Focas, 23 November 602 - 5 October 610 A.D.

Focas became emperor through a military revolt in the winter of 602 A.D. He was an oppressive evil tyrant. His reign was a period of disaster with invasions in the East and West, persecution of the aristocracy and civil unrest. Focas restored recognizable portraiture to the coinage - An oddity considering his appearance is often described as grotesque.


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FOCAS, or PHOCAS (Flavius), a low-born Bithynian, who atrociously assuming the imperial purple, caused the deposition of his sovereign Maurice Tiberius, and the murder of that emperor and his family AD 602. In eight years afterwards he was himself taken prisoner in Constantinople, and decapitated. On some of this villan 's brass  coins, where his style is DN FOCAS AVG, he and his wife Leontia appear, profaning Christian symbols with their usurped and blood-stained dignities.




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