Justinian died childless on 14 November 565. The succession had been left
open.One of his three nephews, called Justin, secured election by the senate
and succeeded his uncle; he had long occupied the minor post of cura palatii
but he was, perhaps more significantly, married to Sophia, one of Theodora’s
nieces. The only serious contender was a second cousin of Justinian’s, also
called Justin: one of the magistri militum, he was despatched to Alexandria
and murdered, reportedly at the instigation of Sophia. Justin II (565–78)
continued, or reinstated, Justinian’s policy of religious orthodoxy, though
he – or at least his wife, Sophia – had earlier inclined towards monophysitism.
In renewing his uncle’s religious policy, Justin restored religious
harmony between east and west, and he affirmed this shared orthodoxy
by a gift to the Frankish queen Radegund of a splendid enamelled crucifix
containing a relic of the True Cross. This inspired the greatest Latin hymns
in honour of the cross, Venantius Fortunatus’ Pange lingua and Vexilla regis.
But at the same time Justin sought reconciliation with the monophysites.
This attempt at reconciliation ended in 572, with the monophysites’ rejection
of Justin’s so-called second Henotikon; this rejection resulted in th
persecution of the monophysites which John of Ephesus recorded in his
Church history.37
But Justin is remembered chiefly for his ill-advised foreign policy: by
refusing to maintain alliances with barbarian tribes, not least the Avars, or
to preserve peace with Persia, he gravely weakened the empire’s position.
Throughout the century, the Romans had been concerned for the security
of the Danube frontier. Both Anastasius and Justinian had invested a good
deal in building a line of forts and fortifying cities close to the frontier.
In addition to this, Justinian had established alliances with various of the
barbarian groupings – the Antes around 545 and the Avars in 558 – and had
used them to check other barbarian peoples north of the Danube. Another
set of barbarians, which proved a constant concern, was the Slavs: by the
middle of the sixth century they were established along the north bank of
the Danube, from where they made raids across the river into Byzantine
territory, and from around 560 they began to winter on Byzantine territory.
Within a few days of Justin’s accession, an embassy arrived from the Avars,
requesting the tribute they had been accustomed to receive from Justinian
in return, they claimed, for not invading the empire and even for defending
it against other barbarians. Justin haughtily rebuffed them, but since the
Avars were more concerned with the Franks at this stage, Justin’s action
provoked no immediate response.
Two years later, Justin was able to benefit from war between the barbarians.
When the Lombards and the Avars formed an alliance to crush
the Gepids, another barbarian group who occupied Pannonia Secunda and
held the city of Sirmium, he was able to seize Sirmium, and held on to it
during the war with the Avars that followed. The fall of the Gepids had
further consequences for the empire, as the Lombards, who were occupying
the borders of Noricum, now had the Avars as immediate neighbours. To
avoid this they headed south and invaded northern Italy, with which many
of them were familiar, having served there as allies ofNarses in 552.38 Under
their king, Alboin, the Lombards took most of Venetia in 568 and most
of Liguria in the following year, including Milan; Pavia offered more resistance
but it, too, fell in 572. Elsewhere barbarians made inroads. Moorish
revolts in North Africa caused the death of a praetorian prefect in 569 and
two magistri militum in the next couple of years. In Spain, the Visigoths
attacked the Byzantines, taking Asidona in 571 and Cordoba in 572.39
It would therefore seem that 572 was not a propitious year in which
to provoke the Persians. However, that was the year when Justin refused
the first annual tribute under the fifty-year peace negotiated by Justinian,
having evidently paid the three-year tribute due in 569. The Christians
of Persian Armenia had risen in revolt against their governor’s (marzban)
attempts to impose Zoroastrianism on them and appealed to Justin. Justin
not only refused the tribute due in 572, but also threatened to invade Persia
and depose Khusro if attempts to turn the Armenians from Christianity
persisted. The Armenian revolt was successful, and they were joined by the
Iberian kingdom. Justin ordered an invasion of Persia.His cousinMarcian,
appointed magister militum per Orientem in 572, attacked Arzanene on the
southern border of Persian Armenia, and the next year attacked Nisibis.
The Persian response, once they had overcome their surprise at the Roman
attack, was devastating: they invaded Syria and took Apamea, then relieved
Nisibis before besieging and capturing the fortress of Dara.
News of the fall of Dara drove Justin mad, and his consort Sophia took
the reins of power. She negotiated a one-year truce with the Persians for
which the Romans paid 45,000 solidi, half as much again as had been due;
this was later extended to five years, at the old rate of 30,000 solidi a year.
But as a woman, Sophia could not rule as regent herself, and in December
574 she persuaded Justin to promote Tiberius, the count of the excubitors,
to the dignity of caesar. Although Justin lived on until 578, government
was effectively in the hands of Sophia and Tiberius. Sophia is, in fact,
a somewhat neglected Byzantine empress. Though far less famous than
her aunt, unlike Theodora she played a direct role in Byzantine politics,
securing the succession both of her husband and of Tiberius II (578–82),
whomshe vainly hoped to make her second husband. She is the first empress
to appear on Byzantine coins together with her husband.40 Theophanes the
Confessor, who clearly disliked women with pretensions to power, paints
an ugly picture of Sophia and her meddling in imperial matters, as he did
of Irene, the first Byzantine empress to rule in her own name. It may be
significant that he has comparatively little to say about Theodora.
Tiberius became emperor in 578, but by then had already effectively
been governing for four years. In many respects he was the opposite of his
predecessor: whereas Justin was financially cautious to the point of being
regarded as miserly, but militarily ambitious, Tiberius bought popularity
by reducing taxes, but in military matters exercised caution.He also called a
halt to the persecution of the monophysites, on which Justin had embarked.
Tiberius quickly realised that the empire did not have the resources to
engage with its enemies on all fronts. He thus secured the support of the
Avars on the Danube frontier by paying them tribute of 80,000 solidi a
year. This gained not just a respite from hostilities, but Avar support against
the Slavs: with Byzantine backing, the Avar cavalry devastated the Slavs’
territories on the banks of the Danube. However, this truce with the Avars
did not last long. In 580 they attacked Sirmium, and after a lengthy siege
the city was ceded to the Avars in 582 under an agreement which allowed
the garrison and population to withdraw to Roman territory in return for
240,000 solidi, the sum total of the tribute not paid since the Avar attack.
During the siege of Sirmium many Slavs crossed the Danube and invaded
Thrace, Macedonia and what is now Greece: they would eventually settle
throughout the Balkans, although there is no evidence for Slav settlements
(called Sklaviniai by the Byzantines) until the next century.41
The attempt to buy off the Avars and secure peace on theDanube frontier
was to enable Tiberius to concentrate on the Persian frontier, where his
aims seem likewise to have been modest: building up enough strength to
re-establish the peace that had been broken by Justin. The one-year truce
negotiated by Sophia needed to be extended, but the five-year truce that
had later been negotiated seemed to Tiberius too long. On his accession
as caesar this truce was set at three years, on the understanding that in the
meantime envoys would seek to establish a more enduring peace. At the
end of the extended truce, the Byzantine army in the east was in a position
to make inroads on the Persians, and had occupied Arzanene; the army was
led by Maurice, who had succeeded Tiberius as count of the excubitors on
Tiberius’ elevation to caesar. Negotiations were underway for a peace that
would restore the fortress of Dara to the Byzantines, but in the course of
these negotiations – in 579 – Khusro died. His son Hormizd IV (579–90),
who succeeded him, broke off negotiations, and war continued. In August
582 Tiberius himself died, having crowned Maurice augustus the previous
day. Maurice (582–602) was an effective general, who had already achieved
military success under Tiberius before becoming emperor himself. Even if
he is not the author of the military treatise called the Strategikon, such an
attribution is not inappropriate. The treatise certainly reflects late sixthcentury
Byzantine military practice, with its stress on the importance of
cavalry in warfare and provision for campaigning across theDanube.42 Like
his predecessor, Maurice initially concentrated his military efforts on the
Persian front, and sought to deal with the other threats to the empire by
diplomacy and tribute. At the beginning of his reign he paid the Frankish
king Childebert II (575–95) to attack the Lombards in northern Italy, which
he did in 584, securing the submission of the Lombard dukes. This was
repeated in 588 and 589. Maurice had less success on the Danube frontier.
Two years after his accession, the Avars demanded an increase in their
tribute from 80,000 to 100,000 solidi, and when Maurice refused, they
seized Belgrade (then known as Singidunum) and attacked other cities in
the surrounding region.Maurice had to pay the extra 20,000 solidi in order
to recover Belgrade and secure peace. But theAvars soon allowed the Slavs to
overrun and ravage Thrace; the Slavs reached Adrianople and the LongWall
before they were driven back. After that, the Avars themselves crossed the
Danube and made for Constantinople. Having easily defeated a Byzantine
force of 10,000 sent against them, the Avars crossed theHaemus mountains,
invaded Thrace and besieged Adrianople; they were only defeated in 586 by
Droctulft, a Lombard duke, who came to the service of the empire. In the
same year Thessalonica was besieged by the Slavs and was only saved, so its
citizens believed, by the intervention of their patron saint Demetrius.43
On the Persian front the war dragged on inconclusively. There was a
mutiny in the army when Maurice attempted to cut pay by a quarter,
to alleviate the drain on the treasury, and Martyropolis, in Arzanene, was
taken by the Persians in 590. Soon, however, there was a dramatic change of
fortune. The Persian shah, Hormizd IV (579–90), was killed in a rebellion
led by one of his satraps, Bahram.His son Khusro fled to the Byzantines and
with their help in 591 crushed Bahram’s rebellion and secured the Persian
throne. In return for the help of theByzantine emperor, Khusro II (590–628)
gave up his claim to Armenia and Arzanene, and restoredMartyropolis and
Dara to the empire (see below, pp. 169, 337). After twenty years, there was
once again peace between the Byzantine and Persian empires.Maurice now
turned his attention to the Danube frontier. In 592 the khagan of the Avars
demanded an increase in the tribute paid him.With his troops transferred
from the now quiet eastern front, Maurice responded by confronting the
Avars, who were obliged to abandon their attempt to occupy Belgrade. This
did not stop them from invading Thrace, but they left abruptly under the
impression that their homeland in Pannonia was in danger.44
However, the real object ofMaurice’s military policy seems to have been
the Slavs: in the interests both of preserving resources and of effective military
strategy, Maurice ordered the Byzantine troops to engage with the
Slavs in their settlements beyond the Danube. The army, accustomed to
rest during winter, threatened to mutiny. The next year another measure
was introduced, aimed at increasing efficiency and saving money: instead
of receiving cash allowances for their military equipment, they were to be
issued with it directly. This was deeply unpopular. The Avars made further
attacks, being rebuffed in their attack on Belgrade and Dalmatia in 598,
and failing to take Tomi on the west coast of the Black Sea in 599. Later
they threatened Constantinople itself, but a bout of plague in the Avar
camp led the khagan to withdraw and agree a treaty in which the Danube
was recognised as the frontier. Maurice quickly revoked the treaty and in
600 the Byzantine army defeated the Avars. The next year was quiet, but
in 602 the Byzantines made successful attacks on the Slavs north of the
Danube. Maurice gave orders for a winter campaign in Slav territory. This
time there was open mutiny: the commander of the army fled, and under
a new commander called Phocas the troops advanced on Constantinople.
Maurice, who had made himself unpopular with his economies, found
himself defenceless in his capital. After a bungled attempt to seize his son’s
father-in-law, Germanus – to whom the troops had offered the crown –
Maurice found himself facing a popular riot and the palace of the praetorian
prefect of the east was burned down. Maurice fled, and Phocas was
proclaimed emperor on 23 November 602. A few days later Maurice was
executed, after his sons had been slain before his eyes. The death ofMaurice
and the accession of the usurper Phocas I (602–10) left the empire in a fragile
state: civil war weakened the empire within, and external enemies took
advantage of the weakness thus revealed. As the seventh century advanced
matters looked very black indeed.
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