FOCA, BYZANTINE EMPEROR. — Having seized the throne in 602, he was killed in 610. S. Gregorio Magno addressed benevolent expressions of homage to him and exhorted him to moderation toward his political adversaries, which he did not practice, thereby hastening his downfall. In 607 F. granted the Roman Church the title of Caput omnium Ecclesiarum. During F.’s reign, Bonifacio IV dedicated (602) Agrippa’s Pantheon to the Madonna and all the saints. A column was dedicated to him in the Roman Forum (608).
BISL.: F. Görrer, Gregor der Gr. und Phokas, in Zeitschr. für Wüstenh. Theologie, 44 (1901), pp. 502-602; Fliche-Martin-Frutaz, VI, pp. 75-83.