ABSTRACT
This chapter examines three ways the Heraclians articulated their rule – the imperial college, imperial names, and the imperial image on coins and seals – and argues how important dynasty was in these three areas. One might expect the Heraclians to have constructed a dynasty. After all, they were remarkably good at producing emperors. The struggle between the branches of the Heraclian family can be told by the permutations in the imperial college. By 681 the dynasty had ruled for seventy-one years, and for all bar sixteen there had been anywhere between two and four Heraclians as Augusti. Names are one of the simplest means for any family to advertise internal links, and emperors had long used them to associate themselves or their children with their predecessors. The Heraclians were, therefore, not the first Byzantine dynasty in any meaningful sense of the word.
