Phocas
Emperor of Byzantine Empire (547-610) · Politicians · Died at 63
A Roman officer who talked his way to the throne by voicing soldier complaints against Emperor Maurice, then spent eight years purging enemies he couldn't defeat and watching the empire crack open under Persian invasion.
Phocas is read about 439 times a day, in 58 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 9 November 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 85 days, one point a day.
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About this person
Phocas rose from middle-rank army service to spokesman for troops angry at Maurice's court. When the army mutinied in 602, he rode the revolt to power and had Maurice executed that November. Constantinople's elite saw him as a provincial usurper, so he packed the regime with relatives and answered dissent with escalating violence that eventually turned his own household against him. The Sasanian Empire tore into the eastern provinces while he pulled border troops inward to crush a rebellion led by Heraclius the Elder, the exarch of Africa, which only opened the heartlands to invasion. Heraclius the Elder's son sailed to Constantinople, took the city on 5 October 610, and executed Phocas the same day. Every surviving account calls him an incompetent tyrant, though the writers served the dynasty that replaced him.
