Silver pendant with Byzantine coin Focas & Leontia

Phocas & Leontia: Phocas ruled the Byzantine Empire from AD 602 to 610 after overthrowing Emperor Maurice. His wife Leontia was crowned Augusta shortly after his accession and appears with him on many bronze coins.

Phocas inherited an Empire already under considerable military and financial pressure. The Sasanian king Khusrow II used the murder of Maurice, who had previously helped restore him to the Persian throne, as justification for invading Byzantine territory in 603. In 608, Heraclius the Elder, Exarch of Africa, and his son Heraclius rebelled. Heraclius entered Constantinople on 5 October 610, whereupon Phocas was deposed and executed.

Leontia appears particularly prominently on the bronze coinage of Phocas. Joint types were struck at several eastern mints. Their prominent joint representation emphasised Leontia’s status as Augusta and may also have helped present the newly established regime as a legitimate imperial Dynasty.