Nicetas (cousin of Heraclius)

Nicetas
Died	after 618/9, possibly 628/9
Years active	608–618/9
Known for	Conquered Egypt during the revolt against Phocas and governed it afterwards; general in the 602–628 war with Persia
Opponent(s)	Phocas, Shahrbaraz
Children	Empress Gregoria
Relatives	Emperor Heraclius (cousin)

Nicetas or Niketas (Greek: Νικήτας) was the cousin of Emperor Heraclius. He played a major role in the revolt against Phocas that brought Heraclius to the throne, where he captured Egypt for his cousin. Nicetas remained governor of Egypt (or at least Alexandria) thereafter, and participated also in the Byzantine–Sassanid War of 602–628, but failed to stop the Sassanid conquest of Egypt ca. 618/619. He disappears from the sources thereafter, but possibly served as Exarch of Africa until his death.

Nicetas was the son of the patrikios Gregoras, the brother of the Exarch of Africa Heraclius the Elder, under whom he served as magister militum in Africa. When Heraclius the Elder launched a rebellion against the usurper Phocas in 608, Nicetas and his father supported it. The Exarch's son, Heraclius the Younger, was the rebellion's candidate to replace Phocas, and with a fleet sailed directly for the imperial capital, Constantinople, which he seized on 5 October 610. At the same time, Nicetas, his forces augmented by Berber auxiliaries, undertook the overland conquest of the Cyrenaica and Egypt. The 9th-century Patriarch of Constantinople Nikephoros reports that the two cousins were involved in a "race" for Constantinople and the imperial throne, but this is clearly a legend.

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