a Roman centurion, was raised to the dignity of emperor by the army, and was crowned at Constantinople about the year 603. The emperor Mauritius, who was thus deserted both by the army and the people, fled to Chalcedon with his five children, whom Phocas caused to be inhumanly murdered before his eyes, and then he murdered Mauritius himself, his brother, and several other persons who were attached to that family.

Phocas, thus proclaimed and acknowledged at Constantinople, sent, according to custom, his own image and that of his wife Leontia to Rome, where they were received with loud acclamations, the people there being incensed against Mauritius on account of the cruel exactions of the exarchs, and his other ministers in Italy. Gregory, surnamed the Great, then bishop of Rome, caused the images to be lodged in the oratory of the martyr Caesarius, and wrote letters to the new emperor, congratulating him upon his advancement to the throne, which he said was effected by a particular providence, to deliver the people from the innumerable calamities and heavy oppressions under which they had long groaned. Had we no other character of Phocas and Leontia but that which has been conveyed to us in Gregory's letters, we should rank him amongst the best princes mentioned in history; but all other writers paint him in quite different colours; and his actions, transmitted to us by several historians, evidently speak him a most cruel and blood-thirsty tyrant. He was of middling stature, says Cedrenus, deformed, and of a terrible aspect: his hair was red, his eye-brows met, and one of his cheeks was marked with a scar, which, when he was in a passion, grew black and frightful: he was greatly addicted to wine and women, blood-thirsty, inexorable, bold in speech, a stranger to compassion, in his principles a heretic. He endeavoured, in the beginning of his reign, to gain the affections of the people by celebrating the Circenian games with extraordinary pomp, and distributing on that occasion large sums amongst the people; but finding that instead of applauding they reviled him as a drunkard, he ordered his guards to fall upon them. Some were killed, many wounded, and great numbers were dragged to prison: but the populace rising, set them at liberty; and thenceforth conceived an irreconcileable aversion to the tyrant.

As soon as the death of Mauritius was known, Narles, who then commanded the troops quartered on the frontiers of Persia, revolted. Phocas, however, managed matters so as to gain him over to his interest, and then treacherously and cruelly burnt him alive. He endeavoured to strengthen his cause by respectable alliances; but his cruelty was such as to render him generally hated, for he spared neither sex nor age, and amongst others he murdered Constantina the widow of Mauritius. Mauritius, and her daughters. These cruelties were at length the cause of his downfall. He became universally hateful; and persons in great authority near his person conspired against him. This conspiracy, however, was discovered, and the persons concerned in it were all put to death. The following year, however, 610, he was overtaken by the fate he had so long deserved.

Heraclius, the son of the governor of Africa, who bore the same name, taking upon him the title of emperor, and being acknowledged as such by the people of Africa, failed from thence with a formidable fleet, and a powerful army on board, for Constantinople, while Nicetas marched thither by way of Alexandria and the Pentapolis. Heraclius steered his course to Abydus, where he was received with great demonstrations of joy by several persons of rank, who had been banished by Phocas. From Abydus he sailed to Constantinople, where he engaged and utterly defeated the tyrant's fleet. Phocas took refuge in the palace; but one Plotinus, whose wife he had formerly debauched, pursuing him with a party of soldiers, forced the gates, dragged the cowardly emperor from the throne, and having stripped him of the imperial robes, and clothed him with a black vest, carried him in chains to Heraclius, who commanded first his hands and feet, then his arms, and at last his head, to be cut off: the remaining part of his body was delivered up to the soldiers, who burnt it in the forum. We are told, that Heraclius having reproached him with his evil administration, he answered, with great calmness, "It is incumbent upon you to govern better." Such was the end of this cruel tyrant, after he had reigned seven years and some months.