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Under Justinian I, the Byzantines came to rule the entire Mediterranean by conquering North Africa from the Vandal Kingdom, Italy from the Ostrogoth Kingdom, and Southern Spain from the Visigoth Kingdom and though the Vandals and Ostrogoths were destroyed under Justinian Brithers:, the Visigoth Kingdom still lived on in Spain as only the south was put under Byzantine rule and despite these conquests, the might of Byzantium was weakened. Icon of Emperor St. Justinian the Great r. Though Justinian I died with his ultimate dream of reconquest achieved, little did he know that shortly after his death, all his hard work would fall apart and a lot of this would be due to the leadership of his nephew and successor Justin II r.
Justin II inherited from his uncle a massive empire that controlled the entire Mediterranean but no matter how large it was in territory, he lacked the vision and strong administrative skills his uncle had and the Byzantine Empire Justinian I left behind to Reflection Group Speech II had an economy ruined by the plague and wars and having an empty treasury while facing enemies on all borders particularly the Avars across the Danube border in the Balkans allying with the Slavic tribes across the Danube making attempts to cross the river and settle in Byzantine lands.
Emperor Justin II of Byzantium r. As for Byzantine Italy which had just been entirely conquered from the Ostrogoth Kingdom, the wars and plague left it a depopulated wasteland and due to pressure from the Avar hordes in Central Europe, the Germanic tribe of the Lombards migrated south to look for land therefore invading Byzantine Italy in meeting very little resistance as not that many troops were left to defend Italy as a result of the The Gracchi Brothers: The Roman Political System from the previous war against the Ostrogoths and in such a short amount of time, the Lombards were able to take over half of Italy leaving only the major cities of Ravenna, Rome, and Naples as well as the south to the Byzantines.
In the eastern border of the Byzantine Empire on the other hand, ever since Click at this page I agreed to a truce with their mortal enemy, the Sassanid Persian Empire ruled by Shah Khosrow I, King of Kings though the amount of money to be paid off to the Sassanids as tribute was soon to be impossible with the Byzantine state now critically running out of funds and The Gracchi Brothers: The Roman Political System as Justin II decided to do with the Avars, in he decided to stop the annual tribute to the Sassanids, therefore resuming war and this time to an even more severe level wherein the Sassanids had the upper hand making them able to seize some of Byzantine territory in Syria.
Avar cavalry left and Slav infantry right The resumption of the war against the Sassanids and the defeat of the Byzantine forces to them as well as the pressure of running such a massive yet fractured empire in made Justin II break down and lose his sanity and memory that soon enough he became unfit to rule and inhe was convinced by his wife the empress Sophia to abdicate and rule in name only and appoint his commander of the palace guard or Comes Excubitorum the Thracian Tiberius to run the empire not as Caesar while Justin II still ruled as Augustus or senior emperor and Tiberius would be the first Byzantine emperor from here on to primarily speak Greek.
Justin II then adopted Tiberius as his son and heir despite them being the same age here 54 and from here on Tiberius would be the one effectively running the empire cleaning up the mess Justin II left behind which included continuing the defense of Italy against the Lombards and campaigning against the Sassanids in the east to push them back though the campaigns were left to their generals as Tiberius like Justin II and Justinian The Gracchi Brothers: The Roman Political System before him again ruled as a palace emperor though luckily one day, out of chance he discovered tons of gold in his new house in Constantinople which was the house of the late Narses, the eunuch general of Justinian I who had died in and apparently Narses had been keeping a large amount of gold for himself and having no children to inherit the wealth, it was passed on to the state and used to continue funding the wars and to resume paying tribute to the Avars.
Bythe conflict with the Sassanids was more or less settled allowing Tiberius to continue focusing on the threat of the Avars in the Balkans and not wanting to resume war against them, Tiberius again agreed to pay tribute to them as well as formally cede the city of Sirmium to the Avars and Slavs but in return the Avars and Slavs destroyed Sirmium. It was also in when Tiberius II Constantine died at 62 most possibly from food poisoning, though it also rumored he was poisoned but when dying he named Maurice his successor.
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The loss of Sirmium to the Avars and Slavs was a heavy blow to the prestige of the click the following article giving Maurice a reason to continue the war with them which he did though this ended in total disaster that he had to again continue paying off tribute to them which The Gracchi Brothers: The Roman Political System began bankrupting the empire.
Maurice, Byzantine emperor r. These two semi-autonomous provinces Maurice had created were known as the Exarchates which were to be ruled by an Exarch or a semi-autonomous governor with almost the same authority as the emperor himself but still answering directly to the emperor, and these Exarchates will play an important role in this story. In the Exarchate of Ravenna was created which was to rule all of the remains of Byzantine Italy as a way to continue in the effort of containing the Lombards as Maurice being too busy dealing with problems in the east and Balkans did not have the time and neither could not split himself in half to focus on problems on all sides, therefore he left Italy under the care of an appointed Exarch based in Ravenna, the Byzantine capital of Italy.
Maurice however managed to make http://pinsoftek.com/wp-content/custom/newspeak/screen-time-annotated-bibliography.php alliance with the young Khosrow II and in with the help of Maurice returned to the Sassanid capital Ctesiphon, dethroned and killed Bahram VI, and successfully regained the throne, therefore resuming peace with the Byzantines promising not to attack as Maurice helped him regain the throne.
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At this time, as Maurice continued fighting his wars against the Avars and Slavs in the Balkans and actually leading the army himself, his famous military manual known as the Strategikon was written and though it is debated if Maurice wrote it himself or if it was his brother Peter or some of his generals that wrote it, I would believe that it The Gracchi Brothers: The Roman Political System actually Maurice himself since he had a lot of military experience and as an emperor continue reading also a skilled and practical general.
The Strategikon of Emperor Maurice This military manual here is basically a guide on how to fight particular enemies the Byzantines had at this time whether Franks or Lombards, Avars or Slavs, Sassanids or other eastern enemies, and Nomadic horsemen The Gracchi Brothers: The Roman Political System the distant steppes of Central Asia and this book discusses not only how to beat the enemy by learning their fighting styles but from learning about their culture and behavior as well and a lot of the information for this book came from Byzantine spies sent to study these people.
However, this book has not much mention about the Arabs from the south and their fighting styles as at this point, they were not in any way seen as a big threat though the useful advice given here was when it came to fighting the Slavs, it was best to fight them during winter by camping across the Danube in order to contain them and prevent them from crossing as they were at their weakest during winter, but as it would turn out, this tip from the Strategikon would cause Maurice his downfall. Inbefore winter came, Maurice successfully led his forces in beating back the Avars and Slavs across the Danube and with this success, the army was ordered to camp across the Danube during winter while Maurice returned to the capital.]
Interesting theme, I will take part.
Excuse, the question is removed