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Phocas

Phocas

547 CE610 CE · Constantinople

Phocas was Byzantine emperor from 602 to 610, an army officer who seized power in a mutiny against Maurice, whom he had executed along with his sons. His reign is generally judged a disaster: the Sasanian shah Khosrow II invaded on the pretext of avenging Maurice, overrunning much of the eastern provinces, while internal repression bred revolt. In 610 Heraclius, son of the exarch of Carthage, sailed against Constantinople, and Phocas was captured and put to death. He is often depicted in later tradition as a tyrant whose usurpation opened a period of grave crisis.

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Stop 1 of 1Seat Of Power

Constantinople

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In Constantinople at the same time

Justinian I, Maurice, Heraclius

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The world in their lifetime

Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Phocas’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

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