an eastern emperor, was descended from a Cappadocian family, who was sent to subdue the tyrant Phocas, whom he totally vanquished in 610. In consequence of this victory, young Heraclius was raised to the throne by the suffrages of the senate and people. He confined Crispus, the son-in-law of Phocas, in a monastery, whose defection had contributed to his success. Having humbly requested peace from the Persian monarch, who was extending his conquests all over the Asiatic part of the empire, his exorbitant and unjust conditions so exasperated Heraclius, that at once he started from inglorious ease to a conspicuous hero, raised a considerable army by vast exertions, conquered the king of Persia, and established his winter-quarters on the banks of the Halys. He next year penetrated into the very heart of Persia, and having refused the attack of a threefold army of Persians, he surprised the town of Salban.

Another of his expeditions was against the Tigris, and herald: he fought a battle near the site of the ancient Nineveh in 627, about the end of the year, at which time he gained a complete victory over the Persians, having slain three of their chiefs with his own hand. He recovered 300 Roman standards, and set a vast number of captives at liberty. In 628, he made the Persian king put an end to the persecution of the Christians, renounce the conquests of his father upon the Roman empire, and restore the true cross taken from Jerusalem. When at Emefa, he first heard of the name of Mahomet, who invited him to embrace his new faith, but without success. He brought a reproach on his name by adhering to the doctrine of the Monothelites, but chiefly by espousing his niece Martina for his second wife, by whose influence he divided the succession between Constantine and Heraclonos, his son by Martina. He fell into a dropsical complaint, by which he was carried off in the month of February 641, in the 31st year of his reign.