E00050: Theophylact Simocatta in his History describes the execution in 602 of *Maurice (East Roman Emperor, S00039) and his sons, by the men of the usurper Phocas, all in the region of Constantinople. A hagiographical account of their deaths, now lost, is probably written under Heraclius. Their execution is miraculously announced by statues in Alexandria (Egypt). Written in Greek in Constantinople in the early 7th century.

Theophylact Simocatta, History 8.11-13

After describing the flight of Maurice from Constantinople, and the coronation and triumphal entrance of the usurper Phocas into the city, Simocatta gives an account of the murder of the deposed emperor and his sons. Maurice and his younger sons had sought sanctuary at the shrine of *Autonomos on the Gulf of Nicomedia (E00007), while his eldest son and heir apparent Theodosios was in Nicaea. The execution is described as follows:

8.11.1-6
(1.) ὁ δὲ τύραννος τούτων ἀκηκοὼς ἀποπαύει τὰ πλήθη καθυλακτοῦντα περὶ τῶν μὴ καιρίων, τῇ δ’ ἐπαύριον πρὸς τὸν φόνον τοῦ αὐτοκράτορος ἐκβακχεύεται. τοιγαροῦν ὁ Μαυρίκιος τῷ μεταμέλῳ φιλοσοφήσας τὸν κίνδυνον τὸν δακτύλιον πέμπει Θεοδοσίῳ τῷ παιδὶ ἐπιβεβηκότι Νικαίας τῆς πόλεως ἀναζεῦξαί τε πρὸς αὐτὸν θᾶττον προσέταξεν. (2.) οὕτω μὲν οὖν Θεοδόσιος γεγονὼς πειθήνιος τῷ πατρὶ πρὸς τὰς συμφορὰς ηὐτομόλησε καὶ φιλυπόστροφος γεγονὼς πρὸς ἀποσφαγὴν παραγίνεται. τοίνυν ὁ τύραννος στρατιώτας ἐκπέμψας ἐς τὸ ἀντιπέραν τῆς βασιλίδος τῶν πόλεων, ἐν ᾗ καὶ ἡ Χαλκηδόνος πόλις καθίδρυται, ἀναιρεῖ τὸν Μαυρίκιον εἰς τὸν λεγόμενον Εὐτροπίου λιμένα. (3.) προαναιροῦνται τοιγαροῦν ἐπ’ ὄψεσι τοῦ βασιλέως οἱ παῖδες οἱ ἄρρενες, ἐντεῦθεν τῷ τῆς φύσεως ξίφει τῷ φόνῳ τῶν παίδων προκολάζοντες οἱ φονευταὶ τὸν Μαυρίκιον. ὁ μὲν οὖν Μαυρίκιος φιλοσοφῶν τὸ δυστύχημα τὸν ἐπὶ πάντων ἀνεκαλεῖτο θεὸν καὶ πυκνότερον ἐπεφθέγγετο· “δίκαιος εἶ, κύριε, καὶ δικαία ἡ κρίσις σου.” (4.) γίνεται γοῦν καὐτὸς παρανάλωμα ξίφους ἀποτομὴν τῆς κεφαλῆς ὑποστάς, ἐπιτάφιον ὥσπερ τῶν τέκνων τὴν ἐς ὕστερον ἑαυτοῦ ἀναίρεσιν κληρωσάμενος, προεπιδειξάμενος τὴν ἀρετὴν ἐν τῷ μεγέθει τῆς συμφορᾶς. (5.) τῆς γὰρ τιθήνης ὑποκλεψάσης ἕν τι τῶν βασιλικῶν μειρακίων καὶ πρὸς ἀποσφαγὴν τὸ ἑαυτῆς ὑπομάζιον παραδούσης, κηρύττει λόγος ἀληθὴς Μαυρίκιον τὸ ἀπόρρητον ἐξειπεῖν τοῖς φονεύουσι καταμηνῦσαί τε τὴν ἀποκρυβὴν τοῦ παιδός, καὶ μὴ δίκαιον εἶναι κατισχυρίζεσθαι τὸν φόνον παρανοθεύεσθαι τῇ ὑποκλοπῇ τοῦ υἱοῦ. (6.) οὕτω μὲν οὖν ὁ βασιλεὺς καὶ νόμων φύσεως ὑψηλότερος γεγονὼς ὑπαλλάττει τὸν βίον. λέγεται δὲ τὸν βασιλέα Μαυρίκιον πρό τινων τῆς ἀναιρέσεως χρόνων ἐν τοῖς σεβασμιωτέροις τῆς οἰκουμένης ναοῖς ἐν γράμμασι καθικετεῦσαι τὸν ἕνα τῆς ὑπερκοσμίου τριάδος Χριστὸν κύριον τὰς ἀντιδόσεις τῶν βεβιωμένων κατὰ τοῦτον δῆτα τὸν θνητὸν καὶ ἐπίκηρον κόσμον ἀπολαβεῖν.

'(1.) When the tyrant [Phocas] heard this, he checked the masses’ howling about inopportune matters and, on the morrow, was roused to frenzy for the murder of the emperor. Now Maurice in repentance philosophically accepted the danger, sent his ring to his son Theodosios who had reached the city of Nicaea, and commanded him to return to him quickly. (2.) And so Theodosios thus became obedient to his father, volunteered for the disaster, came back willingly and arrived for slaughter. Then the tyrant dispatched soldiers to the coast opposite the queen of cities, where the city of Chalcedon is also located, and slew Maurice at the so-called harbour of Eutropios. (3.) Accordingly, the male children were slaughtered first before the emperor’s eyes; hence by his kin to the sword, by the slaughter of his sons, the murderers inflicted advance punishment on Maurice. And so Maurice, accepting the misfortune philosophically, called on the supreme god, and repeatedly uttered: “Thou art just, O Lord, and thy judgement is just.” (4.) So he too became a victim of the sword, suffering severance of the head; he was allotted his own slaughter last, as if it were an epitaph for his children, having first demonstrated his courage in the magnitude of the disaster. (5.) For, after the nurse had secretly stolen one of the royal infants and provided her own suckling for slaughter, true report proclaims that Maurice declared the secret to the murderers, revealed the concealment of the child, and asseverated that it was not right to pervert the murder by the secret theft of his son. (6.) And so, the emperor, having become so much superior even to the laws of nature, ended his life. It is said that, some time before his slaughter, the emperor Maurice had supplicated by letter in the more venerable churches of the inhabited world, the Lord Christ, One of the supermundane Trinity, to exact repayment for his misdeeds in this present mortal and perishable world.'

Next Simocatta tells of the testament of Maurice, which was discovered in the early years of Heraclius’ reign. According to it, the emperor planned to divide the empire among his sons, bequeathing the East to his eldest son Theodosios, and the West to his younger son Tiberios. He also appointed Dometianos, bishop of Melitene and a relative of his, as guardian of his younger children.

After this digression, the author returns to the account of Maurice’s murder, describing the sad sight of the bodies of the emperor and the princes floating in the sea near Chalcedon (8.12). Simocatta recalls that this was the theme of a speech he gave before a moved audience during a memorial ceremony held at the tomb of Maurice after the accession of Heraclius. The officer in charge of the execution, a certain Lilios, took the heads of Maurice and the princes to the usurper Phocas and had them publicly exposed at the Kampos, the military marching field of the Hebdomon. All the troops that had participated in the coup against Maurice eventually met their death in a misfortunate way, mostly in the wars with Persia, which Simocatta interprets as divine punishment.

In the next section (8.13), Simocatta discusses the end of Maurice’s eldest son Theodosios, who was not with his father and brothers when they were arrested at the shrine of Autonomos. Theodosios, summoned by his father, returned to the shrine and was executed at the nearby site of Diadromoi. Simocatta tells of rumours that Theodosios escaped execution, which he dismisses as inaccurate. Finally, Simocatta recounts the story that, on the day of Maurice’s execution, a man in Alexandria heard statues in the temple of Tyche (Tychaeum) talking and announcing the death of the emperor. Nine days later, the official announcement of the emperor’s death reached Alexandria, confirming what the statues had said. Simocatta interprets this as an act of demons. The story was officially announced by the governor of Egypt (Augustalis) Peter, a relative of Simocatta.

Text: de Boor and Wirth 1972. Translation: Whitby and Whitby 1986, modified. Summary: Efthymios Rizos.