Heraclius

Heraclius (c. 575–641) was Byzantine emperor from 610 to 641, the ruler who broke Sasanian Persia and then lost the East to the Arabs. In 608 he and his father rose against the emperor Phocas; Heraclius seized Constantinople and was crowned in 610. The war went badly: after his defeat at Antioch in 613 the Persians took Syria, Palestine and Egypt and reached Chalcedon.

He rebuilt the army and from 622 counterattacked into Persia, winning at Nineveh in 627. Khosrow II was overthrown and Persia sued for peace, abandoning its conquests, and Heraclius returned the True Cross to Jerusalem around 630. From 629 he styled himself basileus, and made Greek the state language.

In 636 Arab armies defeated his forces, and Mesopotamia, Armenia and Egypt fell. He died in February 641, leaving the throne to his sons Constantine and Heraclonas; by year's end Constantine's son Constans II was emperor.