Maurice (emperor)

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Maurice (emperor)

Flavius Mauricius Tiberius Augustus (; ; 539 – november 27 602

602

Events...
), known in English as Maurice and in Greek as Maurikios, was a Byzantine Emperor who ruled from 582-602. He was one of the most important rulers of the early 'Byzantine' era, whose reign was troubled by almost unending wars on all frontiers.

as a son of Paulus, born ca 515 in Arabissus, a Cappadocia

Cappadocia

Cappadocia, Wikipedia:IPA for English /k?p?'do???/ , was an extensive inland district of Asia Minor . The name continued to be used in western sources and in the Christianity tradition throughout history and is still widely used as an international Tourism in Turkey concept to define a region of exceptional natural wonders characterized by...
n of Armenian

Armenians

The Armenians are a nation and ethnic group originating in the Caucasus and in the Armenian Highlands. A large concentration of them has remained there, especially in Armenia, but many of them are also scattered elsewhere throughout the world ....
origin.

ice originated from Arabissus in Cappadocia

Cappadocia

Commander-in-Chief

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Biography

Origins

He was a son of Paulus, born ca 515 in Arabissus, a Cappadocia

Cappadocia

Armenians

Persian War and accession to the throne

Maurice originated from Arabissus in Cappadocia

Cappadocia

Commander-in-Chief

A commander-in-chief is the commander of a nation's military forces or significant element of those forces. In the latter case, the force element may be defined as those forces within a particular region or those forces which are associated by function....
. He was adopted by his predecessor Tiberius II, and succeeded him after the latter’s death. His reign is an accurately documented era of the late classical antiquity (most important source is the historian

Historian

A historian is an individual who studies and writes about history, and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, systematic narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all events in time....
Theophylact Simocatta

Theophylact Simocatta

Theophylact Simocatta was an early 7th century Byzantine Empire historiographer, arguably ranking as the last historian of Late Antiquity.He wrote a history of the reign of emperor Maurice_%28emperor%29 in eight books....
). During a war with the Sassanid Empire

Sassanid Empire

The Sassanid Empire or Sassanian Dynasty is the name of the last pre-Islamic Iranian empire. It was one of the two main powers in Western Asia for a period of more than 400 years....
, already under way in 572 under Justin II

Justin II

Flavius Iustinus Augustus was Eastern Roman emperor from 565 to 578. He was the nephew of Justinian I, and husband of Sophia , the niece of the late empress Theodora , and therefore member of the Justinian Dynasty....
, Maurice was in service as commander-in-chief from 579 on. He scored a crushing victory against the Persians in 581. A year later, he married Constantina

Constantina (empress)

Constantina was the Empress consort of Maurice of the Byzantine Empire....
, the Emperor’s daughter. On August 13th, he succeeded his father-in-law. At that time, he ruled a bankrupt Empire, paying extremely high tribute to the Avars

Avars

Avars may refer to:* Eurasian Avars, a nomadic people who invaded Europe in the 6th Century AD* Uar * Caucasian Avars, a modern people of the Caucasus...
, its Balkan provinces thoroughly devastated by the Slavs

Slavic peoples

The Slavic Peoples are a linguistic branch of Indo-European peoples, living mainly in eastern Europe. From the early 6th century they spread from their original homeland to inhabit most of eastern Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the Balkans....
and at war with Persia.

Maurice had to continue the war against Persia. In 586, his troops defeated the Persians at Dara

Dara

Daraa , also Dera , is a city in southwestern Syria, near the border with Jordan. It is the capital of Daraa Governorate. The city is located at about ....
. Despite serious mutiny in 588, they managed to stand up to the Persians for two more years, until Prince Chosroes II and Persian commander-in-chief Bahram Chobin

Bahram Chobin

Lieutenant General Bahram Chobin was a famous Eran spahbod during Khosrau II of Persia's rule in Sassanid Iran. Descended from the House of Mihran, one of the Seven Parthian clans, his first great victory came in Herat in 589, which is reported in a number of sources....
in 590 overthrew King Hormizd IV

Hormizd IV

Hormizd IV, son of Khosrau I, reigned as the twenty-first Sassanid Empire from 579 to 590.He seems to have been imperious and violent, but not without some kindness of heart....
. Bahram Chobin pretended to the throne and defeated Chosroes II, who subsequently fled to the Byzantine court. Although the Senate advised against it one voice, Maurice lent an army of 35,000 men for Chosroes II to regain his throne. Maurice could finally bring the war to a successful conclusion by means of a new accession of Chosroes II and defeat of Bahram Chobin. As agreed upon, Chosroes II, probably adopted by Maurice who married his eldest daughter, Miriam to Chosroes II and had issue, rewarded the latter by ceding north eastern Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia is the area of the Tigris-Euphrates river system, along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, largely corresponding to modern Iraq, as well as some parts of northeastern Syria, some parts of southeastern Turkey, and some parts of the Khuzestan Province of southwestern Iran....
and Armenia

Armenia

Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in South Caucasus between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea....
up to the capital Dvin

Dvin

Dvin was a large commercial city, the capital of early medieval Armenia, the ruins of which are located in the province of Ararat nearby a town by the same name....
and the Lake Van

Lake Van

Lake Van is the largest lake in Turkey, located in the far east of the country. It is a salt lakes and soda lake, receiving water from numerous small streams that descend from the surrounding mountains....
and Iberia

Caucasian Iberia

Iberia , also known as Iveria , was a name given by the ancient Ancient Greece and Roman Empire to the ancient Georgia kingdom of Kartli corresponding roughly to the eastern and southern parts of the present day Georgia....
(eastern Georgia) up to the capital Tbilisi

Tbilisi

Tbilisi , is the capital city and the largest city of Georgia , lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form Tpilisi and it was officially known as ?????? in Russian, until 1936....
. Afterwards, Maurice imposed a Union between the Armenian Church and the Patriarchate of Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the empire capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire . Strategically located between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara at the point where Europe meets Asia, Byzantine Constantinople had been the capital of a Christendom empire, successor to ancient ancient Greece...
.

Balkan warfare

After his victory on the eastern frontier, Maurice focused on the Balkans

Balkans

The Balkans is the historical name of a geographic subregion of southeastern Europe. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains, which run through the centre of Bulgaria into eastern Serbia....
and transferred parts of Armenian nobility to south eastern Europe. The Slavs, having pillaged the Byzantine Balkan provinces for decades, possibly began settling the land from the 580’s on. The Avars took the strategically important fort of Sirmium

Sirmium

Sirmium was an ancient city in Roman Pannonia. Sirmium originally was an Illyrians town conquered by the Ancient Rome in the 1st century BC. It was a very important town in the later Roman Empire, being the economic capital of Roman Pannonia and one of the four capital cities of the Roman Empire....
in 582, using it as a base of operations against several poorly defended forts alongside the Danube from 583 on. In 584 the Slavs threatened the capital and in 586 Avars besieged Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki , Thessalonica, or Salonica is the List of largest cities and second largest cities by country in Greece and the capital of Macedonia , the nation's largest Regions of Greece....
, while Slavs went as far as the Peloponnese

Peloponnese

The Peloponnese or Peloponnesus is a large peninsula and Regions of Greece in southern Greece, forming the part of the country south of the Gulf of Corinth....
. Maurice launched several campaigns against Slavs and Avars from 591 on, with good prospect of turning the tide. In 592 his troops retook Singidunum

Singidunum

Singidunum was an ancient Roman city, first settled by the Celts Scordisci tribe in the 3rd century BC, and later garrisoned and fortified by the Ancient Rome who romanized the name....
from the Avars. His commander-in-chief Priscus defeated Slavs, Avars and Gepids in 593 on Byzantine territory south of the Danube, before he crossed the Danube into modern-day Wallachia

Wallachia

Wallachia or Walachia is a Historical regions of Romania and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians....
to continue his series of victories. Maurice replaced Priscos (594) with his rather inexperienced brother Peter

Peter (Byzantine General)

Peter was a brother of the Byzantine Emperor Maurice , who reigned from 582 to 602 and was a major early Byzantine Ruler.Together with Priscus and Comentiolus, he was one of the three commander-in-chiefs during Maurice?s Balkan campaigns....
, who nonetheless scored another victory in Wallachia.

Priscos, again in command of another army further upstream, defeated the Avars (595). The latter only dared to attack again in 597 to score a success. In 598 a treaty was signed with the Avar leader Bayan, only to be broken for retaliation campaigns inside Avar homeland. In 599 and 601, the Byzantine forces wreaked havoc amongst the Avars and Gepids. In 602 the Slavs suffered a crucial defeat in Wallachia. The Byzantine troops were now able to hold the Danube line again. Meanwhile, Maurice was making plans for resettling devastated areas in the Balkans by using Armenian settlers.

Measures of domestic policy

In the west, he organized the threatened Byzantine dominions in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
and Africa into exarchates, ruled by military governors or exarch

Exarch

In the Byzantine Empire, an exarch, from Greek language , was governor with extended authority of a province at some remove from the capital Constantinople....
s, being mentioned in 584 and 591 respectively. The exarchs had more or less complete military and civilian competences. This was remarkable due to the usual separation of civilian and military competences in that era. By founding the exarchate of Ravenna, Maurice managed to slow down the Lombard advance in Italy, if not to halt it. In 597, an ailing Maurice wrote his last will, in which he described his ideas of governing the Empire. His eldest son, Theodosius, would be a ruler of the East from Constantinople

Constantinople

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
. Some historians believe that two youngest sons were supposed to gain Illyricum

Illyria

'Illyria' was in Classical antiquity a region in the western part of today's Balkan Peninsula, inhabited by tribes of Illyrians, an ancient people who spoke the Illyrian languages....
and North Africa

Exarchate of Africa

The Exarchate of Africa or of Carthage, after its capital, was the name of an administrative division of the Eastern Roman Empire encompassing its possessions on the Western Mediterranean, ruled by an exarch, or viceroy....
. But as he intended to maintain unity of the Empire, this idea bears a strong similarity with the Tetrarchy

Tetrarchy

Tetrarchy can be applied to any system of government where power is divided between four individuals. The term is usually used to refer to the tetrarchy instituted by Roman Emperor Diocletian in 293 which lasted until c. 313....
of Diocletian, given the fact that Maurice also maintained claims on the former western provinces now ruled by Germanic tribes. Maurice's violent death thwarted these plans however.

In religious matters, he was very tolerant towards Monophysitism

Monophysitism

Monophysitism , or Monophysiticism, is the christology position that Christ has only one nature , as opposed to the Chalcedonian position which holds that Christ has two natures, one divine and one human....
, although he was a supporter of the Council of Chalcedon

Council of Chalcedon

The Council of Chalcedon is believed to have been the fourth ecumenical council by the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. It was held from 8 October to 1 November 451 at Chalcedon , today the district of Kadik?y on the Asian side of the Bosphorus, incorporated into the city of Istanbul....
. He clashed with Pope Gregory I

Pope Gregory I

Pope Saint Gregory I or Gregory the Great was pope from 3 September 590 until his death.He is also known as Gregory the Dialogist in Eastern Orthodoxy because of his Dialogues....
over the latter's defence of Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
against the Lombards

Lombards

The Lombards were a Germanic peoples originally from Northern Europe who settled in the valley of the Danube and from there invaded Byzantine Italian peninsula in 568 under the leadership of Alboin....
.

Summed up, his attempts to consolidate the Empire slowly but steadily met with success, last but not least thanks to the peace with Persia. His initial popularity apparently decreased during his reign, mostly because of his fiscal politics. In 588, his announcement to cut military wages by 25% led to serious mutiny of troops on the Persian front. He is said to have refused to pay a very little ransom in 599 or 600 to deliver 12,000 Byzantine soldiers taken prisoners by the Avars. It is said that the prisoners were killed and a military delegation, headed by an officer named Phocas was humiliated and rejected in Constantinople.

Death

In 602, Maurice, always dealing with the lack of money, decreed that the army should stay for winter beyond the Danube

Danube

The Danube is the longest river in the European Union and Europe's second longest river after the Volga.The river originates in the Black Forest in Germany as the much smaller Brigach and Breg River rivers which join at the eponymously named German town Donaueschingen, after which it is known as the Danube and flows eastwards for a distance...
, which would prove to be a serious mistake. The exhausted troops mutinied against the emperor. Probably misjudging the situation, Maurice repeatedly ordered his troops to start a new offensive rather than returning to winter quarters. After a while, his troops gained the impression that Maurice no longer mastered the situation, they proclaimed Phocas

Phocas

Flavius Phocas Augustus, , usurped the Byzantine Byzantine Emperors from the Emperor Maurice , and was himself overthrown by Heraclius after losing a civil war....
their leader and demanded Maurice to abdicate and proclaim the successor either his son Theodosius or General Germanus. Both men were accused of treason, but the riots broke out in Constantinople and the emperor with his family left the city for Nicomedia

Nicomedia

Nicomedia was founded by Nicomedes I of Bithynia at the head of the Gulf of Astacus which opens to the Propontis. In earlier antiquity, the city was called Astacus or Olbia ....
. Theodosius headed east to Persia, but historians are not sure whether he had been sent there by his father or if he had fled there. Phocas entered Constantinople in November, where he was crowned emperor, while his troops captured Maurice and his family.

Maurice was murdered on November 27 (some say November 23), 602. It is said that the deposed emperor was forced to watch his three sons executed before his eyes, before he was beheaded himself. Empress Constantina and her three daughters were spared and sent to a monastery. The Persian King Chosroes II used this coup and the murder of his Patron as an excuse for a renewed war against the Byzantine Empire.

Legacy

Maurice, whose court still used Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
in the same way as the army and administration did, was in total an able emperor and commander-in-chief, even though Theophylact’s description may be a bit too glorifying. He possessed insight, public spirit and courage. He proved his expertise on military and foreign affairs during his campaigns against Persians and Avars/Slavs in the same way as during peace negotiations with Chosroes II. His administrative reforms portray him as a statesman with farsightedness, the more so since they outlasted his death by far and were the basis for the introduction of the themes as military districts.

He also promoted science and arts; Maurice is also the traditional author of the military treatise Strategikon which is praised in military circles as the only sophisticated combined arms

Combined arms

Combined arms is an approach to warfare which seeks to integrate different arms of a military to achieve mutually complementary effects.Though the lower-echelon units of a combined arms team may be of homogeneous types, a balanced mixture of such units are combined into an effective higher-echelon unit, whether formally in a table of organi...
theory until World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
. However, some historians now believe the Strategikon is the work of his brother or another general in his court.

His greatest weakness was his inability to judge how unpopular his decisions were. Or to cite the historian Previte-Orton, listing a number of character flaws in the emperor's personality:

It was this flaw that cost him throne and life and thwarted most of his efforts to prevent the disintegration of the great empire of Justinian I

Justinian I

Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus , AD 482 or 483 ? 13 or 14 November 565, was the second member of the Justinian Dynasty and List of Roman Emperors from 527 until his death....
. It seems, as if Maurice attempted to have his way on behalf of Imperial pretension with respect to the old Imperium Romanum, but as his end shows, he met strong resistance.

His demise is a turning point in history, given the fact that the new war against Persia weakened both empires in a way enabling the Slavs to permanently settle the Balkans and paving the way for Arab/Muslim expansion. The English historian A.H.M. Jones

Arnold Hugh Martin Jones

Arnold Hugh Martin Jones was a prominent 20th century British historian of classical antiquity, particularly of the later Roman Empire....
concludes the final era of classical antiquity with Maurice’s death, as the turmoil which shattered the Byzantine Empire in the next four decades permanently and thoroughly changed society and politics.

Family relations

Maurice's marriage was fertile and produced ten known children:

Miriam/Maria (b. ca 582), married to Khosrau II
Khosrau II

Khosrau II or Khosrow II was the twenty-second Sassanid Empire King of Persia from 590 to 628. He was the son of Hormizd IV and grandson of Khosrau I ....
and had issue.
Theodosius (4 August, 583
583

Events...
- 27 November, 602
602

Events...
). According to John of Ephesus, he was the first heir born to a reigning emperor since the reign of Theodosius II
Theodosius II

Flavius Theodosius , called the Calligrapher, known in English as Theodosius II, was an Eastern Roman Empire , mostly known for the law code bearing his name, the Codex Theodosianus, and the Walls of Constantinople#The Theodosian Walls of Constantinople built during his reign....
(408 - 450). He was appointed Caesar in 587 and co-emperor on 26 March, 590
590

Events...
.
Tiberius (d. 27 November, 602).
Petrus (d. 27 November, 602).
Paulus (d. 27 November, 602).
Justin (d. 27 November, 602).
Justinian (d. 27 November, 602).
Anastasia (d. circa 605).
Theoctista (d. circa 605).
Cleopatra (d. circa 605).

His brother Petrus Augustus (ca 550 - 602) became the Curopalates

Curopalates

Curopalates may refer to:*a Byzantine court title*Emperor Michael I Rhangabe Curopalates...
and was killed at the same time of his brother. He married Anastasia Aerobinda (b. ca 570), daughter of Areobindus (b. ca 550) and wife, and had female issue.

His sister Theoktista (ca 540 - aft. 582) married a husband who died before 582 and had a daughter Gordia (ca 560 - aft. 597), who married Marinos (ca 555 - aft. 597), son of Nerses (ca 530 - aft. 595) and wife Hesychia (b. ca 535), by whom she had a daughter Theoktista (ca 575/ca 580 - aft. 597), married to Christodoros (b. ca 570) and had issue.

His sister Gordia (ca 550 - aft. 602) married Philippikos (ca 550 - Chrysopolis, 614), General

General

A General officer is an Officer of high military rank. The term or equivalent is used by nearly every country in the world. General can be used as a generic term for all grades of general officer, or it can specifically refer to a single rank that is just called general....
, Comes Excubitorum and mag. mil. in 582, by whom she had a daughter, who married Artabastos Mamikonian (b. ca 565), and had issue.

Maurice (emperor)

Biography

Origins

Persian War and accession to the throne

Balkan warfare

Measures of domestic policy

Death

Legacy

Family relations

External links