Phocas (AD 602-610). AV solidus (21mm, 4.49 gm, 6h). NGC Gem MS 5/5 - 5/5. Constantinople, 10th officina, AD 607-609. d NN FOCAS-PЄRP AVG, crowned, draped, and cuirassed bust of Phocas facing, globus cruciger in right hand / VICTORIA-AVϚЧ I, Angel standing facing, long staff terminating in staurogram in right hand, globus cruciger in left; CONOB in exergue. Sear 620. Utterly flawless prooflike surfaces; in hand, amazing contrast of black surfaces with gold portrait. One of the finest known. It is not difficult to make the case that Phocas was the worst Byzantine emperor in history. A brutal tyrant, he had come to power through a military revolt and was so terrified of another commander doing what he had done that he in effect dissolved and destroyed both the Roman army and bureaucracy. Many see the reign of Phocas as the true end of the Roman Empire, and his shattering of the government allowed the Persians to seize large territories in Asia Minor and Syria. Prominent Byzantine scholar George Ostrogorsky writes that under Phocas, "the old imperium finally went under and the late Roman, or early Byzantine, period came to an end. Byzantium was to emerge from the crisis in an essentially different form, able to throw off the heritage of decadent political life and to draw on new and vigorous sources of strength."

HID09801242017

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