Byzantine Empire , Syracuse, Follis (33mm, 13.35g, )

Byzantine Empire , Syracuse, Follis  (33mm, 13.35g, )

Heraclius (610-641). Æ 40 Nummi (33mm, 13.35g, 6h). Syracuse, 615/6-627/8. Crowned and draped facing bust; monogram to r. R/ SCLS below bar. MIB Km 4; DOC 241; Sear 882. Green patina, VF                                                

Heraclius (575 – 11 February 641) was the Byzantine emperor from 610 to 641. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the exarch of Africa, led a revolt against the unpopular usurper Phocas.

Sicily After a period of Vandal rule, 469–477, Syracuse and the island was recovered for Roman rule under Odoacer, 476–491 and Theodoric the Great, 491–526, by Belisarius for the Byzantine Empire (31 December 535).[20] From 663 to 668 Syracuse was the seat of the Greek-speaking Emperor Constans II, as well as a capital of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire and metropolis of the whole Sicilian Church. Constans II was assassinated when his plans to permanently replace the Byzantine capital of Constantinople with Syracuse became suspected.

The city was besieged by the Aghlabids for almost a year in 827–828, but Byzantine reinforcements prevented its fall. It remained the center of Byzantine resistance to the gradual Muslim conquest of Sicily until it fell to the Aghlabids after another siege on 20/21 May 878.