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104 4. the successors of justinian
Justin had been brought to a surprisingly successful conclusion, and during
the last decade of Maurice’s reign relations on the eastern frontier were
generally good: Arab tribes and local arguments might raise tension, but in
602 Maurice was sufficiently confident of Khusro’s good faith to contemplate
sending his son Theodosius to appeal for Persian support against
Phocas.
3. The west and the Balkans
Comparable success eluded Maurice in the west. In Italy he continued the
policies of Tiberius, attempting to engage the Franks as allies against the
Lombards, but two invasions in 584 and 585 achieved little; as a result, in
586 the exarch Smaragdus made a three-year truce with the Lombards.
Meanwhile in Gaul financial support was given to Gundovald, an illegitimate
member of the Merovingian royal house, in attempts to gain the
throne of Burgundy or Neustria; these had failed by the end of 585. In
Spain Roman possessions had been whittled away by the Visigoths, but
small enclaves based on Seville and Cartagena remained, and the fortuitous
capture of the Merovingian princess Ingund, daughter-in-law of king
Leovigild, and her son Athanagild gave Maurice considerable influence at
the Austrasian court. In Africa Moorish raids had troubled the province
under Justin II and Tiberius, but it was peaceful throughout most of
Maurice’s reign, and tribal threats were dealt with by the exarch
Gennadius. 39
During the 590s the Roman position in Italy remained weak. The exarch
Romanus maintained pressure on the Lombards and managed to secure
communications across the Apennines between Ravenna and Rome, but
his belligerence was not favoured by the new pope, Gregory (590–604);
Gregory, more concerned by the isolation of Rome and the city’s lack of
troops, preferred to establish links with the Lombards and in this he was
successful after Romanus’ death in 596, with the orthodox queen
Theodelinda as an important contact. Policy towards the Lombards
remained a contentious issue between Gregory and Maurice, and relations
were complicated by the row over the Constantinopolitan patriarch’s use of
the oecumenical title, disputes about jurisdiction in Illyricum, a diocese
under papal control but geographically orientated more closely with
Constantinople, and Gregory’s desire to prevent secular interference with
church estates in the west. By 602 relations were sufficiently bad for
Gregory to react warmly to the news of Phocas’ accession and the death
of Maurice’s supporter, Comentiolus, whose involvement in a dispute
about church property in Spain had displeased Gregory. 40
39 Goffart (1957); Goubert (1951–65) ii. 40 Richards (1980) chs. 11, 13.
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