Beginning in the second half of the 500s, the Roman Empire found itself in dire straits due to overgrown frontiers and a shortage of men and money, complicit in the great plague of 541.
Emperor Maurice did his best not only to reorganize the military and administrative system of the state, but also to drive enemies back out of the northern borders.
After concluding an "eternal" peace treaty with the Persians, he turned against Avars and Slavs ravaging the Balkans, reaching as far as Thessalonica.
Mauritius had realized that the limes on the Danube was no longer a secure defense and that the only way to stop the enemies was to strike them directly in their camps across the river. This move, combined with various unpopular fiscal measures and a refusal to let troops return to winter in the warm south, caused the Danubian armies to revolt and elect Phocas emperor.
Who was Phoca? No one, is the best answer. A miserable centurion, semi-barbarian originally from Thrace and almost certainly illiterate, who won the favor of the troops by promising a lot of money and to abandon the cold northern frontier.
By a series of fortunate events he managed to enter Constantinople and be crowned emperor, buying the favor of the people of the city with onerous donations. Patriarch Cyriacus and the factions of the hippodrome joined him, and Maurice's fate was sealed.
During the eight years of his reign, as the frontiers collapsed everywhere, the emperor implemented a series of purges very similar to the Stalinist purges, at least this is what the sources hand down to us, which are not at all benevolent toward him. Administrators and magisters (generals) were tortured and killed on mere suspicion, then replaced by the friends and relatives of Phocas himself, who did not have the necessary skills to carry out their duties. All veteran and highly capable magisters were either exiled or killed, with the exception of Priscus, who married Phocas' daughter Domezia and obtained a variety of positions within Constantinople.
I give some examples of this policy of recommendations by Phocas: his brother Comentiolus became magister militum praesentalis, while his brother/grandson Domentiolus became magister militum per Orientem.
His reign was characterized by the absence of justice: trials of opponents were often summary and characterized by cruelty, as the emperor had a personal predilection for torture and was certainly a sadist, so much so that he killed Maurice's children under the gaze of their father and their mother a few years later.
He energetically persecuted Jews and Monophysites, causing large-scale riots.
After the very early years, continued donations were not enough to buy the favor of the people, who handed him over on a silver platter to Heraclius' insurgents. In fact, there was not even a civil war, and the new basileus entered Constantinople triumphant supported by the Green faction.
I would now like to elaborate a little on the characteristics of his rule as we know it:
Once he conquered the capital and seized power, Phocas immediately showed himself to be the stereotype of the worst plebeian: a choleric, irascible, resentful man, prone to violence, given to alcohol and to exploiting power for his own personal vendettas and opinions. Perhaps the emperor, given his humble condition, really thought he was doing something good, but he proved incapable of reflection and taking advice.
The administrative class laboriously built by Maurice, serious and competent, was exterminated making the bureaucratic machine slow.
Once the capital was settled, Phocas turned his wrath to the rest of the empire, crushing senators, landowners, and associates of Maurice and investing large sums of money in the hippodrome games that had instead been virtually absent during the previous years due to a careful policy of economizing.
Monophysites, Jews, and various minorities who had enjoyed to during Maurice's reign were then well disposed to side with the Persians.
The Persians, whose overlord had been a friend of Maurice who had obtained the throne because of him, moved an immense army with the intention of overthrowing the usurper. As soon as they arrived in Armenia and after wreaking havoc in the frontier fortresses, General Narses, who commanded the defense of the city of Edessa, decided to switch sides, perhaps because he feared that he would be the next victim of Phocas' purges. The emperor would have needed an efficient army and money to replace his losses, but his "popular" policy had emptied the imperial coffers and the currency had depreciated by perhaps 50 percent in just eight years, and he clearly could not decrease the army's payroll or even less stop his public handouts, as the political situation had already caused his credibility to plummet.
Thus, he gathered what troops he could and sent them to fight in the east, where they were disastrously defeated. His nephew Domentiolus, who was in charge of leading all the armies in the east, collected only defeats, and Phocas' only intervention was to replace him with another brother.
At this point Narses parted with the Persians and returned to Constantinople, probably because Phocas had promised him peace and managed to convince him somehow, but once the general was in the city he was captured and burned alive at the stake; Phocas gained only by having killed one man, but left his army to fight on the side of the enemy (well done!)
The Miracula Sancti Demetrii tells us of Phocas that he "stifled love and sowed hatred throughout the East, in Cilicia, Asia, Palestine, and the surrounding districts, even to the imperial city itself: the demi were not merely shedding the blood of their fellow citizens, but one broke into the houses of the other and ruthlessly murdered their inhabitants."
Post by Emanuele Rizzardi
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