Editing Maurice (emperor) (section)

===Balkan war===
{{details|Maurice's Balkan campaigns}}

[[File:Balkans 6th century.svg|thumb|{{center|The Northern Balkans in the 6th century}}]]

The [[Pannonian Avars|Avars]] arrived in the [[Carpathian Basin]] in 568. Almost immediately they launched an attack on [[Sirmium]], the keystone to the Byzantine defences on the [[Danube]], but were repulsed. They then sent 10,000 [[Kutrigurs|Kotrigur Huns]] to invade the Byzantine province of [[Dalmatia]].{{sfn|Petersen|2013|p=378}} There followed a period of consolidation, during which the Byzantines paid them 80,000 gold solidi a year. In 579, his treasury empty, Tiberius II stopped the payments.{{sfn|Mitchell|2007|p=405}} 

The Avars retaliated with [[Siege of Sirmium|another siege of Sirmium]].{{sfn|Petersen|2013|pp=378–379}} The city fell in {{c.}} 581. After the capture of Sirmium, the Avars demanded 100,000 solidi a year.{{sfn|Mitchell|2007|p=406}}
Refused, they used the strategically important city as a base of operations against several poorly defended forts along the Danube and began pillaging the northern and eastern Balkans.{{sfn|Petersen|2013|p=379}} The Slavs began settling the land from the 580s on.{{sfn|Ostrogorsky|1956|pp=74–75}}{{sfn|Petersen|2013|pp=378–379}} 

In 584, the Slavs threatened the capital and in 586 the Avars besieged [[Thessalonica]], while the Slavs went as far as the [[Peloponnese]].{{sfn|Norwich|1988|p=274}} After his victory on the eastern frontier in 591, Maurice was free to focus on the [[Balkans]]. He launched several campaigns against the Slavs and Avars. In 592 his troops retook [[Singidunum]] (modern Belgrade) from the Avars. His commander-in-chief [[Priscus (magister militum)|Priscus]] defeated the Slavs, Avars and [[Gepids]] south of the Danube in 593. The same year he crossed the Danube into modern-day [[Wallachia]] to continue his series of victories. In 594, Maurice replaced Priscus with his rather inexperienced brother Peter, who, despite initial failures, scored another victory in Wallachia. Priscus, now in command of another army further upstream, defeated the Avars again in 595. The latter now only dared to attack peripherally, in [[Dalmatia]] two years later. In the same year the Byzantines concluded a peace treaty with the Avar leader [[Bayan I]], which allowed the Byzantines to send expeditions into [[Wallachia]].{{sfn|Pohl|2002|p=154}} 

In 598, Maurice broke the treaty to permit a retaliation campaign inside the Avar homeland. In 599 and 601 the Byzantine forces wreaked havoc amongst the Avars and Gepids. In 602, the Slavs suffered a crushing defeat in Wallachia. The Byzantine troops were now able to hold the Danube line again. Meanwhile, Maurice was making plans for repopulating devastated areas in the Balkans by using Armenian settlers. Maurice also planned to lead further campaigns against the Avar Khaganate, so as to either destroy them or force them into submission.{{sfn|Sebeos|p= 56}}{{sfn|Ostrogorsky|1956|p=75}}