PHOCAS 602AD Rare Possibly Unpublished Pentannumium Katane Byzantine Coin i54061

Description

Item:
i54061
Authentic Ancient  Coin of:
Byzantine Empire
Phocas -  Emperor: November 23, 602 - October 5, 610 A.D. -
Bronze Pentanummium 11mm (1.67 grams) Katane in Sicily mint
Reference: Rare, possibly unpublished type
Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Phocas right.
Large V; CAT around; all within  wreath.
You are bidding on the exact  item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime  Guarantee of Authenticity.
Flavius Phocas
(
Φωκάς
,
Phokas
)  was
Byzantine Emperor
from 602 to 610. He usurped  the throne from the Emperor
Maurice
, and was himself overthrown by
Heraclius
after losing a civil war.
Origins
Almost nothing is known of Phocas's early life, although he may have been a  native of
Thrace
. The name of his father, is unknown, his  mother was named Domentia (or
Domentzia
). He had at least two brothers,
Comentiolus
and
Domentziolus
.
By 600, he was a subaltern officer in the
Byzantine army
that served during
Maurice's Balkan campaigns
, and apparently was  viewed as a leader by his fellow soldiers. He was a member of a delegation sent  by the army in that year to
Constantinople
to submit grievances to the  government. The
Avars
had defeated the Byzantines in 598, had  taken a large number of prisoners, and demanded a ransom. Maurice refused to pay  and all the prisoners were killed, causing consternation among the army. The  delegation's complaints were rejected, and, according to several sources, Phocas  himself was slapped and humiliated by prominent court officials at this time.
Accession
In 602, having created unrest in the legions by reforms intended to reduce  the expenses of their maintenance, Maurice ordered the Balkan army, then  campaigning against the Avars, to winter on the north side of the
Danube
, the unprotected far side of the river's
protective boundary
. The army almost  immediately revolted and marched on the capital, with Phocas at its head. Within  a month, Maurice's government had collapsed, the emperor abdicated and fled the  city, and the "Green" faction in Constantinople acclaimed Phocas as emperor. He  was crowned in the Church of St. John the Baptist and his wife
Leontia
was invested with the rank of Augusta.  Maurice, who represented little genuine threat, was dragged from his monastic  sanctuary at
Chalcedon
, and killed along with his five sons.  It is said that he had to watch as his sons were executed in front of his eyes.  The bodies were thrown in the sea and the heads of all were exhibited in  Constantinople before Phocas made arrangements for a
Christian
burial for the relics of his deeply  pious predecessor.
Phocas's rule was welcomed at first by many because he lowered taxes, which  had been high during the reign of Maurice. Fulsome letters of courtly praise  from
Pope  Gregory I
are attested. The pope, Saint Gregory, appreciated his  acceptance of the reforms he had begun. The agrarian reforms of the Church in
Italy
and particularly in
Sicily
had been followed in Egypt by the  Orthodox Patriarchs. The reform consisted in naming "rectores" as administrators  of the latifunds and eliminating all sort of contractors and parasites who  exploited the tenant farmers, reducing them to misery, while undermining the  income of the owners.
The Church needed money to pay for hospitals, maternities, orphanotrophies -  all social infrastructures that the state had left to the clergy. Phocas faced  great opposition and was regarded by many as a "populist". His coup d'état was  the first violent regime change in Constantinople since its foundation by
Constantine
. He is reported to have responded  to this opposition with cruelty, allegedly killing thousands in an effort to  keep control of the government. This was probably an exaggeration. No histories  actually written under Phocas survive, and thus we are dependent for information  on historians writing under his successors, who had an interest in blackening  Phocas' reputation.
[
citation  needed
]
Reign
Column of Phocas
, the last monument  erected in the
Roman forum
.
The
Column of Phocas
was the last Imperial monument  ever to be erected in the
Roman forum
. In Phocas's reign, the Byzantines  were sovereign over the city of
Rome
, although the
Pope
was the most powerful figure resident in the city. Phocas tended  to support the popes in many of the theological controversies of the time, and  thus enjoyed good relations with the papacy. Phocas gave the
Pantheon
to
Pope Boniface IV
for use as a church and  intervened to restore
Smaragdus
to the
Exarchate of Ravenna
. In gratitude Smaragdus  erected in the Roman Forum a gilded statue atop the rededicated "
Column  of Phocas
" (
illustration, right
), which featured a new  inscription on its base in the emperor's honour. The fluted
Corinthian column
and the marble plinth on  which it sits were already standing
in situ
, scavenged previously from  yet other monuments.
Despite popularity Phocas enjoyed early on during his reign, it was during  his reign that the traditional frontiers of the Byzantine Empire began to  collapse. The Balkans had been pacified under Maurice, the Avars and
Slavs
having been kept at bay. With the removal  of the army from the Danube after 605, the way was paved for new attacks which  were to put an end to the Byzantine Balkans. In the east, the situation was  grave. The
Persian
King
Khosrau II
had been helped onto his throne  years earlier by Maurice during a civil war in Persia. Now, he used the death of  his erstwhile patron as an excuse to break his treaty with the empire. He  received at his court an individual claiming falsely to be Maurice's son  Theodosius. Khosrau arranged a coronation for this pretender and demanded that  the Byzantines accept him as emperor. He also took advantage of the difficulties  in the Byzantine military, coming to the aid of
Narses
, a Byzantine general who refused to  acknowledge the new emperor's authority and who was besieged by troops loyal to  Phocas in
Edessa
. This expedition was part of a war of  attrition Khosrau waged against Byzantine forts in northern Mesopotamia, and by  607 or so he had advanced Persian control to the
Euphrates
.
Overthrow  and death
In 608, the
Exarch of Africa
and his son, both named
Heraclius
, began a revolt against Phocas,  issuing coins depicting the two of them in
consular
(though not imperial) regalia. Phocas  responded with executions, among them of the ex-Empress Constantina and her  three daughters.
Nicetas
, a nephew of Heraclius the Elder, led  an overland invasion of
Egypt
; the younger Heraclius began to sail  westward with another force via
Sicily
and
Cyprus
. With the outbreak of civil war came  serious urban rioting in
Syria
and
Palestine
; Phocas sent his general Bonosus to  quell the disturbances and reconquer Egypt. Bonosus dealt with the eastern  cities so harshly that his severity was remembered centuries later. He then took  almost the entire eastern army with him to Egypt, where he was defeated by  Nicetas after some hard fighting. The Persians took advantage of this conflict  to occupy a significant part of the eastern provinces and even begin a  penetration into Anatolia.
By 610, the younger Heraclius had reached the vicinity of Constantinople, and  most of the military loyal to Phocas had gone down in defeat or defected. Some  prominent Byzantine aristocrats came to meet Heraclius, and he arranged to be  crowned and acclaimed as Emperor. When he reached the capital, the
Excubitors
, an elite imperial guard unit led by  Phocas's own son-in-law
Priscus
, deserted to Heraclius, and he entered  the city without serious resistance. Phocas was captured and brought before  Heraclius, who asked, "Is this how you have ruled, wretch?" Phocas replied, "And  will you rule better?" Enraged, Heraclius personally killed and beheaded Phocas  on the spot. Phocas's body was mutilated, paraded through the capital, and  burned.
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