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Martina
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'''Martina''' was a [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] Empress, wife and niece of [[Heraclius]]. She was a daughter of his sister Maria and a certain Martinus.
In [[613]], when the first wife of Heraclius, Eudocia, died he married Martina, but this marriage was never approved of by either the people of [[Constantinople]] or the Church. Despite his disapproval and attempts to convince Heraclius to repudiate Martina, Patriarch [[Patriarch Sergius I of Constantinople]] performed the ceremony himself and crowned Martina in the Augustaeum after she was proclaimed Augusta by Heraclius. Even the members of the imperial family voiced their objections, with Heraclius' brother (and Martina's uncle) Theodore continually criticising Heraclius because of this relationship.
However, the Emperor and the Empress were clearly a very close couple: Martina accompanied her husband in his most difficult campaigns against the Persians. She was also at his side at Antioch when the news was received of the serious defeat by the Arabs at the river Yarmuk in August [[636]].