Balkan campaigns of Maurikios

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Balkan campaigns of Maurikios
date 582 to 602
place Balkan Peninsula , Pannonia , Wallachia (region)
output Victory of Eastern Europe
Parties to the conflict

Eastern Roman Empire

Avars
South Slavs

Commander

Komentiolos
Priskos (General)
Petros

Baian


The Balkan campaigns of Maurikios were a series of campaigns that the Eastern Roman Emperor Maurikios (r. 582-602) undertook to defend the Eastern Roman Balkan provinces against Avars and Slavs .

Although Justinian (527 to 565) had already tried to stabilize the uncertain Danube provinces by means of a large fortress building program, Maurikios (Mauricius) was next to Anastasius (491 to 518) the only late antique emperor who pursued a consistent Balkan policy within the scope of his possibilities and tried paid the necessary attention to securing the northern border of the empire against the raids of peoples from the Barbaricum . In the second half of his reign (from 591) he was able to concentrate foreign policy on the Balkans region due to a provisional peace agreement with Persia and acted quite successfully there overall.

The assumption that Maurikios 'campaigns in the Balkans was only one of the last struggles of the empire and that Roman rule in the Balkans collapsed immediately after Maurikios' overthrow in 602 is widespread but incorrect.

Rather, Maurikios was ultimately well on the way to putting a stop to the constant invasions, to preventing the Slavs from permanently taking over the Balkans and to maintaining the order of late antiquity in the Balkans. He had success with his protracted campaigns, apart from one setback in 597/598. However, his work was ruined by the political turmoil after his fall. In retrospect, this was the end of the centuries of Roman defense campaigns against barbarians on the Rhine and Danube . At least in relation to the Slavs, it was a struggle against non-state threats with asymmetrical warfare . As a result, Maurikios and perhaps his successor Phocas delayed the Slavic conquest for over two decades until the Eastern Roman rule south of the Danube collapsed for other reasons.

The Eastern Roman Empire from approx. 526–600

Situation in the Balkans until 582

When Maurikios ascended the throne, he found probably the greatest “legacy” of his predecessors in the Balkans. Even Justinian neglected the Balkan defense against the Slavs and other barbarian peoples who had threatened the border on the Danube and plundered the Balkan provinces since around 500. Although he repaired the Danube Limes, he renounced campaigns against the Slavs in favor of a policy that necessarily concentrated on the Orient (Persia) and the West. His nephew and successor Justin II achieved a rapprochement with the Avars, supported them with annual funds and played them against the Gepids and the Slavs. The aim was to establish indirect control of the many small, decentralized operating groups in the Barbaricum in this way . With this typically Roman policy, however, he only achieved that with the Avarenkhaganat, a rulership could be established that posed a much greater threat to the Imperium Romanum than the Gepids and Slavs: in a way, what was repeated in the middle of the The 5th century happened when the Romans tried to stabilize the Danube border with the help of the Huns under Attila .

In addition, during their campaigns against the Slavs, the Avars also penetrated Roman territory and developed desires and acquired detailed local knowledge. A protracted war with the Persian Sassanids that was ripped off by Justin II in 572 tied up a large part of the forces that would actually have been necessary to secure the Balkans. His immediate predecessor and adoptive father-in-law Tiberius Constantinus in turn left Maurikios largely empty state coffers. So the Slav invasions continued in the Balkans, and the looters destroyed the late antique character of the Balkan provinces in many places.

A few months before Maurikios took office, these battles entered a new phase when the Avars under their Khagan Baian and their Slavic auxiliaries took Sirmium in Pannonia . In doing so, they had created a power base south of the Danube from which they could operate unhindered on the Balkan Peninsula, especially since the Sava was easy to cross compared to the Danube. Even if the Avars were occasionally immobilized by paying tribute and persuaded to withdraw, they repeatedly broke the peace agreements ( foedera ) with Ostrom. The Slavs, some of which were under Avar suzerainty, were only organized up to the tribal level. They marched independently and plundering across the Balkan Peninsula, in some cases increasingly with the intention of evading Avar sovereignty in the Balkans. Avars and Slavs therefore presented two different threats.

Avar and Slav invasions 582 to 591

The Balkans 582–612

After the conquest of Sirmium, the Slavic incursions increased further. Advances to the Peloponnese led to the founding of the imperial fortress Monemvasia in 583 (see Chronicle of Monemvasia ). After Maurikios had refused to increase the tribute payments in 583, the Avars captured Singidunum (now Belgrade ) in a flash because some of the residents outside the city walls were busy harvesting. They then conquered Viminacium , bypassed Ratiaria and the nearby Bononia, and advanced along the Via Pontica to Anchialos on the Black Sea . After taking Aquae Calidae , they moved west to the Via Militaris , where they could be moved to withdraw from Komentiolos because of increased tribute payments and a threat from the Gök-Turks, allied with Eastern Stream .

Since Maurikios was initially still bound by the war against the Sassanid Empire caused by his predecessor Justin II (see also Roman-Persian Wars ), he was only able to oppose hastily assembled troops under the magister militum per Thracias against the Avars and Slavs in the Balkans , and from 584. The formation of troops in the Balkans was made more difficult by the fact that the theater of war there in the 580s was a defensive war on its own soil, which, in contrast to the Persian “counterpart”, was practically impossible gave to supplement the military pay through looting. The troops, rather demotivated by this fact, found it difficult to achieve even local successes. The victory of Komentiolos at Adrianopolis at the turn of the year 584/585 was rather an exception and only diverted the Slavs to Greece. Large parts of Athens were probably destroyed during this period.

The emperor's main focus had to be on the Orient Front, because the Persian Sassanids were ultimately far more dangerous opponents than the plundering Slavs and Avars: unlike the incursions on the Danube, the Persian War threatened the survival of the empire. Therefore, one had to deploy the best troops in the east and leave the Balkans largely to itself. The situation on all fronts was so critical in 585 that the Persian great king Hormizd IV hoped to persuade the East Romans to surrender Armenia with an offer of peace . Since Maurikios refused, he had to accept the raids of the Avars and Slavs in the Balkans for the time being and hope that he could threaten the Avar area from the Singidunum near the border and thus prevent the Avars from further intrusions. In fact, the Roman presence at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers was strong enough to persuade the Avars to stop their raids. However, this could not completely stop the campaigns. In spite of this, 586 Avar attackers were able to destroy Ratiaria, Oescus , Durostorum , Marcianopolis and Bononia and besiege Thessaloniki , while Slavic groups again advanced as far as the Peloponnese. The numerically inferior Roman army under Komentiolus avoided direct confrontation with the Avars and limited itself to disrupting the advance of the Avars through skirmishes and night attacks, according to the Strategikon . On the lower reaches of the Danube, Komentiolos achieved minor successes against Slavic looters in 586/587, but two attempts by Komentiolos to capture the Avarenkhagan failed. At Tomis on the Black Sea, the Khagan escaped over the nearby lagoon landscape, while an ambush south of the Balkan Mountains was exposed when a Roman soldier drove a donkey driver with the Latin words Torna, torna, fratre (“turn around, comrade”) on his poorly laden Donkey drew attention. His words were misunderstood by other soldiers as an invitation to withdraw and caused a panic. They are sometimes considered the first documented sentence in the Romanian language , but document - especially since the sources do not reveal anything about the soldier's origin - that (vulgar) Latin was still the language of the Eastern Roman army at that time: Torna, torna was a standard command and meant "turn around". When in the following year Priskos (of whom Theophylactus Simokates reported explicitly that he had given his speeches to the troops in Latin; Theophylact 6,7,9) took over the supreme command of the Roman troops in the Balkans, his first mission resulted in Thrace and Moesien in a fiasco that even encouraged the Avars to advance to the Marmara Sea . The fact that the pressure of the Avars subsided at the end of the 580s was more due to the meanwhile poor condition of the Savebrücken built by the Avars near Sirmium.

Nevertheless, Maurikios was anxious to strengthen his troops in the Balkans, especially since the Slavic raids continued unabated. He wanted to procure the necessary funds for this in 588 by cutting his pay by a quarter. Since these plans led to a revolt on the Persian front in Easter 588 that lasted a full year, Maurikios put them on hold for the time being in 589 and refrained from recruiting new troops. The consequence for the Balkans was that Maurikios had only limited possibilities to contain the Avars and Slavs for the next three years.

Campaigns 591-595

The Balkan Peninsula and the late Roman diocese of Thrace in which a large part of the campaigns of the years 591-595 took place.

In 590 the Persian king was overthrown and his son Chosrau II fled to the Romans. After they had given him military support and put him back on the throne in Ctesiphon , a phase of peaceful relations between the two great powers that lasted several years followed: when Maurikios was able to make a favorable peace with Persia in the late summer of 591 and win back Armenia in the process, he did not stand only the experienced veterans of the Persian War are available for relocation in the Balkans, but also Armenian units. The decreasing pressure from the Avars and Persians enabled the Romans to concentrate on the Slavs as early as 590/591 and to slowly rectify the situation in the Balkans. Maurikios had already personally visited Anchialus and other cities in Thrace the previous year, 590, to oversee the reconstruction and fortification of the region and to reassure his troops and the population. After the peace agreement with Persia, he immediately accelerated this development by transferring his troops to the Balkans.

In 592 his troops recaptured Singidunum, which had evidently been reoccupied by Avars. At the same time, smaller units pursued Slavic looters in Moesia and restored and secured the main connecting roads between the Roman cities south of the Danube. The aim of Maurikios was to restore the Danube line from east to west to protect against the attacks of the barbarians along the Danube and to further strengthen it, as Emperor Anastasius had done a hundred years earlier. Furthermore, he intended to keep the Avars and Slavs away from Roman territory by means of preventive warfare and to make the campaigns more attractive for the soldiers by the possibility of looting in enemy territory. The Romans on the Rhine and Danube had pursued this strategy of offensive defense, which was supposed to carry the war into the Barbaricum and serve as revenge and deterrence, for centuries; now Maurikios took it up again.

His general Priskos therefore initially started in the spring of 593 to systematically prevent the Slavs from crossing the Danube. He suppressed the Slavs' attacks on Moesia and defeated them several times before he pursued them across the Danube to what is now Wallachia , where, despite the wooded and swampy area, he was able to inflict further defeats on Slavic warrior groups. He continued the operations until autumn, but ignored an order from Maurikios to winter in Wallachia in order to take advantage of the cold season (frozen rivers and swamps, defoliated trees). Aided by the retreat of the Roman troops to the winter quarters in Odessos (today Varna ), Slavs crossed the Danube again in winter around the turn of the year 593/594, plundered again through Moesia and Macedonia and devastated Aquis, Scupi (today Skopje ) and Zaldapa in the west in Dobruja .

In 594 Maurikios replaced Priskos and replaced him with his inexperienced brother Petros . Petros was able to hold his own despite initial difficulties. A detachment of his army defeated a Slavic contingent at Marcianopolis (today Dewnja ), which were about to return to Wallachia after the successful raids of the previous winter. Then Petros patrolled the Danube between Asimus (also called Azimuntium; immediately west of Novae ) and the Black Sea. At the end of August he crossed the Danube at Securisca west of Novae, opposite the mouth of the Aluta , where a Slavic tribe led by their leader Peiragastus had set an ambush. The ambush failed, but since Petros did not yet have his cavalry on the north bank of the Danube, he could not pursue the Slavs. Instead, he turned to the east and fought his way to the Helibacia in several battles with his cavalry , which had meanwhile arrived , which meant that he could seriously disrupt Slavic preparations for raids.

These successes made it possible for Priskos, who in the meantime had received the supreme command of another army upstream, to march along the northern bank of the Danube on Singidunum in 595 and, in cooperation with the Eastern Roman Danube Fleet, prevent an Avar attack on this city without it becoming a significant one Battle came. The fact that, unlike 584, the Avars wanted to destroy the city and deport the population is a sign of declining self-confidence and the extent of the threat they saw in this border city.

The Avars then also avoided direct confrontation with Priskos. They changed their plans and raided Dalmatia , where they captured several fortresses. At no time had Slavic incursions into this remote and impoverished province aroused undue concern among Roman military leaders. Priskos could therefore not afford to expose the Danube border by campaigning in Dalmatia. He was content with sending a small detachment, which at least was able to steal part of their booty from the Avars.

So-called combat pause 596–597

After the only partially successful Avar migration in Dalmatia, there was relative calm in the Balkans for a year and a half. Discouraged by their defeats, the Avars saw greater prospect of booty in the west with the Franks , while the Romans in 596 led smaller campaigns on the lower Danube against the Slavs from their camp in Markianopolis (25 km west of Odessos), the commitment of the Avars in the West, however, did not take advantage of it. The Slavs also did not undertake any significant raids during this period.

Avar winter attack 597-598

Strengthened by the Franconian tribute payments, the Avars resumed their campaigns on the Danube in autumn 597 and surprised the Romans. They even managed to lock Priskos in his winter quarters in Tomis. On March 30, 598, the Avars broke off the siege of Tomis, because Komentiolos marched with an army of newly recruited soldiers across the Balkan Mountains to the Danube to Zikidiba near today's Medgidia and thus approached Tomis up to 30 km. For inexplicable reasons Priskos did not pursue the Avars, so that Komentiolus - on his own - had to evade to Iatrus , where his inexperienced troops were broken up by the Avars and had to make their way south across the Balkan Mountains. The Avars took advantage of this success and advanced as far as Drizipera at Arkadiopolis and found themselves exactly between Adrianopolis and Constantinople , where parts of their army and seven sons of the Avarenkhagans Baian were carried off by the plague. Komentiolos was briefly relieved of his command and replaced by Philippikos , while Maurikios had his bodyguards and volunteers deployed from the circus parties to defend the "Long Walls" west of Constantinople. The Avars could be induced to withdraw by paying tribute. In the same year a contract was signed with the Avarenkhagan, which explicitly allowed Roman troops to campaign in Wallachia. The Romans used the remaining year to reorganize their troubled armies and to analyze the reasons for the debacle. Priskos advanced into the Singidunum area and wintered there in 598/599. It is unclear whether the Avars offered the ransom of 12,000 Roman prisoners of war during the peace negotiations and executed them after Maurikios' refusal.

Campaigns 599-602

In the summer of 599 the Romans broke the peace treaty. Priskos and Komentiolos moved with their armies downstream to the nearby Viminacium , where they crossed the Danube. On the north bank they defeated the Avars for the first time in open field battle in their own country. Here other sons of the Avarenkhagans Baian fell. Priskos then advanced into the Pannonian lowlands and thus into the Avar heartland. While Komentiolos remained near the Danube, Priskos defeated the Avars deep inside their empire. Subsequently, Priskos devastated large stretches of land east of the Tisza , just as the Avars and Slavs had previously done in the Balkans. Individual Avar tribes and the Gepids ruled by them suffered particularly high losses. Two battles on the Tisza also ended in Avar defeats.

Furthermore, Kallinikos , the exarch of Ravenna , was able to repel 599 Slavic incursions into Istria .

In the autumn of 599 opened Comentiolus for decades no longer used Trajan Gate (possibly with the Shipka Pass is identical) again while pushed forward in the year 601 Petros the Tisza and kept the Avars of the rapids, possession of access of the Roman Danube fleet to the Cities Sirmium and Singidunum was indispensable. In 602 the Slavs in Wallachia were decisively defeated, while the Avar Empire was threatened by the Anten and threatened to break up as a result of revolts by the sub-tribes. A group of Avars even left the khaganate to side with the emperor. The Romans were now largely able to hold the Danube line again. As a result, the aggressive "defense of the Roman Empire in Wallachia and Pannonia" paid off.

Wintering order autumn 602

But when Maurikios again ordered a winter campaign, he triggered a mutiny in his army, which possibly only grew into open revolt after overcoming some reluctance. There is speculation about the motives for the order; Savings in the costs for winter quarters, seasonal tactical advantages against irregular forces and prevention of a new Avar surprise attack in winter are possible motives. In contrast, the consequences of the order are known: the fall and death of the emperor; he was replaced by Sergeant Phokas in November .

The Balkans after 602

Maurikios had rectified the situation in the Balkans and put an end to the raids of the Avars and Slavs for the time being. He was therefore the first emperor since Anastasios I who was able to record the pacification of the Balkan provinces for himself. The Roman Balkan provinces were thus on the threshold of possible recovery. However, they needed to be rebuilt and repopulated in the depopulated areas. Maurikios had plans for this; Armenians were to be settled as fortified farmers in the Balkans and the Slavs who had already immigrated were to be Romanized. With his overthrow, this ultimately became waste, as did the continuation of the campaigns and the associated destruction of the Avar Empire. The new emperor Phokas had to fight again in his reign (602–610) against the Persians, who were able to occupy Armenia in the first phase of the war. Furthermore, a mutiny against the excesses of the campaigns had just brought him to power. For the reasons mentioned Phocas was forced to give up the aggressive defense and also the settlement of Armenian fortified farmers. So he had to forego the fruits of victory in the Balkans as the price for his seizure of power. The result was a decline in Roman rule and with it the end of antiquity in the Balkans.

Balkan Campaigns of Phocas - Calm Before the Storm 602–612 (or 615)

The still widespread assumption that Roman rule collapsed immediately after the fall of Maurikios has been refuted.

Phocas initially continued the campaigns to an unknown extent and is only likely to have transferred troops from the Balkans to the Persian front from 605 onwards. But perhaps the Thracian origin of the new emperor speaks against a complete exposure of the Balkans even after 605. Plundering expeditions by the Avars and Slavs or even a collapse during his rule are not documented by archaeological finds such as hoarding coins. In contrast, it is known that refugees from Dardania as well as from "Dacia" and "Pannonia" only sought refuge in Thessalonica under his successor Herakleios (610–641). Against the background of these sources, a further recovery of the Balkan provinces under the rule of Phocas even seems conceivable. There is evidence that some fortresses were rebuilt either under Maurikios or Phocas. However, this should not hide the fact that the more or less forced inaction of Phocas in the Balkans ushered in the loss of the Balkan provinces.

Great Slav and Avar storms 612–626

It was probably Herakleius who withdrew all troops from the Balkans - because the fall of Phocas and the ensuing turmoil of civil war worsened the military situation in the east to an unprecedented degree. In addition to the encouragement of the Avars through their successes against the Lombards in Friuli 610 and against the Franks in 611, this could have been the reason why the Avars and Slavs renewed their invasions in the Balkans after Herakleios came to power, from 612 at the earliest There is also the fact that the chronicles only report in the 610s of new raids to which cities like Justiniana Prima or Salona then fell victim. It is not known when which area was "flooded" by the Slavs. Only individual events stand out; the destruction of Novae after 613, the conquest of Naissus and Serdika as well as the destruction of Justiniana Prima 615, another three sieges of Thessalonike (610?, 615 and 617), the Battle of Herakleia on the Sea of ​​Marmara 619, raids on Crete 623 and the siege of Constantinople (626) . From 620 onwards, archaeological finds prove the settlement of the Slavs in the depopulated regions of the Balkans.

Gradual decline of the Roman Balkans after 626

However, some cities survived the Avar and Slavic storms and were able to hold out for a long time thanks to the sea and river connections with Constantinople. Chronicles around 625 tell of a Roman fortress commander in Singidunum. But Roman settlements also stayed on navigable tributaries of the Danube, for example today's Veliko Tarnowo on the Jantra , which houses a church built in the seventh century.

Herakleios used the short window of time between the peace with Persia in 628 and the invasion of the Arabs in 634 to restore Eastern Roman rule in the Balkans, which is particularly evidenced by the construction of the fortress Nikopolis in 629. Furthermore, Herakleios settled the Serbs in Illyria and the Croats in Dalmatia and Lower Pannonia as federates against the Avars, who in 630 extended the area under Byzantine sovereignty to the Sava in the west. However, since he was then bound by the fight against the Arabs in the east, he could not complete his project. Eastern Roman rule in the rural areas of the Balkans was limited to the success of short summer campaigns. The cities of the Polis in the ancient sense to Kastron had degenerated, could not flourish again and thus not new unfold its cultural influence. The result was an assimilation of the remaining Roman provincial population by the Slavic new settlers. Nevertheless, some cities along the Danube and its tributaries in Moesia retained their Roman character until the invasion of the Proto-Bulgarians in 679 and were still under Byzantine rule up to this point. The fact that the Proto-Bulgarians initially used a kind of deranged Greek as the official and administrative language when their empire was founded on the lower Danube, shows that there were Roman populations and administrative structures in Moesia even after 679. In Dalmatia, in Romanesque idioms (held Dalmatisch ) even to the end of the 19th century, while in Macedonia, the ancestors of today's Vlachs survived as nomadic shepherds. It is still disputed whether the Romanians also descended from the remnants of the Roman provincial population south of the Danube (according to the migration theory developed by Robert Roesler, but cf. the Dako-Roman continuity theory ). In central Albania there was another, initially completely neglected population group, which was even able to retain its pre-Romanic language over the centuries of Roman rule and from which today's Albanians emerged . In all, the decline of Roman power was probably a slow process, which only took place because Byzantium did not have enough troops to secure the routes between the cities across the board. Therefore, Byzantium was only able to transform sovereignty over the Balkan Slavs into domination for a limited time and place in order to create the basis for the assimilation of Balkan Slavs. The Islamic expansion that began in the 630s , which led to the loss of all (east) Roman provinces in the Orient, and the associated constant threat to the strategically important Asia Minor from the Arabs, thus also had consequences for the Balkans. Decades were to pass before Byzantium could go on the offensive again and successively recapture parts of the areas ruled by the Slavs ( slave lines ). However, as far as Byzantium was allowed to breathe in the east, it used every opportunity to subjugate Slavs and partially relocate to Asia Minor. Rehellenization succeeded - with a delay of two centuries - at least in Greece and Thrace, while the Bulgarians conquered most of the formerly Eastern Roman Balkans by the end of the 9th century. More centuries would pass before Basil II was able to bring the Balkan Peninsula completely back under Byzantine rule.

Consequences of the Balkan campaigns

A solidus on which Heraclios and his sons Constantine III. and Heraklonas is shown

Ultimately, the successes of the campaigns of Maurikios of Phocas were wasted. The reconstruction of the infrastructure planned by Maurikios did not materialize for the most part, as did the resettlement. Herakleios was even less able to take care of the Balkan Peninsula. Therefore, the only immediate consequence that remains is the delay in the Slavic conquest of around two decades. For this reason, the campaigns are mistakenly treated as failures in large parts of the literature.

In the long term, the fact that in the late phase from 599 onwards, the Avars were defeated in their own country and were unable to protect themselves and their subjects. They were considered invincible until the Battle of Viminacium and could afford a thorough exploitation of the conquered peoples. When this nimbus was destroyed, the first uprisings broke out. They could be put down from 603 onwards; In addition, the Avars were able to achieve further successes against the Longobards, Franks and Eastern Romans. However, they did not succeed in restoring the nimbus, which was proven solely by the uprisings that began in 623 part of the Slavs under the leadership of the Franconian merchant Samo . These revolts rose before the Avar defeat in front of Constantinople and for this reason alone, as the literature likes to suggest, cannot be a consequence of the failed siege.

Thus the successes of Maurikios marked the beginning of the end of the Avar supremacy, the disappearance of which meant the end of the Avar threat for East / Byzantium, when the power of the Khaganate collapsed after the unsuccessful siege of Constantinople and the Avar Empire only 200 years later through military campaigns Charlemagne (791–803) and was destroyed by the Bulgarenchan Krum .

swell

  • Peter Schreiner : Theophylactes Simokates. Story . Stuttgart 1985.
  • Michael Whitby , Mary Whitby: The History of Theophylact Simocatta. An English Translation with Introduction and Notes. Oxford 1986.
  • Maurice's Strategicon. Handbook of Byzantine Military Strategy. Translated by George T. Dennis. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 2001, ISBN 0-8122-1772-1 (reprinted Philadelphia 1984 edition).

literature

  • Florin Curta: The Making of the Slavs. History and Archeology of the Lower Danube Region, c. 500-700. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 2001, ISBN 0-521-80202-4 ( Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought. Ser. 4, 52).
  • Edgar Hösch : History of the Balkan Countries. From the early days to the present. 2nd revised and expanded edition. Beck, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-406-37381-X ( Beck's historical library ).
  • Franz Georg Maier (Ed.): Byzanz. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1973, pp. 139ff. ( Fischer Weltgeschichte 13).
  • Walter Pohl : The Avars. A steppe people in Central Europe 567 - 822 AD. 2nd updated edition. Beck, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-406-48969-9 ( Early Peoples ).
  • Michael Whitby: The Emperor Maurice and his Historian. Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan Warfare. Clarendon Press, Oxford et al. 1988, ISBN 0-19-822945-3 ( Oxford Historical Monographs ).

Remarks

  1. ↑ Hösch, History of the Balkan Countries, p. 36 f.
  2. ↑ Cf. Franz Georg Maier (Ed.): Byzanz. Fischer Weltgeschichte vol. 13, p. 72 f.
  3. ↑ See Michael Whitby, The Emperor Maurice and his Historian - Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan warfare, pp. 86f.
  4. ↑ Michael Whitby, The Emperor Maurice and his Historian - Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan warfare, p. 141
  5. ↑ See Michael Whitby, The Emperor Maurice and his Historian - Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan warfare, p. 89.
  6. ↑ Michael Whitby, The Emperor Maurice and his Historian - Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan warfare, p. 141 f., Walter Pohl, Die Awaren, p. 76f., Which, however, mentions the year 584
  7. ↑ Michael Whitby, The Emperor Maurice and his Historian - Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan warfare, 142
  8. ↑ Walter Pohl, Die Awaren, p. 77ff.
  9. ↑ Michael Whitby, The Emperor Maurice and his Historian - Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan warfare, pp. 143f.
  10. ↑ In detail about the siege Walter Pohl, Die Awaren, pp. 105-107
  11. ↑ See Walter Pohl, Die Awaren, pp. 86–87.
  12. ↑ Theophylact Simokattes 2,15,7-10; Theophanes Confessor 258: 10-21.
  13. ↑ See the Strategikon of Maurikios 3: 5, 44.
  14. ^ Michael Whitby, The Emperor Maurice and his Historian - Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan warfare, pp. 159f.
  15. ↑ Florin Curta, The Making of Slavs, p. 103
  16. ↑ Florin Curta, The Making of Slavs, p. 104
  17. ↑ Michael Whitby, The Emperor Maurice and his Historian - Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan warfare, pp. 160f.
  18. ^ A b Michael Whitby, The Emperor Maurice and his Historian - Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan warfare, p. 161.
  19. ^ Michael Whitby, The Emperor Maurice and his Historian - Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan warfare, pp. 161, 162.
  20. ↑ Michael Whitby, The Emperor Maurice and his Historian - Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan warfare, p. 162.
  21. ↑ Michael Whitby, The Emperor Maurice and his Historian - Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan warfare, pp. 162, 163.
  22. ↑ Walter Pohl, Die Awaren, p. 153.
  23. ^ A b c Michael Whitby, The Emperor Maurice and his Historian - Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan warfare, p. 163.
  24. ↑ Walter Pohl, Die Awaren, p. 154.
  25. ^ A b Walter Pohl, Die Awaren, p. 156.
  26. ^ Denying Michael Whitby, The Emperor Maurice and his Historian - Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan warfare, pp. 122–123.
  27. ↑ Walter Pohl, Die Awaren, p. 157.
  28. ^ A b Michael Whitby, The Emperor Maurice and his Historian - Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan warfare, p. 164.
  29. ^ A b Walter Pohl, Die Awaren, p. 158.
  30. ↑ Michael Whitby, The Emperor Maurice and his Historian - Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan warfare, p. 165.
  31. ↑ Michael Whitby, The Emperor Maurice and his Historian - Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan warfare, p. 123.
  32. ↑ Michael Whitby, The Emperor Maurice and his Historian - Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan Warfare, pp. 165–166
  33. ↑ Michael Whitby, The Emperor Maurice and his Historian - Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan warfare, pp. 184f.
  34. ↑ for example Franz Georg Maier (ed.): Byzanz. Fischer Weltgeschichte Vol. 13, p. 141
  35. ↑ Florin Curta, The Making of Slavs, p. 189.
  36. ↑ Florin Curta, The Making of Slavs, with further references
  37. ^ A b c Florin Curta, The Making of Slavs.
  38. ^ A b c Michael Whitby, The Emperor Maurice and his Historian - Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan warfare.
  39. ↑ Maurice's Strategikon: Handbook of Byzantine Military Strategy. Translated by George T. Dennis. Philadelphia 1984, reprint 2001, p. 124 with additional references
  40. ^ A b Franz Georg Maier (Ed.): Byzanz. Fischer World History Vol. 13.
  41. ↑ a b c cf. Michael Witby, The Emperor Maurice and his Historian - Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan warfare, p. 187.
  42. ^ Franz Georg Maier (ed.): Byzanz. Fischer Weltgeschichte Vol. 13, p. 81.
  43. ↑ Michael Witby, The Emperor Maurice and his Historian - Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan warfare, pp. 190 f.
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