“Ye-es,” Maria Zoë confirmed, as she searched and finally found a remarkably young-looking man in ecclesiastical robes. He was as handsome as an archangel, with beautiful chestnut curls and perfect, regular features in a smooth-cheeked face. “He calls himself Heraclius. He is a native of these parts, illegitimate I believe; certainly obscure, albeit well educated.”
Though no birthdate is available for Héraclius, Wikipedia estimates that he was born around 1128, probably because he studied canon law in Bologna at the same time as Étienne de Tournai, who was born in 1128. If this estimate is reasonably correct, he would have been in his late forties in 1176 and so, it’s doubtful he would have been the youthful Adonis depicted here.
Also, Héraclius was not also a native of Outremer; he was actually from Gévaudan in Auvergne.
