
- Kubrat throws off Avar rule: Old Great Bulgariabetween 634 and 640 · Eastern EuropeHeraclius made peace with Kubrat, sent him gifts and gave him the rank of patrician
- Arabs take and destroy Carthage698 · AfricaCarthage was the seat of the exarchate of Africa, from which Heraclius had sailed in 610 to overthrow Phocas
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
- Invention of Greek firec. 672 · Balkans and Anatolia
- First Arab siege of Constantinople674–678 · 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
- Isidore of Seville compiles the Etymologiesc. 615 – 4 April 636 · Western and Central Europe
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Isidore of Seville compiles the Etymologiesc. 615 – 4 April 636
- Sutton Hoo ship burialbetween 610 and 635
- Samo’s realmbetween 623 and 626 – between 658 and 659
- Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britainbetween 410 and 449 – between 550 and 625
Eastern Europe
- Kubrat throws off Avar rule: Old Great Bulgariabetween 634 and 640
- Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv: the legendary founding of Kyivbetween 500 and 700
- Rise of the Khazar Khaganatebetween 630 and 650 – c. 670
- The Pereshchepina treasure: a steppe ruler’s burial or treasure, perhaps Kubrat’sbetween 642 and 700
- Early Slavic cultures: Prague-Korchak, Penkovka and Kolochinc. 450 – c. 700
Middle East and Egypt
- The Hijra: Muhammad’s emigration to MedinaSeptember 622
- Conquest of Meccabetween December 629 and January 630
- Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628602–628
- Battle of the Yarmuk15–20 August 636
- Plague of Amwas638–639
+ 2 events
Africa
- Migration to Abyssinia: the first Hijrabetween 613 and 615
Central and Northern Asia
- The Tang destroy the Eastern Turkic Khaganate: Taizong becomes “Heavenly Khagan”13 December 629 – 2 May 630
- The Western Turkic Khaganate: the “ten arrows” from the Altai to the Oxus603 – between 657 and 658
- Songtsen Gampo builds the Tibetan Empirebetween 618 and 629 – between 649 and 650
South Asia
- Reign of Harsha, emperor of Kannauj606–647
- Brahmagupta writes the Brahmasphutasiddhanta628
- Ravikirti’s Aihole inscription glorifies Pulakeshin IIbetween 634 and 635
- Pulakeshin II repulses Harsha on the Narmadabetween 610 and 619
- Narasimhavarman I takes Vatapi, the Chalukya capitalbetween 642 and 643
+ 1 event
East Asia
- Li Yuan founds the Tang dynasty18 June 618
- Xuanzang’s journey to India629 – 8 February 645
- Battle of the Salsu: Goguryeo destroys a Sui army26 August 612
- Emperor Yang digs the Grand Canal14 April 605 – 611
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
- Kʼinich Janaab Pakal rules Palenquebetween 24 July and 26 July 615 – between 26 August and 28 August 683
- 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
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Heraclius
- Wikipedia (English): Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628
- Wikipedia (Russian): Ираклий I
- Kaegi W. E. Heraclius, Emperor of Byzantium. — Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
- Howard-Johnston J. The Last Great War of Antiquity. — Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021.
- История Византии: в 3 т. / отв. ред. С. Д. Сказкин. — Т. 1. — М.: Наука, 1967.