Mauricius, Byzantine Emperor

Emperor Flavius Mauricius Tiberius Augustus (Greek: Φλάβιος Μαυρίκιος Τιβέριος Αύγουστος; Armenian: Մավրիկ, Mavrig; known in English as Maurice and in Greek as Maurikios) was a Byzantine Emperor who ruled from 582 to 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.

Maurice originated from Arabissus in Cappadocia (modern-day Turkey) and was a successful commander-in-chief. He was adopted by his predecessor Emperor 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 Theophylact Simocatta). During a war with the Sassanid Empire, already under way in 572 under Justin II, 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, 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, its Balkan provinces thoroughly devastated by the Slavs and at war with Persia.

Maurice had to continue the war against Persia. In 586, his troops defeated the Persians at Dara. Despite a serious mutiny in 588, they managed to stand up to the Persians for 2 more years, until Prince Khosro II (Chosroes II, our ancestor) and Persian commander-in-chief Bahram Chobin in 590 overthrew King Hormizd IV, also our ancestor. Bahram Chobin pretended to the throne and defeated Khosro 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 Khosro II to regain his throne. Maurice could finally bring the war to a successful conclusion by means of a new accession of Khosro II and defeat of Bahram Chobin. As agreed upon, Khosro II, probably adopted by Maurice who married his eldest daughter, Miriam to Khosro II and had issue, rewarded the latter by ceding north eastern Mesopotamia and Armenia up to the capital Dvin and the Lake Van and Iberia (eastern Georgia) up to the capital Tbilisi. Afterward, Maurice imposed a union between the Armenian Church and the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

After his victory on the eastern frontier, Maurice focused on the Balkans and transferred parts of the Armenian nobility to southeastern Europe. The Slavs, having pillaged the Byzantine Balkan provinces for decades, possibly began settling the land from the 580s on. The Avars took the strategically important fort of Sirmium 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, while the Slavs went as far as the Peloponnese.

Maurice launched several campaigns against the Slavs and the Avars from 591 on, with a good prospect of turning the tide. In 592 his troops retook Singidunum from the Avars. His commander-in-chief Priscus defeated the Slavs, Avars, and Gepids in 593 on Byzantine territory south of the Danube, before he crossed the Danube into modern-day Wallachia to continue his series of victories. Maurice replaced Priscos (594) with his rather inexperienced brother Peter, 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.

In the west, he organized the threatened Byzantine dominions in Italy and Africa into exarchates, ruled by military governors or exarchs, 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, the second one, Tiberius, of the West with the capital in Rome. Some historians believe that two youngest sons were supposed to gain Illyricum and North Africa. But as he intended to maintain unity of the empire, this idea bears a strong similarity with the Tetrarchy of Diocletian, given the fact that Maurice also maintained claims on the former western provinces now ruled by Germanic tribes. Maurice's violent death (read on) thwarted these plans, however.

In religious matters, he was very tolerant toward Monophysitism, although he was a supporter of the Council of Chalcedon. He clashed with Pope Gregory I over the latter's defense of Rome against the Lombards.

Maurice, whose court still used Latin 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 the Persians, the Avars, and the Slavs in the same way as during peace negotiations with Khosro 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 theory until World War II. 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: "His fault was too much faith in his own excellent judgment without regard to the disagreement and unpopularity which he provoked by decisions in themselves right and wise. He was a better judge of policy than of men." 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. 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 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.

In 602, Maurice, always dealing with the lack of money, decreed that the army should stay for winter beyond the Danube, 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 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. 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 Khosro II used this coup and the murder of his patron as an excuse for a renewed war against the Byzantine Empire.

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 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.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_(emperor) for more information.

Maurice (Latin: Flavius Mauricius Tiberius Augustus; Greek: Φλάβιος Μαυρίκιος Τιβέριος Αὔγουστος) (539 – 27 November 602) was Byzantine Emperor from 582 to 602.

A prominent general in his youth, Maurice fought with success against the Sassanid Persians. Once he became Emperor, he brought the war with Persia to a victorious conclusion: the Empire's eastern border in the Caucasus was vastly expanded and for the first time in nearly two centuries the Byzantines were no longer obliged to pay the Persians thousands of pounds of gold annually for peace.

Maurice campaigned extensively in the Balkans against the Avars – pushing them back across the Danube by 599. He also conducted campaigns across the Danube, the first Emperor to do so in over two hundred years. In the West, he established two large semi-autonomous provinces called exarchates, ruled by exarchs, or viceroys, of the emperor.

In Italy, Maurice established the Exarchate of Ravenna in 584, the first real effort by the Empire to halt the advance of the Lombards. With the creation of the Exarchate of Africa in 590, he further solidified the empire's hold on the western Mediterranean.

[[115] In this period Tiberius made Maurice a Caesar and sent him to [fight against] Persia. He went and discovered that a large bridge over a river had been destroyed, and believed that Mundhir had informed the Persians [about his expedition]. He went to Tiberius and bad-mouthed Mundhir, and they were looking around for a means of seizing him. One of the princes named Magnus undertook to capture him. He took troops and departed as though he were heading for Persia [g278]. [Magnus] then sent to Mundhir asking him to come to discuss some matters relating to the Persian [campaign] . Without any suspicions, Mundhir went to him, and they engaged in a great deal of feasting. Now in the night they seized him while he was in his cups and careless and sent him to Tiberius. He was put into prison. When his son Numan (Eman) heard about this, he came with troops into Byzantine territory to take treasure and livestock but not to hurt people. [The Byzantines] planned some wickedness against him, intending to capture him. Now when [Numan] realized that they were not going to release his father, out of concern for his father he risked his own life and went to Tiberius swearing that if his father were freed he would stand with them against the Persians. Tiberius agreed and they swore an oath. It was then that the impious Maurice said: "It would be a sign of the sincerity of your vow if you take communion with us." [Numan] replied: "I cannot do that since many of my people would become angry with me (or, would stone me to death). I will speak the truth even if it means death since I do not want to be hateful to God as you are. [The Byzantines], hearing this, became enraged. They seized him and sent him into exile by his father. Now when this bad news reached the Arabs they split into fifteen different factions and selected leaders. Nor did they agree with one another [g279]. Some were bribed by Persian gold and went under Persian suzereignty Others united with the Himyars (Chamirs), a very few others put themselves under Byzantine suzereignty. Thus as a result of the wicked Council of Chalcedon, that marvellous kingdom was eliminated. ]

[Maurice reigned for 20 years [g282]. He became careless about the army and reduced its gifts and stipends. Now it so happened that the Bulghars had entered Thrace. The Byzantine army went against them, chased them out, then arrived at Constantinople with a message for Maurice: "God has granted you peace during your reign. However, an army does not live on peace alone but on honor and pay. Now either you restore to us our proper respect and money, or you should regard us as your enemy from now on." But [Maurice] hardened against them. Then the troops spoke to his brother, saying: "We shall kill your brother and make you the emperor." [The brother] went and told Maurice about this. Maurice, horrified, fled to Chalcedon. The army went there and killed him. They enthroned a certain one of the military commanders named Phocas [602-610]. ]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_%28emperor%29

دوران ۱۳ اوت ۵۸۲ - ۲۷ نوامبر ۶۰۲ نام کامل فلاویوس موریکیوس تیبریوس اوگوستوس زادروز ۵۳۹ زادگاه Arabissus, کاپادوکیه مرگ ۲۷ نوامبر ۶۰۲ (۶۳ سال) محل مرگ کنستانتینوپول پیش از فوکاس پس از تیبریوس دوم دودمان ژوستینیان

http://bit.ly/1SKDTI7