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Reposted from CF.net. I need a place where I can get MORE COMMENTS! So, with no further ado:

Maurice became Roman Emperor in 582 AD. He was born in Cappadocia, to Latin parents. His father was Paulus. A bright, intelligent man, he eventually served as a general in Emperor Tiberius. During a war with the Sassanid Empire that started during Justin II's reign in 572, Maurice served as the chief commander from 579 on, and in 581 he crushed the Persians.

He was adopted by the Emperor Tiberius II, and succeeded him in August of 582. Maurice's troops won a great victory over the Persians at Dara in 586. Roman gains against Persia were soon almost lost due to mutiny in 588. However, in 590 the Romans breathed a sigh of relief.

The Sassanid prince Khosrau, with Bahram Chobin’s assistance, overthrew his father Hormizd IV. Having his eye on the throne General Chobin then seized control. To restore Khosrau to the throne, and to weaken Persian power, Maurice lent the young man an army of 35,000 men. Khosrau, upon becoming the Persian Shahanshah, returned the favor by giving northeastern Mesopotamia, Armenia up to Lake Van and Dvin, and Iberia to Tbilisi to the Romans.

With the Persians out of the way, Maurice was then free to focus on the Balkans. The Balkans were ravaged by Slavic raiders and forces loyal to the Avar Khagan. The Avars seized Sirmium in 582, using it to seize several more Danube forts. Slavic tribes threatened Constantinople in 584. A victory by the general Comentiolus at Adrianople in 584/585 deflected the Slavic raids to Greece. In 586 the Avars attacked Thessalonica. Under Comentiolus’s leadership, the outnumbered Roman army avoided direct confrontation, relying on raids and skirmishes to disrupt the Avar raids.


The following year, Comentiolus was replaced by the general Priscus. Priscus’s first campaign in Thrace and Moesia was a fiasco, allowing the Avars to advance all the way to the Sea of Marmara. In order to afford the costs of reinforcing in troops, Maurice cut his troops pay in half, leading to the mutiny of 588.

In response to the aforementioned peace with Persia, Maurice was able to renew the Balkan campaign. He sent Priscus out again. This time, he was much more successful. In a series of quick campaigns against the Slavs and Avars from 591 on, Priscus managed to beat back the Slavs and Avars. Singidunum was retaken in 592. Priscus defeated the Slavs, Avars, and Gepids in 593, then crossed the Danube.

Priscus was ordered to winter to north of the Danube. Refusing the Emperor’s order, Priscus wintered in Odessos (modern-day Varna). His defiance let the Slavs make an incursion into Moesia and Macedonia. Because of this, Priscus was replaced by the Emperor’s brother Peter. Peter was inexperienced, but despite initial failure, he managed to continue Priscus's successes. He held his position, and proceeded to defeat the Slavs near Marcianopolis. He then went on to patrol the Danube between Novae and the Black Sea. Briefly crossing the Danube, he disrupted Slav preparations for the next year’s series of raids.
Peter’s successful campaign enabled Priscus to prevent an Avar siege of Singidium. Faced with the Roman armies resolve, the Avars resorted to raiding Dalmatia. Priscus sent a small detachment to deal with the problem. This detachment succeeded beyond all expectation, and actually managed to seize some of the Avars booty.

Because of the Roman successes, the next year and a half was peaceful. The Avars focused their energies on the Franks in 596. Instead of taking advantage of the Avar absence, the Romans waited on the lower Danube for Slavic raids which didn’t come.

In the autumn of 597, the Avars resumed their attack. They even managed to besiege Priscus’s army in Tomis. However, on the 30th of March, 598, the Avars lifted the siege in response to the advance of an inexperienced army lead by Comentiolus. For unknown reasons Priscus did not pursue the Avars. Fearing defeat, Comentiolus retreated to Iatrus, but was still routed in the ensuing clash.

The Avars used the victory to advance between Adrianople and Constantinople. But the Romans got a break when plague killed off a large part of the Avar army. Comentiolus was replaced by Phillipicus, and Maurice summoned the Circus factions and his bodyguard and defended the long walls to the east of the city. Maurice was able to buy them off and secure peace with Bayan, the Avar Khagan.

It didn’t take long for the Romans to break the truce. Priscus advanced to Singidium in the winter of 598. The next spring, Priscus and Comentiolus crossed the Danube near Viminacium. While on the other side of the Danube, the Romans won an open battle over the Avars, killing several of Bayan’s sons. Priscus advanced deeper north into the Avar homeland on the Pannonian plain, while Comentiolus remains near the Danube. Priscus’s army devastated the Avars and their Gepid subjects. Meanwhile, the Exarch of Ravenna defeated several Slav attacks in Istria.

In 599 Comentiolus opened the Gate of Trajan, a pass through the Carpathians that hadn’t been used in decades. In 601, Peter kept the Avars away from the Danubian cataracts. These cataracts were key to keeping access to Sirmium and Singidium. He inflicted further defeats against the Slavs. These defeats convinced the Antes to oppose the Avars and caused several tribes to revolt.

It is now the autumn of 602. Concerned about the Imperial treasury, Maurice orders his brother Peter to winter north of the Danube.
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Peter is sitting in his tent at the center of the marching camp, debating his next course of action when a messenger arrives. The messenger relays to him that the Emperor wants Peter to keep the army north of the Danube for the winter. Peter is immediately disturbed.

“Are you sure that you aren’t mistaken?” Peter asks.
“Yes Magister, That is the Imperator’s wishes.” the messenger replies.

Returning to his business, Peter is worried. He knows that his men are near their limit, and want to return home. Peter calls his officers to his tent.

“My most loyal and effective Ducenarii. Earlier today I received a message from my brother; I must regrettably inform you that we are to remain here for the winter. A few years ago, the general Priscus was told the same thing. He disobeyed. His disobedience allowed the pagan Sclaveni to ravage Macedonia. Let your men know that we are going to remain here, and instruct them to prepare this camp for winter. This spring, we will go back out and loot those pagan bastards,” Peter addresses. “But for the time being, we must wait here and protect the frontier.”

For a few of Peter’s officers, this is an opportunity. They immediately inform their men of the Emperor’s plans. Upon hearing the news, the men are infuriated. They expected to return home and spend the winter with their families. Seeing that the men agreed with them, a few of Peter’s officers take the opportunity to plot the unthinkable. They plan to go to the capital and seize control. One of the conspirators is a man named Phocas. He manages to get a strong core of officers around him, and together, they seize Peter. Holding Peter hostage, Phocas quickly assumes control over the army.

Phocas’s renegade army begins its march south. Outside of Sirmium, he gathers his army and delivers a speech to his gathered men.

"The Emperor sits in a comfortable palace, with all of his needs taken care of. How do we live?", pronounced Phocas, "Like dogs! Here we are, living as if we were poor beggars. Now, the Emperor wants us to stay here, while he enjoys the finer things in life! We will take no more of this! A few years back, he refused to pay tribute to the Avar King, thus leaving our brother soldiers in the hands of such barbarians. I was sent as part of a military delegation to convince him to pay the money for their release. What happened? We were humiliated! Such a man can not be allowed to rule over good Romans such as us! We must overthrow the Emperor!"

Phocas sends a message to Maurice informing the Emperor of his intentions. The message reads:

Not too long ago, I have seized control of the army led by Peter, your brother. We can no longer have on the throne a leader who puts himself before his men. A few years ago, the Persian king offered to return your soldiers in exchange for money. You refused. You told us that it was because we couldn’t afford the payments. That is a lie. You live in luxury, which costs us more money than any Persian dog could ever take. You could have gone without so much luxury, and paid for those fine Romans that you betrayed. What about them, and what about their families? All of that suffering, just so you could enjoy the finer things in life. In addition, you humiliated me. I was part of the delegation pleading with you to pay the money, and you embarrassed me. I see now that you are not fit to be the leader of all true Romans. This army will install a more benevolent and wise leader than you. I guarantee you that.
Flavius Phocas


Maurice sends a message in response. It reaches Phocas’s army in a matter of days. The order tells Phocas to go on an offensive. Phocas refuses, of course, but news reaches the troops. In the end however, they all agree. The army must continue on to Constantinople. It seems that all options are exhausted, but then an unexpected break happens.

An officer in Phocas’s camp hatches a plan to put himself in charge of the coup. In the middle of the night, he enters Phocas’s tent and kills the pretender. When word reaches Maurice, he is ecstatic. With Phocas out of the way, the army stops at their base in Macedonia.

from Romanian Armies, Chapter Six: Justinian Dynasty 518-?
Theodoros Adrianopoulos, Constantine University Press.
1794 AD, Constantinople.
This will change when/if I receive the Strategikon and the other books. Right now, this is going off of memory.

To understand how Maurice pacified the Balkans, we need to know how his army fought its battles. The core of any Roman army was its Cataphracts. While not the heavily armored cavalry of Persian descent that they once were, they were still well armored with a mail corselet and an iron helmet. Carrying lances, they were the elite of any Roman army. Another important, and often little-mentioned in period descriptions besides Maurice’s Strategikon, were the Sagittarii (Archers). While Cavalry provided the shock power behind the Roman armies’ victories, their success wouldn’t be possible without the suppressing fire provided by her archers.

While melee infantry played, at best, a subsidiary role, we shouldn’t underestimate their capabilities. While most commanders, including Maurice himself, tended to overemphasize the power of their cavalry, the infantry were still very important. They protected the archers from any enemy cavalry and infantry charges, and also provided a sort of “mobile fortress” for the cavalry to strike from. Infantry were useful in this role in all theaters of battle; even to an extent in the fluid border regions of Arabia.
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Maurice rides out from Constantinople to meet the army near Thessalonica. With his Scholae standing around him to protect against assassination, he delivers a passionate speech to the army.

“I have heard of your support for an usurper named Phocas,” Maurice shouts, “and I forgive you! No matter what the circumstances of your support are, let it be known that I am merciful to those who repent of their sins. I only ask of you this: support our campaign against the Huns. They pose a threat to all true Romans like yourselves, and won’t stop until they achieve your destruction. You have all seen in your times crossing these lands the troubles caused by these pagan barbarians, spawn of Lucifer himself. Many of you may have lost families to their actions. If you follow me into their homes, we can avenge your losses together! We can not delay. The Hun king Bayan is planning another attack on our lands. Defeat him, and we can enjoy the spoils of battle. I know that many of you are aware of our financial state, and are upset that I cut your pay, practically to nothing. The reason for our struggle is simple: With our lands ravaged, our sources of funding have dried up. I promise you this: If we defeat them together, I will restore your pay to full, and maybe even raise it beyond the normal level. Onward to victory!”
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