Phocas: Timeline

602   Phocas kills Emperor Maurice Maurice (emperor)

Flavius Mauricius Tiberius Augustus [i] or Maurice was Emperor of the Byzantine Empire [i] , of t ... 

 and declares himself emperor.

610   Died

610   Heraclius Heraclius

Heraclius or Herakleios or , was Byzantine Emperor [i] from October 5 [i], 610 [i] ... 

 arrives by ship from Africa at Constantinople Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Byzantine Empire [i] and following its fall in 1453 [i], of the O ... 

, overthrows East Roman Emperor Phocas and becomes Emperor. His first major act is to change the official language of the East Roman Empire from Latin Latin

Latin is an ancient Indo-European language [i] originally spoken in Latium [i], ... 

 to Greek (already the language of the vast majority of the population). Because of this, after AD 610 the East Roman Empire is customarily referred to as the Byzantine Empire Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire is the term conventionally used since the 19th century [i] to describe the Greek-spea ... 

 (the term Byzantine is a modern term invented by historians in the 18th Century; the people of the Empire itself always referred to themselves as "Romans").