Maurice's Balkan campaigns
| Balkan campaigns of Emperor Maurice | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Roman defence of the Limes Moesiae and the Avar–Byzantine Wars | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Eastern Roman Empire |
Avar Khaganate Antae |
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Emperor Maurice Comentiolus Priscus Peter |
Khagan Bayan I, Ardagastus, Musocius, Peiragastus |
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Maurice's Balkan campaigns were a series of military expeditions conducted by the East Roman (Byzantine) emperor Maurice (reigned 582–602) in an attempt to defend the Balkan provinces of the Eastern Roman Empire from the Avars and Slavs. Maurice was the only East Roman emperor, except for Anastasius I, who did his best to implement determined Balkan policies during Late Antiquity, paying adequate attention to the safety of the northern frontier against barbarian incursions. During the second half of his reign, the Balkan campaigns were the main focus of Maurice's foreign policies, as a favourable peace treaty with Persia in 591 enabled him to shift his experienced troops from the Persian front to the region. The refocusing of Roman efforts soon paid off: the frequent Roman failures before 591 were succeeded by a string of successes afterwards.
Although it is widely believed that his campaigns were only a token measure and that Roman rule over the Balkans collapsed immediately after his overthrow in 602, Maurice was in fact well on his way to forestalling the Slavic landfall on the Balkans, nearly preserving the order of Late Antiquity there. His success was only undone over ten years after his overthrow. Retrospectively, these campaigns were the last in the series of classical Roman campaigns against the Barbarians on the Rhine and Danube, effectively delaying Slavic landfall on the Balkans by two decades. With respect to the Slavs, these campaigns had the typical trait of Roman campaigns against unorganized tribes and of what we now call asymmetric warfare.
At Maurice's accession, the greatest omissions of his predecessors were to be found in the Balkans. Justinian I neglected Balkan defences against the Slavs, who threatened the frontier since 500 and pillaged the Balkan provinces ever since. Although he rebuilt the fortifications of the Danube Limes, he forwent campaigns against the Slavs in favour of a policy focusing on western and oriental theatres. His nephew and successor Justin II played off the Avars against the Gepids and later on against the Slavs. But this only allowed the Avar Khaganate to become a more powerful threat than the Gepids and Slavs. As Justin II let the Avars attack the Slavs from Roman territory, they soon noted where the most booty was to be had. To make matters worse, Justin II started the Roman-Persian War of 572–591, which tied down forces in the east at a time when they were needed in the Balkans. Maurice's predecessor and father-in-law Tiberius II Constantine emptied the treasury. For all those reasons, the Slavic incursions in the Balkans continued.
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