Description: .Maurice(Latin:MauriciusorMauritius;Greek:,translit.Maurikios; 539 27 November 602) wasEastern Roman emperorfrom 582 to 602 and the last member of theJustinian dynasty. A successful general, Maurice was chosen as heir and son-in-law by his predecessorTiberius II.Maurice's reign was troubled by almost constant warfare. After he became emperor, he brought thewar with Sasanian Persiato avictorious conclusion. The empire's eastern border in theSouth Caucasuswas vastly expanded and, for the first time in nearly two centuries, the Romans were no longer obliged to pay the Persians thousands of pounds of gold annually for peace. Afterward, Mauricecampaigned extensivelyin theBalkansagainst theAvarspushing them back across theDanubeby 599. He also conducted campaigns across the Danube, the first Roman emperor to do so in over two centuries. In the west, he established two large semi-autonomous provinces calledexarchates, ruled byexarchs, or viceroys of the emperor. In Italy Maurice established theExarchate of Italyin 584, the first real effort by the empire to halt the advance of theLombards. With the creation of theExarchate of Africain 591 he further solidified the power of Constantinople in the westernMediterranean. Maurice's successes on battlefields and in foreign policy were counterbalanced by mounting financial difficulties of the empire. Maurice responded with several unpopular measures which alienated both the army and the general populace. In 602, a dissatisfied officer namedPhocasusurped the throne, having Maurice and his six sons executed. This event would prove a disaster for the empire, sparking atwenty-six-year warwith Sassanid Persia which would leave both empires devastated prior to theMuslim conquests. Maurice's reign is a relatively well-documented era oflate antiquity, in particular by the historianTheophylact Simocatta. TheStrategikon, amanual of warwhich influenced European and Middle Eastern military traditions for well over a millennium, is traditionally attributed to Maurice. Maurice was born inArabissusinCappadociain 539. His father wasPaul. He had one brother,Peter, and two sisters, Theoctista and Gordia, the latter of whom was later the wife of the generalPhilippicus.He is recorded to have been a native Greek speaker, unlike the previous emperors sinceAnastasius I Dicorus.Sources conflict over his birthplace, withEvagrius Scholasticusrecording a descent from elderRome, while the majority of other sources call him a nativeCappadocian Greekand the first emperor "from the race of the Greeks". Maurice first came toConstantinopleas anotariusto serve as secretary toTiberius, thecomes excubitorum(commander of theExcubitors, the imperial bodyguard). When Tiberius was namedCaesarin 574, Maurice was appointed to succeed him ascomes excubitorum. Persian War and accession to the throne In late 577, despite a complete lack of military experience, Maurice was named asmagister militumperOrientem, effectively commander-in-chief of the Byzantine army in the east. He succeeded GeneralJustinianin theongoing waragainstSassanid Persia. At about the same time he was raised to the rank ofpatrikios, the empire's senior honorific title, which was limited to a small number of holders. In 578, a truce in Mesopotamia came to an end and the main focus of the war shifted to that front. After Persian raids in Mesopotamia, the newmagister militumof the east mounted attacks on both sides of the Tigris, captured the fortress of Aphumon and sackedSingara. Sassanid emperor Khosrow sought peace in 579, but died before an agreement could be reached and his successorHormizd IV(r. 579590) broke off the negotiations.In 580, Byzantium's Arab allies the Ghassanids scored a victory over the Lakhmids, Arab allies of the Sassanids, while Byzantine raids again penetrated east of the Tigris. Around this time the futureKhosrow IIwas put in charge of the situation in Armenia, where he succeeded in convincing most of the rebel leaders to return to Sassanid allegiance, although Iberia remained loyal to the Byzantines. The following year an ambitious campaign by Maurice, supported by Ghassanid forces underal-Mundhir III, targetedCtesiphon, the Sassanid capital. The combined force moved south along the riverEuphratesaccompanied by a fleet of ships. The army stormed the fortress of Anatha and moved on until it reached the region ofBeth Aramayein centralMesopotamia, near Ctesiphon. There they found the bridge over the Euphrates destroyed by the Persians. In response to Maurice's advance, Sassanid generalAdarmahanwas ordered to operate in northern Mesopotamia, threatening the Roman army's supply line.Adarmahan pillagedOsrhoene, and was successful in capturing its capital,Edessa. He then marched his army towardCallinicumon the Euphrates. With the possibility of a march to Ctesiphon gone Maurice was forced to retreat. The retreat was arduous for the tired army, and Maurice and al-Mundhir exchanged recriminations for the expedition's failure. However, they cooperated in forcing Adarmahan to withdraw, and defeated him atCallinicum. The mutual recriminations were not laid to rest by this. Despite his successes, al-Mundhir was accused by Maurice of treason during the preceding campaign. Maurice claimed that al-Mundhir had revealed the Byzantine plan to the Persians, who then proceeded to destroy the bridge over the Euphrates. The chronicler John of Ephesus explicitly calls this assertion a lie, as the Byzantine intentions must have been plain to the Persian commanders. Both Maurice and al-Mundhir wrote letters to Emperor Tiberius, who tried to reconcile them. Maurice visited Constantinople himself, where he was able to persuade Tiberius of al-Mundhir's guilt.[20]The charge of treason is almost universally dismissed by modern historians;Irfan Shahdsays that it probably had more to do with Maurice's dislike of the veteran and militarily successful Arab ruler. This was compounded by the Byzantines' habitual distrust of the "barbarian" and supposedly innately traitorous Arabs, as well as by al-Mundhir's staunchly Monophysite faith.Al-Mundhir was arrested the following year on suspicion of treachery, triggering war between Byzantines and Ghassanids and marking the beginning of the end of the Ghassanid kingdom. In June of 582 Maurice scored a decisive victory against Adarmahan nearConstantina. Adarmahan barely escaped the field, while his co-commanderTamkhosrauwas killed.In the same month Emperor Tiberius was struck down by an illness which shortly thereafter killed him. In this state Tiberius initially named two heirs, each of whom was to marry one of his daughters. Maurice was betrothed toConstantina, andGermanus, related through blood to the great emperorJustinian I, was married to Charito. It appears that the plan was to divide the empire in two, with Maurice receiving the eastern provinces and Germanus the western. According toJohn of Niki, Germanus was Tiberius' favored candidate for the throne but declined out of humility.On 5 August, Tiberius was on his deathbed and civilian, military and ecclesiastical dignitaries awaited the appointment of his successor. He then chose Maurice and named himCaesar, after which he adopted the name "Tiberius". Maurice wascrowned emperorsoon after, on 13 August.Tiberius had reportedly prepared a speech on the matter but at this point was too weak to speak. Thequaestor sacri palatii(the senior judicial official of the empire) read it for him. The speech proclaimed Maurice asAugustusand sole successor to the throne. On 14 August 582 Tiberius died and his last words were spoken to his successor:"Let my sovereignty be delivered to thee with this girl. Be happy in the use of it, mindful always to love equity and justice." Maurice became sole emperor, marrying Constantina in the autumn. Shortly after his ascension the advantage he had gained at the Battle of Constantina was lost when his successor asmagister militumof the east,John Mystacon, was defeated at the River Nymphios byKardarigan.The situation was difficult:Maurice ruled a bankrupt Empire;it was at war with Persia; he was paying extremely high tribute to theAvars, 80,000 goldsolidia year;and the Balkan provinces were being thoroughly devastated by theSlavs.Maurice had to continue the war against the Persians. In 586 his troops defeated them at theBattle of Solachonsouth ofDara. In 588, a mutiny by unpaid Byzantine troops against their new commander,Priscus, seemed to offer the Sassanids a chance for a breakthrough, but the mutineers themselves repulsed the ensuing Persian offensive.[37]Later in the year they secured amajor victorybeforeMartyropolis. The Sassanid commander,Maruzas, was killed, several of the Persian leaders were captured along with 3,000 other prisoners, and only a thousand men survived to reach refuge at Nisibis. The Byzantines secured much booty, including the Persian battle standards, and sent them, along with Maruzas' head, to Maurice in Constantinople. In 590, twoParthianbrothers,VistahmandVinduyih, overthrew KingHormizd IVand made the latter's son, PrinceKhosrow II, the new king. The former Persian commander-in-chief,Bahram Chobin,who had rebelled against Hormizd IV, claimed the throne for himself and defeated Khosrow. Khosrow and the two Parthians fled to the Byzantine court. Although the Senate unanimously advised against it, Maurice helped Khosrow regain his throne with an army of 35,000 men. In 591 the combined Byzantine-Persian army under generalsJohn MystaconandNarsesdefeated Bahram Chobin's forces nearGanzakat theBattle of the Blarathon. The victory was decisive; Maurice finally brought the war to a successful conclusion with the re-accession of Khosrow. Subsequently, Khosrow was adopted by the emperor in order to seal their alliance. The adoption was made through a rite ofadoptio per arma, which ordinarily assumed the Christian character of its partakers.However, the chief Byzantine bishops, "despite their best attempts", failed to convert Khosrow.Khosrow rewarded Maurice by ceding to the empire westernArmeniaup to the lakesVanandSevan, including the large cities ofMartyropolis,Tigranokert,Manzikert,Ani, andYerevan. Maurice's treaty brought a new status-quo to the east territorially. Byzantium was enlarged to an extent never before achieved by the empire. During the new "perpetual peace" millions of solidi were saved by the remission of tribute to the Persians. Balkan war TheAvarsarrived in theCarpathian Basinin 568. Almost immediately they launched an attack onSirmium, the keystone to the Byzantine defences on theDanube, but were repulsed. They then sent 10,000Kotrigur Hunsto invade the Byzantine province ofDalmatia. There followed a period of consolidation, during which the Byzantines paid them 80,000 gold solidi a year. In 579, his treasury empty, Tiberius II stopped the payments. The Avars retaliated withanother siege of Sirmium.The city fell inc.581. After the capture of Sirmium, the Avars demanded 100,000 solidi a year.[35]Refused, they used the strategically important city as a base of operations against several poorly defended forts along the Danube and began pillaging the northern and eastern Balkans.[36]The Slavs began settling the land from the 580s on.[33][44] In 584, the Slavs threatened the capital and in 586 the Avars besiegedThessalonica, while the Slavs went as far as thePeloponnese.After his victory on the eastern frontier in 591, Maurice was free to focus on theBalkans. He launched several campaigns against the Slavs and Avars. In 592 his troops retookSingidunum(modern Belgrade) from the Avars. His commander-in-chiefPriscusdefeated the Slavs, Avars andGepidssouth of the Danube in 593. The same year he crossed the Danube into modern-dayWallachiato continue his series of victories. In 594, Maurice replaced Priscus with his rather inexperienced brother Peter, who, despite initial failures, scored another victory in Wallachia. Priscus, now in command of another army further upstream, defeated the Avars again in 595. The latter now only dared to attack peripherally, inDalmatiatwo years later. In the same year the Byzantines concluded a peace treaty with the Avar leaderBayan I, which allowed the Byzantines to send expeditions intoWallachia. In 598, Maurice broke the treaty to permit a retaliation campaign inside the Avar homeland. In 599 and 601 the Byzantine forces wreaked havoc amongst the Avars and Gepids. In 602, the Slavs suffered a crushing defeat in Wallachia. The Byzantine troops were now able to hold the Danube line again. Meanwhile, Maurice was making plans for repopulating devastated areas in the Balkans by using Armenian settlers. Maurice also planned to lead further campaigns against the Avar Khaganate, so as to either destroy them or force them into submission.In 602, Maurice, with the lack of money as always dictating policy, decreed that the army should stay for winter beyond theDanube. The exhausted troops mutinied against the emperor. Probably misjudging the situation, Maurice repeatedly ordered his troops to start a new offensive rather than return to winter quarters. His troops gained the impression that Maurice no longer understood the military situation and proclaimedPhocastheir leader. They demanded that Maurice abdicate and proclaim as successor either his son Theodosius or GeneralGermanus. Both men were accused of treason. As riots broke out in Constantinople, the emperor, taking his family with him, left the city on a warship heading toNicomedia, while Theodosius headed east to Persia (historians are not sure whether he had been sent there by his father or if he fled there). Phocas entered Constantinople in November and was crowned emperor. His troops captured Maurice and his family and brought them to theHarbor of Eutropiusat Chalcedon. Maurice was murdered at the harbor of Eutropius on 27 November 602.The deposed emperor was forced to watch his five younger sons executed before he was beheaded himself. Empress Constantinaand her three daughters were temporarily spared and sent to a monastery. The palace eunuch Scholasticus aided their escape to St. Sophia, but the church turned them over to Phocas, who sent them back to the monastery. A few years later, they were all executed at the harbor of Eutropius when Constantina was found guilty of a conspiracy against Phocas. The entire family of Maurice and Constantina was buried at the monastery of St. Mamas or Nea Metanoia that had been founded by Maurice's sister Gordia.The Persian king Khosrow II used this coup and the murder of his patron as an excuse for a renewed war against the empire.
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Historical Period: Byzantine (300-1400 AD)
Era: Ancient
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