Heraclius of Jerusalem

 

  

 
by

Damien F. Mackey

 

 

Strangely, then, we are finding that the ancient city of Nineveh, destroyed in the late C7th BC, and not uncovered again until the mid-C19th AD – a period of approximately two and a half millennia, according to conventional estimates – experienced an eerie phase of ‘resurgence’ in the C7th AD, roughly halfway between these two cut-off points. This is clearly a pseudo-history.

 

 

The neo-Assyrian empire of the Sargonids, of the C8th-C7th’s BC - coupled with the contemporaneous drama of the Book of Judith - appears to have left its mark in various unexpected places.

For instance, as we have discovered in this series, the supposed C7th AD emperor of Byzantium, Heraclius, and his contemporaries, are horribly anachronistic, notably in relation to the Assyrians and Nineveh:

 

Strangely, then, we are finding that the ancient city of Nineveh, destroyed in the late C7th BC, and not uncovered again until the mid-C19th AD – a period of approximately two and a half millennia, according to conventional estimates – experienced an eerie phase of ‘resurgence’ in the C7th AD, roughly halfway between these two cut-off points. This is clearly a pseudo-history.

 

And in c. 960 AD, seeming flashes of the neo-Assyrian empire startlingly re-emerge, again in a Judith-like context, in the supposedly Ethiopian kingdom of “Aksum” (or Axum).

See e.g. my:

 

Judith the Simeonite and Judith the Semienite

https://www.academia.edu/24416713/Judith_the_Simeonite_and_Judith_the_Semienite

 

But it does not end there.

Later again, in the C12th AD, according to the history books, we find the supposed Seljuk Turks manifesting similar suspicious likenesses to the greatest of the neo-Assyrian kings, with events recorded about them strongly reminiscent, too, of the dramatic conflict described in the Book of Judith. See my:

 

Seljuk, Zengi, and the neo-Assyrians

https://www.academia.edu/25411810/Seljuk_Zengi_and_the_neo-Assyrians

 

In this “Zengi” article I also introduced another supposedly historical Heraclius, but this time apparently ruling over, not Byzantium, but Jerusalem. Thus I wrote:
 

Most interestingly, too, in light of my massive historical query:

Two Supposed Nehemiahs: BC time and AD time

https://www.academia.edu/12429764/Two_Supposed_Nehemiahs_BC_time_and_AD_time

 

an “Heraclius” appears to get a re-run.

Firstly, king Chosroes II (said to have been a Persian king) of c. 600 AD was opposed to the Byzantine emperor Heraclius. Then, incredibly – or is it, anymore? – one named Heraclius (var. Eraclius) emerges in c. 1128-1190/91 AD, now as Patriarch of Jerusalem, at the time of Zengi.