CNG - Phocas, brutish usurper. GOLD Tremissis
$177.50
08/04/99,
Seller    cngcoins


     Phocas. 602-610 AD. AV Tremissis (1.50 gm). DN FOCAS PP AVG,
     diademed, beardless head right / VICTORI FOCAS AV, cross potent,
     CONOB. SB 634; DO 19. Good VF, flat strike on obverse legend from
     9-12 o'clock. 714839.

     The reign of Phocas was one long disaster for the East Roman
     Empire. Yet one could argue that this brutish usurper was the
     founder of the Byzantine, as opposed to East Roman, state. The
     crises provoked by his reign swept away most of the old Roman
     institutions and governmental structures; Latin ceased being the
     legal and administrative language (indeed Phocas appears to have
     been the last native Latin-speaking Emperor). By the time the
     Empire recovered its equilibrium a generation later, an old Roman
     would have had a difficult time recognizing the place as his own.