Heraclius (son of Constans II)

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Heraclius
Byzantine co-emperor
Reign2 June 659 – 16 September/21 December 681 (22 years)
Coronation2 June 659
PredecessorConstans II
SuccessorConstantine IV
Co-emperors
Born
Fausta
ReligionChristianity

Heraclius (

Fausta, who was elevated in 659, before his father departed for Italy. After the death of Constans, Heraclius' brother Constantine IV ascended the throne as senior emperor. Constantine attempted to have both Heraclius and Tiberius removed as co-emperors. However, this sparked a popular revolt in 681. Constantine ended the revolt by promising to accede to the demands of the rebels, sending them home, but bringing their leaders into Constantinople
. Once there, Constantine had them executed, then imprisoned Tiberius and Heraclius and had their noses slit, after which point they disappear from history.

Life

Heraclius and Tiberius on the reverse of a solidus.

Heraclius was one of the sons of

Whitsunday (2 June).[4] In 663, Constans tried to have his sons join him in Sicily, where he intended to establish Syracuse as the new capital, but this provoked a popular uprising in Constantinople, led by Theodore of Koloneia and Andrew, and the brothers remained in the imperial capital.[3]

With Constans II’s death in 668, Constantine IV became the senior emperor.

Because he was the focus of a plot to curtail Constantine's power, both he and his brother were now suspect in the senior emperor's eyes; also, the emperor was keen to raise up his own son, the future Justinian II.[9] Sometime between 16 September and 21 December 681, Constantine ordered the mutilation of his brothers by slitting their noses, and ordered that their images no longer appear on any coinage, and that their names be removed from all official documentation,[10] likely to ensure that his son, Justinian II, would succeed him.[9] After this point, neither are mentioned again by history.[11]

References

  1. ^ ODB, "Constans II" (P. A. Hollingsworth, A. Cutler) pp. 496–497.
  2. ^ ODB, "Constantine IV" (P. A. Hollingsworth, A. Cutler) pp. 500–501.
  3. ^ a b PmbZ, Tiberios (#8484/corr.).
  4. ^ Grierson 1968, p. 402.
  5. ^ a b Moore 1997.
  6. ^ a b Bury 1889, p. 308.
  7. ^ a b c Bury 1889, p. 309.
  8. ^ Stratos 1980, p. 139.
  9. ^ a b Hoyland 2012, pp. 173–174.
  10. ^ Grierson 1968, p. 513.
  11. ^ Haldon 2016, pp. 43–45.

Sources

  • Grierson, Philip (1968). Catalogue of the Byzantine coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in the Whittemore Collection. Vol. 2. Dumbarton Oaks.
    OCLC 847177622
    .
  • .
  • Haldon, John (2016). The Empire That Would Not Die. Harvard University Press. .
  • Hoyland, Robert G. (2012). Theophilus of Edessa's Chronicle and the circulation of historical knowledge in late antiquity and early Islam. Liverpool University Press. .
  • .
  • Lilie, Ralph-Johannes; Ludwig, Claudia; Pratsch, Thomas; Zielke, Beate (2013). Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit Online. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Nach Vorarbeiten F. Winkelmanns erstellt (in German). Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter.
  • Moore, R. Scott (1997). "Constantine IV (668–685 A.D.)". De Imperatoribus Romanis. Archived from the original on 28 February 2018. Retrieved 18 November 2010.
  • Stratos, Andreas Nikolaos (1980). Byzantium in the Seventh Century: 634–641. A.M. Hakkert.
    OCLC 490722634
    .