Byzantium, Heraclius, AV Semissis

Byzantine Empire, Heraclius, 610-641, AV Semissis

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Historical

Herakleios (* c. 575; † 11 February 641) was emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 5 October 610 to 11 February 641.

Byzantine emperor from 5 October 610 to 11 February 641. He was one of the most important Byzantine rulers and can be
ruler and can be regarded as the last ruler of late antiquity and the first emperor of the Middle Byzantine Empire. The dynasty he founded ruled until 711. Herakleios' entire reign was marked by a military defensive struggle against external aggressors, first against the Persians and the Avars, and later against the Arabs.

Internally, the transformation to a now completely Graecianised empire took place, whereby state and society were subjected to profound changes. Internally, Herakleios promoted the Greekisation of the state: he renounced the Latin title Imperator (or its Greek form Autokrator) and instead adopted the Greek title Basileus, which first appeared in an official context in March 629.

Greek finally replaced Latin as the official language, for Latin had long been the language only of the military and the administration, but not of the people. In Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt, the people had been slowly Hellenised since the time of Alexander, albeit mostly only superficially, and were thus more Greek in character. Justinian I, the last Roman emperor whose mother tongue was Latin, had already died in 565.
Around 630, literature and art experienced a certain revival, before under his successors the culture of the culture of late antiquity was less and less cultivated in the East.