tia in 568, effectively cutting the Byzantine land link with North Italy and the West.
At Maurice's accession, the greatest omissions of his predecessors were to be found in the Balkans. Justinian I neglected Balkan defenses 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 abandoned 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 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 made.
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.
A few months before Maurice's accession in the winter of 581/2 the Avar Khagan Bayan, aided by Slavic auxiliary troops, took Sirmium, a large fortified settlement south of the Danube. Doing this, Bayan established a new base of operations within Roman territory from which he could raid the anywhere in the Balkans unhindered.
The Avars were only compelled to leave territory once the Romans under Maurice agreed to pay 80,000 solidi annually. The Slavs, partially under Avar rule, were not bound by the treaty and continued to pillage south of the Danube, making the Avars and Slavs quite different threats.
|An Avar Invasion|
Originally from the Pontic-Caspian steppe, the Avars were a group of equestrian warrior nomads who established an empire spanning considerable areas of Central and Eastern Europe from the late 6th to the early 9th century.
Roman Wars on Four Fronts
Romans faced wars on multiple fronts in the Balkans,
Italy, North Africa and against the Persian Empire.
So many historians fail to understand the unbelievable military and economic pressure the Eastern Roman Empire was under from constant invasions.
Simply, the barbarian invasions never ended. They just kept coming over and over. The massive military expense of wars drained the Empire dry. Virtually all available funds were spent just to survive leaving little for building projects.
A major consideration is what I call the "de-Latinization" of the Empire. With every barbarian thrust over the border you saw the destruction of Roman peoples, towns, cities, infrastructure and the economy. Lands lost to the Empire meant a loss of taxes paid to Constantinople as well as recruiting grounds for soldiers to defend the state.
Every day was a nightmare. - Historians tend to write about a single Eastern Roman battle with no thought given to an Empire wide view.
|While the Eurasian Avars were invading the |
Balkans the Romans fought an invasion of
Italy by the Germanic Lombard tribe.
The Eastern Emperors and their generals in Constantinople woke up every day to a living nightmare of horror. The Empire was monstrously huge with multiple wars both large and small often happening simultaneously on several continents. If the Emperor transferred troops from one front to strengthen another he would only invite invasion on the first front.
The Avars were only one of many problems.
Tiberius II Constantine negotiated a truce with the Avars, paying them 80,000 nomismata per year, for which the Avars agreed to defend the Danube frontier, thereby allowing Tiberius to transfer troops across to the east for a planned renewal of the conflict against the Persians.
In 575 Tiberius began moving the armies of Thrace and Illyricum to the eastern provinces. Buying time to make the necessary preparations, he agreed to a three-year truce with the Persians, paying 30,000 nomismata, though the truce excluded action in the region around Armenia.
Not content with making preparations, Tibe