On late March of 602, the Roman Emperor Maurice Tiberius sent two of his sons to Pope Gregory in Italy to achieve a twofold mission. Ever since the descent of the Lombards from the transalpine passes, the situation in the former Roman homeland had been deteriorating, as the Lombard advance had, by then, reached deep into central Italy. Gregory, ruling the ancient capital virtually unchallenged, had negotiated a peace treaty personally with the Lombard raiders to safeguard Rome, in direct opposition of Maurice’s, and the Italian Exarch Callinicus’ orders. In Constantinople, this did not go unnoticed; but at the time, the focus of imperial attention was on the northern bank of the Danube. A two decade war against the Avar khaganate had finally started to go well for the Romans, since the transfer of entire veteran armies from a pacified eastern border. With increasing success at home, the Emperor had begun to plan a renewed offensive in Italy, to drive the Lombard tribes out and reunite the country under Roman rule. It was with this in mind that, instead of chastising Gregory for overstepping his authority, Maurice cleverly sent his oldest son, and co-Emperor, Theodosius, with a sizeable subsidy, to appease the Roman Pontiff, and to start to lay the groundwork for his own arrival. At the same time, and in order to familiarize him with what should become his future domain, Theodosius’ younger ten-year-old brother, Tiberius sailed along with the embassy, and his care was personally entrusted to the Pope.
Enlivened by the arrival of the Roman princes, Gregory grew bold. He pressed Theodosius to make haste, and commence operations against the Lombards at once. But Theodosius, a young man of nineteen, reticent and fully aware that a direct confrontation with all Lombard forces before the arrival of his father’s soldiers would only result in an embarrassing defeat by the numerically inferior Romans, hesitated at first, before yielding to the Pope’s insistence; and even then, decided to try a political approach instead, looking for cracks in the newly built Lombard edifice. Having delivered the entrusted grant to the Pope, he conferred with the Exarch of Ravenna, Callinicus, and agreeing on a strategy, slowly gathered the Italian armies for the upcoming war against the Germanic tribes.
Under the direction of King Alboin, the rash Lombard invasion had spread deep into the peninsula, and after an initial brutal assault, the Romans had rallied and recovered some lost ground. This outcome had led to the creation, or isolation, of two semi-independent duchies, south and east of Rome, Benevento and Spoletto, and a larger, actual kingdom, to the north. Keenly studying his options, Theodosius, advised by the Pontiff, set his sights on the enemy closest, and weakest, to Rome first, the Spolettian dukedom.
With the death of duke Ariulf barely weeks after the young Emperor’s arrival, the duchy of Spoletto was thrown into chaos. Two contenders, Theodelap, and one of his brothers, both children of Faroald, the first duke, emerged and battled one another for control of the land. The internal conflict taking place was entirely outside the control of the Lombard royal court at Pavia. Theodosius carefully collected his forces and marched them south, taking full advantage of an earlier truce negotiated between Callinicus and the Lombard King Agiluf in 598. On June 5th 602, in a battle outside the walls of Spoletto, a Roman army of 9,000 strong under the command of the Exarch crushed the forces of Theodelap, and two weeks later those of his brother, before word of the events even reached Pavia. Immediately, while annexing the broken principality, Theodosius dispatched emissaries to Agiluf, chastising him by listing the raids that the Spolettian Lombards were carrying out against the Romans in Latium in violation of the treaty, before endearing him by delivering a subsidy in gold, and meeting him in a personal conference in Perugia, where both assisted mass together. Although initially the situation remained tense, the lack of further action on the part of the Romans, coupled with the fact that Theodelap might have proven to be an unruly, if not outright aggressive “vassal,” assuaged the King.
Having advanced his father’s agenda without breaking the official truce against the Lombards, Theodosius decided to briefly visit Carthage. He embarked in early July, and was warmly welcomed by the Exarch Heraclius, and his two sons, Heraclius the Younger, and Theodorus. Captivated by the balmy weather, and impressed by the wealth of the provincial capital and its hinterlands, the Emperor remained in Africa for two months. But this would not prove to be entirely a trip of pleasure; becoming slightly more proactive, he personally watched over the diplomatic dealings with the various Moorish tribes. Yet again, taking full advantage of Imperial prestige and majesty, as he had with the Lombards, he held audiences with several of the tribal leaders, renewed their foederati status, and upon his return to Italy in September 602, the African border had been successfully confirmed, and a potential source of auxiliary troops secured.
Arriving in Rome, Theodosius heard of Maurice’s ongoing triumphs against the Avars; but was frustrated by the possibility that his father’s arrival might be delayed until the following year. Unable, or unwilling to wait until then, and emboldened by his previous experience, Theodosius decided to move on his own again, egged on by Gregory. Once more, he flexed his diplomatic muscles and sent the younger Heraclius, who had come to Italy with him, to Agiluf’s court, with evidence of a plot by Arechis, duke of Benevento, to unseat him. In order to understand the following events however, the religious situation of the Lombard nation, and royal court, must be first examined.
Initially a pagan, after his coronation Agiluf converted to Arian Christianity, the most popular branch of that religion amongst the Lombards; an event which greatly displeased his Orthodox wife Theodelinda, to whom he indirectly owed his throne, as she had been married to the previous King Authari, and had chosen him as Authari’s successor. Perhaps to compensate for this, and walking a thin line between popular discontent, and upsetting the powerful woman to whom he was indebted, he accepted to the truce with the Orthodox Romans, as well as baptizing his son Adaloald into the Roman Church shortly after his birth in late 602. Needless to say, the Lombard Queen kept in regular close contact with Pope Gregory, who must have used his influence in order to pressure Theodelinda to impose herself on Agiluf. Whatever actions might have taken place behind the curtain, Theodosius’ embassy shocked Pavia. Arechis was “proven” to be plotting to take the crown for himself, allegedly disgusted by the overtly pro-Orthodox policy of Agiluf. Whether the charges were true or not, shall remain unknown; but in October of the same year, led by the younger Heraclius, newly created magister militum per Italiam, Callinicus, and reinforced by barbarian divisions from Pavia, the Roman armies put an end to the young duchy of Benevento.
Concluding a new treaty of “perpetual peace and alliance” with the Lombard monarch, and fresh from another victory, Theodosius returned to Africa in mid-November, to rest again and, perhaps, continue to cultivate his ties with the Berber tribes. It was during his stay there, that the first tidings of the revolt by the Danubian armies reached him. Unsure on how to react, Theodosius vacillated and wasted a whole month in Carthage until, a week before Christmas, the news of Maurice’s execution, along with those of Theodosius’ own younger brothers’, and Phocas’ acclamation as Emperor arrived. Shortly after, among those ships bearing the dark news, arrived some imperial vessels carrying his wife Irene, his seven-year-old sister Anastasia, and a few other refugees from the Maurician court.
With the confirmed support of the Western provinces, their Exarchs, Pope Gregory, and bolstered by the African and Italian armies, as well as strengthened by small contingents from his new friend Agiluf and men from his Berber clients, the young Emperor launched a frontal assault against Dyrrachium in April of 603. Inexperienced, filled with youthful pride from his small conquests, and confident that luck still shone upon him, he ordered Nicetas, a nephew of the elder Heraclius, to lead the attack. The city was to serve as a bridgehead for Theodosius’ own arrival with the rest of the troops, and mark the start of an offensive that would carry him to Thessalonica, and then to Constantinople. Rude then was the awakening, when the Praesental and Illyrian field armies moved swiftly against Nicetas, and after a two month siege retook the city, captured the troops, and executed their leader, in July of the same year.
As the intestine struggle shaped up in the West, the rise of Phocas created its own challenges in the East
. Loyal to Maurice remained Narses, commander of the Mesopotamian armies, and the best, and ablest, military leader that the Romans had. He immediately rose up in rebellion against the new Emperor in Constantinople, in the name of Theodosius, and called on Khosrau, the Sassanian King, who owed his throne to the defunct Augustus. The Iranian sovereign, all too eager to shatter his public chains of subservience, mobilized at once, and soon his forces were pouring over the Roman border.
Meanwhile, Phocas had not been idle. Germanus, dux of Phoenicia, was sent against the rebel, and cornered Narses in Edessa. At about the same time, a fleet sailed from Constantinople towards the West, and a smaller division marched overland through Illyria, to put an end to Theodosius’ adventure once and for all. Fortune, which had carried him from the camp to the palace nonetheless, suddenly deserted the new Caesar. The Iranians arrived swiftly to Narses’ relief, and the combined army crushed Germanus and his men in the vicinity of Constantina. In the West, the Imperial navy was blown apart by a sudden storm in the Adriatic, and its pieces were quickly overtaken by the smaller Italian and African home navies, while the land force was wiped out by the Avars. Undeterred, Phocas ordered a second expedition under the eunuch Leontius to march East and rout Narses and Khosrau. In the West however, impeded by the lack of a naval presence from reaching Italy, he turned to diplomacy. He established a peace accord with the Avars, softened with a hefty tribute, to keep the Danube border stable; and purchased the aid of Theuderic II, King of the Burgundian Franks, in order to deal with Theodosius and the Lombards.
The year of 604 arrived then, with an uneasy impasse in the West as Theuderic prepared, and Leontius was defeated by the Iranian assisted rebel force. The vanquished eunuch returned to Constantinople, only to be flogged and thrown into prison by an irate Phocas. The distressed Emperor now sent yet another division under his own nephew, Domentziolus the Younger, to deal with the eastern front. But the inexpert youth was bested in the field by one of Khosrau’ finest commanders, Farrokhan Shahrbaraz, and barely escaped with his life. At this point, nevertheless, concerned by the extent of his traditional enemies’ success, Narses offered to conduct negotiations with Phocas personally, in exchange for a safe passage and for his return to the East to be guaranteed. The Emperor quickly accepted, and the general was led to the capital, where upon arrival, was unceremoniously seized and burned at the stake in the Hippodrome. Without Narses, Roman resistance in the East collapsed entirely, and Mesopotamia was overrun.
At the same time in the West, Phocas’ ally Theuderic II launched his awaited invasion of Italy in March, shortly after the death of Pope Gregory. The Frank obliterated the Lombard field army under Agiluf at Novara, and then proceeded to take Milan, Turin, and Pavia. To complicate matters further, some disaffected dukes joined the invaders, or chose to remain neutral. The Lombard King, appealed desperately to Theodosius for help, and the young Emperor, hesitant at first due to the loss of the larger part of his troops in Dyrrachium, finally came to the aid of his friend, encouraged by the Empress Irene, some would later say. The battle of Pavia, in June of 604, was hard fought, and a grinding affair for both parties, until an allied victory was secured with the death of the Frankish monarch. Among the fallen, however, was also Agiluf. Theodosius, ever the politician, secured extraordinary concessions from the widowed Theodelinda, and at a stroke, Roman authority once again reached unchallenged all the way to the Po. Although smaller Frankish raids would continue, Callinicus and the northern forces of the Exarchate were empowered enough to deal with the situation. With Italy fortified, and aware of the limits of his now small strength, Theodosius sent Heraclius on a diplomatic mission to Spain, to negotiate Visigothic aid to continue the fight against Phocas.
In the meantime, in Constantinople, Phocas’ men had begun a crackdown of the old guard under Maurice. The Emperor, fearful of a “second Narses” rising, arrested or executed secretly several of the capital’s most prominent civic and military leaders; most notably John Mystacon, general of the Roman expedition that had seated Khosrau on the Iranian throne. These acts unnerved many members of the Senate, as well as other prominent families, and created fertile ground for a secret plot hatched by Maurice’s widow, Constantina, who had been tonsured and locked in a nunnery; the new Praetorian prefect, Theodorus; and the patrician Gennadios. With political intrigue brewing in the Roman capital, the fierce war with the Iranians continued as Dara, the bastion of the East, fell to Shahrbaraz after a siege of nine months in October of 604. An attempted armistice, offered by the younger Domentziolus around this time, was also discarded, as the official goal of the war for the Sassanian monarch remained to avenge Maurice and place Theodosius on his father’s throne.
Back in the West, the death of Theuderic II caused commotion amongst the delicately balanced Frankish kingdoms. Sigebert, a three- year-old infant and Theuderic’s son, was crowned as King and recognized as lord in all the lands owned by his father. The regency, and real power, however, was exercised by his powerful, and crafty, great-grandmother, Brunhilda, who made no secret of her dislike for the King of Neustria, and child of her hated rival Fredegund, Clothar II. Fully aware of her political liability as a woman, she sought the help of her grandson, and Sigebert’s uncle, the eighteen-year-old King of Austrasia, Theudebert II, for the impending fight against Clothar. A secret treaty was hastily concluded between Theudebert and Brunhilda, and a plan devised, to trick and defeat the Neustrian ruler, by promising him the Burgundian crown in exchange for successfully ending the war in Italy.
The last significant event of the year took place in December 9th 604, when Maurice II Justinian was born in Rome. The Empress Irene almost died during childbirth, but eventually recovered, to Theodosius’ great pleasure. The child was soon after baptized by Theodosius’ new handpicked Pope, Boniface III.
The year of 605 opened with new plans by the government in Constantinople to send off a fresh expedition East under the new Comes Orientis, Bonosus; to ship another force West under Phocas’ brother, Domentziolus the Elder; and to sway divine favor on their direction, by bringing about the conversion of the one remaining non-Christian group within the Empire’s borders: the Jews. As the Iranians under Shahin Vahmanzadegan completed the conquest of Armenia, and commenced the advance into Anatolia, revolts erupted all over the largest cities of the eastern provinces, the pacifying of which diverted even more troops from the desperate situation along the front. In the midst of chaos in the East, Theodosius finally decided to make his move. He crowned his brother Tiberius as Caesar, and left for Carthage. Having successfully secured Visigothic assistance in the form of three thousand men, in exchange for almost all of the remaining Roman possessions in Spain, he sailed along the African coast towards Egypt. Although, the majority of stops along the route welcomed him and his men, upon reaching Alexandria, in May of the same year, his troops encountered token resistance, which was rapidly quelled by his personal arrival. Afterward, following the example of their capital, all Egyptian cities switched their allegiance to the son of Maurice.
For those loyal to Phocas, one disaster seemed to follow right after another. Soon after the capitulation of Egypt, which led to some unrest in Constantinople due to the disruption of the grain supply, Farrokhan Shahrbaraz undertook the siege of the Syrian capital Antioch, and after a month-long blockade, successfully seized it with help from Jewish dissidents. Khosrau, encouraged by the successes of his generals, mobilized even more men to be sent towards the West. With the eastern provinces slipping from Rome’s grip, back home, in The City of Constantine, the coup against the Emperor finally took place. But, as one of the few lucky breaks to be had, Phocas was able to get wind of the treacherous conspiracy, and acted swiftly, arresting, and executing all of those involved, even Theodosius’ mother. The only other bit of good news during this time was the successful landing in Sicily by his brother Domentziolus who, after disrupting Theodosius’ supply lines, had orders to move against Africa. Discouraged by his inability to successfully stop the Sassanians, and the western Romans, Phocas began to fall into alcoholism, which further impaired his judgment, increased his paranoia, and made him more reliable on certain favorites and subordinates.
Meanwhile in Egypt, although initially eager to continue on as quickly as possible into Palestine, Theodosius was bogged down by the tense religious conflict between the clerics of the Chalcedonian and Monophysite churches. Unwilling to pronounce himself on the issue, he suffered the consequences shortly after, as an attempt was made on his life by a fanatical assassin, hired by the Chalcedonian Patriarch Eulogius. Though he survived the incident, he remained unsuspecting of the gathering storm in the West; since back in Italy, which had been left with barely any men to safeguard the land, and taking advantage of the Emperor’s absence, Gisulf, duke of Friuli and one of the men who stood by the sidelines in the fight against the Franks, revolted against Queen Theodelinda and the young Lombard King Adaloald, both Roman allies, forcing them to flee to Ravenna.
The Roman Empire and its neighbors, on June of 605.
