The Persian Campaigns of Emperor Heraclius (610–641): on the Status and Rank of Some Military Units of Byzantine Army

The present paper deals with the three points of Byzantine military organi-zation during the reign of Heraclius, more precisely – 1) the role of Moorish tribal detachments in overthrowing of the usurper Phocas in 610 A.D.; 2) the territorial deployment of palace scholae (detachments of imperial guard) to 610 A.D., when Heraclius ascended the throne and 3) the number of military corps (expeditionary armies), which struggled against the Persians. The author turned to inscriptions and the data of narrative sources, having compared these evidence, the author concluded that in October of 610 Heraclius came to Constantinople together with the big amount of Moorish units, which Heraclius brought from Africa, moreover, a certain group of scholares (the soldiers who served in the scholae) located in Constantinople and defended the capital of Empire from incursions of external enemies to 610, these scholares were a part of city military garrison. Therefore, the author revised an idea that to beginning of the 7th century the scholae were the show troops onl , which didn’t fight in real military battles. The author demonstrates that originally, in 622, Heraclius commanded over two field armies, and then, to 627, his leadership extended over the third army. The author considers the internal structure and territorial movements of these armies