HERACLIUS, Emperor of the East, was born about 575. Not much is known of his early life, but his father Heraclius, exarch of Africa, sent him from Carthage to Constantinople at the head of a fleet intended to excite a revolution and depose the wretched Phocas, who then disgraced the throne. The sudden appearance of this fleet was the signal for insurrection. Phocas made a feeble resistance, was taken prisoner, and put to death with cruelty and ignominy. The general voice of the people, nobles, and clergy, nominated Heraclius to the imperial dignity, which after some hesitation he accepted. "His coronation was accompanied by that of his wife Eudoxia, and their posterity to the fourth generation continued to reign over the empire of the East." Heraclius soon found himself in trouble, for Chosroes, the Persian monarch, declared him a usurper, and invaded and wasted the fairest provinces of the empire. To aggravate his distress, Heraclius beheld Europe, from the confines of Istria to the long wall of Thrace, oppressed by the Avars. Famine invaded Constantinople, and the emperor resolved to retire to Africa. This resolution was abandoned. Heraclius was persuaded to confer with the leader of the Avars, who treacherously endeavoured to capture him, and pursued him to the very walls of Constantinople. They plundered the suburbs and carried away two hundred and seventy thousand captives. The Persian general offered to conduct an embassy to Chosroes, who rejected it with scorn, flayed alive the imprudent general, and cast the ambassadors into prison. He, nevertheless, eventually renounced the conquest of Constantinople on condition of receiving annually a large tribute. The time given him to obtain it Heraclius devoted to preparations for exploits by which he retrieved his fortunes, and won the reputation of a hero. Money was collected, soldiers were levied, and the Avars were propitiated with two hundred thousand pieces of gold. To attack the Persians must have been fatal, and to march through Asia Minor almost impossible. Heraclius therefore boldly embarked his troops and landed them on the confines of Syria and Cilicia. After a successful campaign he returned to Constantinople on affairs of state, but resumed the conflict in the spring. In his third campaign he encountered greater obstacles, but made new conquests. Constantinople was besieged in his absence by the Avars and the Persians; but its inhabitants fought like heroes, and their foes were routed. In 627 Heraclius defeated the concentrated forces of the Persians, took Nineveh, marched on Ctesiphon, and Chosroes became a fugitive, and ended his days of starvation in a prison through the treachery of Siroes his son. In 628 peace was concluded, and Heraclius returned to Constantinople. In 629 he made a pilgrimage to restore to Jerusalem the true cross, which had been recovered from the Persians. His zeal induced him to expel the Jews from Jerusalem, and to embroil himself in theological discussions. After his Persian exploits he returned to his former apathy, and passed several years in the East. In 634 we find him shrinking from the Saracens, then invading for the first time the Roman empire in Syria. Heraclius hastened to Constantinople, and left his generals behind to suffer defeat from the followers of Mohammed, and to lose four thousand men in the plains of Gaza in their first battle, February 4, 634. He allowed his empire to fall to pieces while he was taken up with doctrinal disputes; in 639 he issued his famous "Ecthesis," or profession of faith. By his first wife he left a son, Heraclius; and by his second, who was also his niece, he left another, Heracleonas, both of whom succeeded him. He died March 11, 641.—B. H. C.
HERALDUS, Desiderius, or more properly Didier Herault, a learned French protestant, was born about 1575, or, according to Messrs. Haag, about 1579. He obtained the Greek professorship at Sedan, and at the age of twenty published two books of critical observations. Taking part in theological disputes he had to leave his professorship, after which he went to Paris, and set up as a parliamentary advocate. His success was great, but he got into a miserable controversy with Salmasius, which was only ended by his death in 1649. Besides original works on law and other matters, Heraldus published valuable editions of works by Arnobius, Tertullian, Min. Felix, &c. He was a good scholar, an able lawyer, and an excellent critic.—B. H. C.
HERAPATH, William, one of the most distinguished analytical chemists of the present age, and inventor of the magnetic balance, and the blowpipe named after him. He was born at Bristol, May 26, 1796, and was the son of the late William Herapath, who for many years carried on an extensive business as maltster and brewer in that city. At a very early age young Herapath showed a peculiar predilection for the mechanical arts, by taking clocks to pieces, making model water-mills, &c. When only fourteen years old, he began the study of chemistry and electricity; and as it was difficult at that time to obtain chemical apparatus in Bristol, he constructed all he required, and continued to make even to the close of his career his analytical balances, which he rendered accurate to the two-millionth part of the load. He left school at sixteen; and entered the Bristol City Bank, where he remained three years, still pursuing his scientific studies. In the following year (1816) the sole management of his father's business devolved upon him. In the year 1819 he was solicited to determine the relative values of gases made from oil and coal. His experiments were made publicly, and he afterwards gave evidence in both houses of parliament on the subject. Herapath had always had a taste for anatomy, and in 1828 he joined Mr. Henry Clark, a lecturer on that science, and together they founded the Bristol medical school, still the only institution of the kind for the south and west of England and Wales; and he filled the professor's chair for the three subdivisions of that science up to the year 1861. To the labours and accurate analyses of Herapath, society is indebted for the true administration of justice in numerous and remarkable poisoning cases; for he was the first man who caused exhumation in England, for the purpose of examining human bodies for the discovery of poison. The first case occurred in 1833. Herapath took the viscera from the churchyard to his laboratory, and, in the presence of the mayor and the public, extracted arsenic from them. Herapath was the first to separate strychnia and prussic acid from the livers of dead bodies. He was by ballot, in 1831, elected chairman of the Maltsters' Association of the United Kingdom, and the maltsters of Bristol shortly afterwards presented him with a handsome service of plate. In the same year, on the occasion of the Bristol riots, he was appointed under-sheriff, and speedily adopted such measures as gave protection to the citizens. So great had become the demand for his services as an analyst, that in 1834 he retired from trade and adopted chemistry as a profession. In 1836 he was chosen a magistrate of Bristol, and numerous honorary appointments were conferred on him by his fellow-citizens. Herapath contributed largely to various scientific publications, and was a member of many learned and scientific associations. He died in February, 1868.—W. H. P. G.
HÉRAULT de Séchelles, Marie Jean, born at Paris in 1760. He had already obtained a high place in the legal profession, and enjoyed the favour of the court when the Revolution broke out. He at once sided with the popular party, distinguished himself at the taking of the Bastile, and in 1791 Paris sent him to the assembly. At his suggestion the country was declared in danger. When the convention was threatened in 1792, Hérault was its president, and marched out at the head of its members to confront Henriot's cannoniers. His courage and his eloquence, however, were unavailing. In three days and nights he prepared the draft of the constitution; and in 1793 he presided at the inauguration of the republic. Robespierre disliked him, and resolved upon his ruin. In March, 1794, he was arrested on the charge of having assisted in shielding a suspect, and was sent to the prison of the Luxembourg. Brought before the revolutionary tribunal at the same time as Danton and his friends, he shared their condemnation. On 5th April, 1794, the day of his execution, as he bent his face towards Danton's for a last embrace, the executioner thrust them violently apart. Danton said to the man—"What! you can be more terrible than death itself? For all that, you cannot hinder our heads from meeting in yonder basket!" Herault smiled sadly, saluted the people and the statue of liberty, and died. He was but thirty-four. He loved literature, and his writings were numerous.—W. J. P.
HERBART, Johann Friedrich, one of the most notable names in German philosophy, was born at Oldenburg on the 4th May, 1776. He was the son of a lawyer, and the father wished him to adopt his own profession, to which, however, John Frederick had an invincible repugnance, so strongly manifested that the scheme was abandoned. It is said that as early as his twelfth year the boy pondered on abstruse subjects; this is not uncommon in thoughtful children. Yet there are few, however thoughtful, who, like the boy Herbart, would have found pleasure in intercourse with the writings of Kant, and
