How the Orthodox Christian Roman Emperor Heraclius saved Western Civilization from the Barbarians.
How the Orthodox Christian Roman Emperor Heraclius saved Western Civilization from the Barbarians.
How the Orthodox Christian Roman Emperor Heraclius saved Western Civilization from the Barbarians.
Emperor heraclius failed as an emperor to stop Islam from even emerging..he should have arrested and executed muhammad the false prophet
..because of his terrific failiure…how the world is suffering toruture and killings…
Heraclius was a terrible faliure…
He lost every single battle to Muslims and lost whole Levant , Egypt and parts of Anatolia
He didn't save the world and ended up in a bad way .
Prophet Muhamed pbuh invited him into Islam. Alhamdulillah
Great lecture. Deus cult, in a Roman way. 🙂
Heraclius was a Monothelite and a heretic…He was not Orthodox. His Monothelite/Monosphysite sympathies and the sympathies of the Syrians and Copts to this Christology is why they were conquered by the Muslims.
This was really Good. Heraclius is one of the Greatest men of history. Yet not many people west of Greece have ever heard of him. Western history massively ignores Byzantines
Emperors Heraclius and Basil I are my favorite Byzantine Emperors!
Very interesting. Wish more people knew about this history
"Barbarians"…as opposed to an empire that dealt with its political and religious conflicts by gouging people's eyes out?
Why you but the video of beheading..at the end of the video…..you don't need that
WESTERN european tribes were not "barbarians" please correct this, it shows the ignorance of the presenter and his racial prejudice against germanic tribes
He was roman emperor. He was the one who recieved a latter from Muhammad, who invited him to become a muslim. Heraclius was a very smart man, bcoz he asked very wonderful questions from Arab people about Muhammad. He gave respect to Muhammad's latter and also pay tribute to Muhammad. He did not accept islam, but he knew that Muhammad was right. The story is mentioned in history books and the guy who gave information to heraclius, was a great enemy of Muhammad , his name was Abu sufiyaan, later on he become muslim.
One of the Romans victory is mentioned in Quran. When Muhammad was alive, persians defeated Romans very very badly. It was a great defeat. The pegan of Arabs were very happy,because persians were also pegans so they supoorted persians at that time. They taunting muslims, because muslims and Romans were believers. Muslims were upset because of pegans behavior. Then Allah revealed A verse that Romans will defeat persians after few years. Then exactly after 9 years they defeated persians.
prophet Mohamed pbuh has given a great leader title for the man who will take Constantinople , at first Arabs sailed with there ships and sieged the city but they wasn't successful and they continued and took the eastern half of turkey of today, after hundreds of years later Arabs fought a war against china and freed some of the Turkic tribes who used to be solders for china , Islam was very successful for the Turks who later moved under the Abyssinia caliphate and lived as far as turkey of today ,these Turks formed the ottoman empire which its sultans tried to take the city of Constantinople to win the title of the great leader which the prophet promised hundreds of years ago and there came sultan Mohammed alfatih who successfully took the city using big cannons .
Constantinople was named later Islambul later was called Istanbul.
All the followers of a false prophet whingeing in the comments is hilarious.
He was a loser who turned the name of the mighty Roman empire into a pathetic laughable joke after his embarrassing loses to Arabs
He cleared the way for Islam to defeat the Sassanians. I am not sure he saved the World !
While heraclius last year's were pretty depressing, and he failed to stop the Arab invasions he was the one to set up the tarsus mountain frontier that would last for over 400 years, and he saved the empire from being completely destroyed by the persians during the Roman sassanid war from 602-628 AD, and his successors like constants II, and Constantine IV would build up the theme system that would make byzantium so powerful in later centuries, and his great grandson Constantine IV would save Constantinople from the Arab seige of Constantinople from 674-678 AD, and also considering the fact that heraclius might have laid the setting stones for the theme system that his grandson, and great grandson would help to flower and so all in all heraclius legacy is mixed but I would say that he was indeed a success, and saved the world
There are some things I quibble with in this video. But, I think people are shortsighted when they say Heraclius was a failure. He saved the Empire, and with it Europe from either Persian or Islamic domination. The continuation of Byzantium was immensely important to the future of humanity as it allowed European Civilization to develop and kept the knowledge of the ancient world alive long enough for it to be transmitted to the modern era.
Ultimately, Heraclius' failure to defeat Islam had its seeds years before he ruled, or was even alive. The Justinian Plague weakened both the Eastern and Sassanid Empires terribly. The loss of so many people wrecked the economies of both and their capacity to resist invasion. Without the Plague Islam had no chance at overthrowing either Empire. And even then, it was a close-run thing. Had Islam emerged 30 years earlier it would have been crushed by both the Byzantines and Sassanids. Had it emerged 30 years later, it would have likely failed as the Romans would have had time to rebuild and regroup. Sometimes timing is everything.
Consinople? This dude stanning for Heraclius so hard he can't even pronounce the name of the city. Leave some of that stan for Nova Roma buddy.
Legacy of Emperor Heraclius
He made Greek the Roman language,
reducing Latin to a ceremonial role and replacing it by Greek as the language of Senate,Court and Administration.
(up to that point the Empire basically had two administrative languages which laws were written,Greek and Latin,although Latin was practically used only in the West,in the Exarchates of Ravenna and Africa.
In the East,Greek was the language of practical administration and Latin was used only in coins and in official prestigious titles),the steady disappearance of Latin language and culture since 476AD had as a result Greek culture becoming the prominent and utterly the only Roman culture.
He was the first who took the title Basileus,equivalent of Emperor in Greek,
as his main title which is how every ruler after him was officially called.
He only let Romans that were native Greek speakers take governmental positions,
ofcourse all this were happening before, since 395AD as the Greek East always remained Greek,but he made it official that Rome isn't Latin anymore but Greek.
He led and defended the Empire threw extraordinary odds.
He rebuilded and reorganized the army.
He personally lead his soldiers in to battle and
even killing Sasanid generals in single combat.
He reached undefeated the capital of the Sasanids in Mesopotamia defeating 4 Persian armies in a row and ended the war in Romes favour and set the Sasanids in a civil war that utterly doomed them.
After his victory over the Persians he took the title:
Βασιλεύς Βασιλέων
Basileus Basileon
meaning King of Kings,because now he was the only True Victorious Emperor of the Earth.
He restored the True Cross back in Jerusalem and reclaimed every other lost Roman relic.
He did one of the greatest Triumphs in Roman history, entering Constantinople on a golden chariot that was dragged by 4 enormous Persian War Elephants followed by his soldiers and all kind of treasures from his campaigns.
He and Patriarch Sergius almost manage to reunite the Church which had a schism for 150 years with the non-Calcedonians.
Heraclius was he who first withdrew the eastern field armies into Anatolia due to the Arab threat,sowing the seeds of the Theme system, and it was he who stabilized the Anatolian frontier, which kept the Empire safe for the next 350 years.
After his death, Heraclius' body was laid to rest in the Church of the Holy Apostles within a sarcophagus of white onyx next to Costantine the Great and all his predecessors.
He was a demigod to his people!
He's truly one of the Greatest Basileus–Emperors of Rome.
What is the name of the historian, has he written any books? Thanks.
Well, the scenes of public execution certainly bring to life the debt we in the west owe the Byzantine Empire. Had Islam swept through to Western Europe, the freedoms we enjoy would not have even been conceived of.
Thank you for this program. I find Heraclius role as creator of the Theme system to be most important. There are many theories about the formation of the theme system and I find it a vexing topic. Thank you again!
Islam conquest during Muhammad pbuh time were to secure the haj route to mecca…
So there was Abu Bakr and Umar. Did anyone actually ever see Muhammad? Ever? Anywhere?
Thank you for these wonderful videos on Christian history…so proud to have this Greek heritage..
Theophylact Simocatta
The first quote comes from Theophylact Simocatta’s history of the Roman-Sasanian War of 572-91, written during the early years of Heraclius’ reign. It purportedly shows that Heraclius’ father, called Heraclius the Elder, was a native of Armenia. He had been fighting in Mesopotamia as second-in-command to Philippicus, the magister militum per Orientem—commander of all troops in the Diocese of the East, which consisted of Mesopotamia and Syria. Philippicus became ill and left for the capital, leaving Heraclius in charge of the army.
After recovering, Philippicus set out to rejoin the army. On the way back, he received word from Emperor Maurice that he was being replaced as magister militum, so he wrote ahead to the elder Heraclius, ordering him “after leaving the army, to return to his own city once he arrived in Armenia, and hand the army over to Narses, commander of Constantina city.” (Simocatta 3.1.1) In Greek, this is:
…καταλιπόντα τὸ στράτευμα ἐς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ πόλιν ἐπανελθεῖν ἐς τὴν Ἀρμενίαν γενόμενον, Ναρσῇ τε τῷ Κωνσταντίνης πόλεως ἡγεμόνι μεθιέναι τὸ στράτευμα.
Herakleios or Heraclius (Greek: Ηράκλειος / Hērákleios; Latin: Flavius Heraclius Augustus), was the Eastern Roman, or rather Byzantine, emperor from October 5, 610 to February 11, 641. He was one of the most important Byzantine rulers and at the same time can be considered the last ruler of late antiquity and first emperor of the Middle Byzantine Empire. The dynasty founded by him would rule until the year 711.
Flavius Heraclius or Herakleios was of Armenian descent. His mother's name was Epiphania, his father, Herakleios the Elder, was a general under Emperor Mauricius, before he was made exarch of Carthage (basically a governor with far-reaching military and civil powers). The younger Herakleios may have also spoken Latin, but his mother tongue was Greek. It is possible (though unlikely) that he was a descendant of the Arsacids, who ruled in Persia until 226 and in Armenia until 428.
The most important sources are the Chronicon Paschale, the history work of Sebeos and Theophanes as well as the poems of Georgius of Pisidia.
GB Greatrex – S.N.C. Lieu, The Roman Eastern Frontier and the Persian Wars. Part II AD 363–630. A narrative sourcebook, London – New York, 2002. (especially pp. 182–228.).
Heraclius, Emperor of Byzantium
Mitchell, Stephen. A history of the later Roman Empire, AD 284–641: the transformation of the ancient world
http://www.angelfire.com/poetry/second/calender/byzantinerijk.html, THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE
Secondary Literature Edit
J. Haldon, Byzantium in the Seventh Century. The Transformation of a Culture, Cambridge, 19972.
J. Howard-Johnston, Heraclius' Persian Campaigns and the Revival of the East Roman Empire 622–630, in War in History 6 (1999), pp. 1–44.
WE. Kaegi, Heraclius – Emperor of Byzantium, Cambridge, 2003.
R-J. Lilie, Byzanz – Das zweite Rom, Berlin, 2003, pp. 80ff.
J. Martindale, The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire IIIa, Cambridge, 1992, pp. 586f.
G.J. Reinink – B. H. Stolte
Fun fact if he killed Muhammad in 617 ad Islam wouldn't exist and Heracles would the savior of world 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢