Editing Maurice (emperor) (section)

==Legacy==
[[File:Roman Empire 600 AD.PNG|thumb|300px|right|{{center|The Roman Empire in 600}}]]
===Assessments===
In ancient sources, Maurice is seen as an able emperor and commander-in-chief, though the description of him by Theophylact may exaggerate these traits. He possessed insight, public spirit, and courage.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}} He was successful in military efforts against the Persians, Avars and Slavs, and in diplomacy with Khosrow II. His administrative reforms were the basis for the later introduction of [[Theme (Byzantine district)|themes]] as military districts.{{sfn|Ostrogorsky|1956|p=74}}

Maurice is traditionally named as author of the military treatise ''[[Strategikon of Maurice|Strategikon]]''. Some historians now believe the ''Strategikon'' is the work of his brother or another general in his court, however.{{sfn|Ostrogorsky|1956|p=24}}<ref>{{cite web|last=McCotter|first=Stephen|title='The Nation which Forgets its Defenders will Itself be Forgotten': Emperor Maurice and the Persians|website=Queen's University of Belfast|year=2003|access-date=26 January 2012|publisher=deremilitari.org|url=http://www.deremilitari.org/resources/articles/mccotter2.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081120022142/http://www.deremilitari.org/resources/articles/mccotter2.htm|archive-date=20 November 2008}}</ref>

Historian [[Charles Previté-Orton|C. W. Previté-Orton]] believes his greatest weakness was his inability to judge how unpopular his decisions were.{{efn|He writes, "his fault was too much faith in his own excellent judgment without regard to the disagreement and unpopularity which he provoked by decisions in themselves right and wise. He was a better judge of policy than of men."{{sfn|Previté-Orton|1952|p=203}}}} According to [[Anthony Kaldellis]], his failure to keep the public opinion on his side cost him his life, which was a turning point in the fortunes of the empire.{{sfn|Kaldellis|2023|p=338}} The war against Persia which it caused weakened both empires, enabling the Slavs to permanently settle the Balkans and paving the way for the [[Early Muslim conquests|Arab-Muslim expansion]].

His court still used [[Latin]] alongside [[Greek language|Greek]], as did the army and administration.{{sfn|Davis|1990|p=260}}{{sfn|Jenkins|1987|p=24}} Historian [[A. H. M. Jones]] characterises the death of Maurice as the end of the era of [[Classical Antiquity]], as the turmoil that shattered the empire over the next four decades permanently and thoroughly changed society and politics.{{sfn|Norwich|1988|pp=278–279}}{{Better source needed|reason=citation is Norwich, not Jones.|date=January 2025}}

===Legends===
{{stack|
{{Infobox saint
|name          = Maurice, Emperor of the Romans, With His Six Sons

|death_date    =
|feast_day     = 28 November
|venerated_in  = [[Eastern Orthodoxy]]
|image         = 82_-_Maurice_(Mutinensis_-_color).png
|imagesize     =
|caption       = From the [[Mutinensis gr. 122]] codex
|birth_place   =
|death_place   =
|titles        = Emperor
|beatified_date=
|beatified_place=
|beatified_by=
|canonized_date=
|canonized_place=
|canonized_by=
|attributes    = Imperial Vestment
|patronage     =
|major_shrine  = [[Church of the Holy Apostles]], [[Constantinople]] modern day [[Istanbul, Turkey]]
|issues=
|prayer=
|prayer_attrib=
}}
}}
The first legendary accounts of Maurice's life are recorded in the ninth century, in the work of the Byzantine historian [[Theophanes the Confessor]]. According to his chronicle ''Chronographia'', the death of the imperial family is due to divine intervention: Christ asked the emperor to choose between a long reign or death and acceptance in the kingdom of heaven. Maurice preferred the second choice.<ref>{{harvnb|Mango|Scott|1997|p=410}}: Theophanes ({{c.}} 815) AM 6094.</ref>

The same story has been recorded in a short [[Syriac language|Syriac]] hagiography on the life of the emperor. It is of [[Church of the East|East Syrian]] origin.{{sfn|Whitby|1988|p=21}}{{sfn|Brock|1976|p=29}} This was later sanctified by the Eastern Orthodox Church.{{efn|Commemorated on 28 November according to the Typikon of the Great Church and on 28 August, according to the Palestinian-Georgian Synaxarion.{{sfn|Wortley|1980}}}} According to the Syriac author, the emperor asked in prayer to receive a punishment in this world and a "perfect reward" in the kingdom of heaven. The choice was offered by an angel.<ref>Turnhout: Brepols, 1981, pp. 774–775.</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=February 2025}} Anthony Alcock has published an English translation.{{sfn|Alcock|2018}}

According to another legend in the same text, Maurice prevented a nurse from substituting one of his sons so as to save at least one of the heirs of the empire.<ref>Nau, 1981, pp. 776–778.</ref>

It has been proposed that the name of the Albanian folk hero [[Muji (Albanian mythology)|Muji]] derives from that of Emperor Maurice (Murik, Muji). Similarly, the name of the folk hero's wife, Ajkuna (or Kuna), corresponds to that of the Empress Aelia Constantina, the wife of Maurice, if we take into account the laws of phonetic evolution of the Albanian language since Late Antiquity. Though this proposition remains a matter of debate.<ref>[https://ashak.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/WEB_Studime-shoqerore-9.pdf Akademia e Shkencave te Kosoves; Shuka Gj. (2023). "Nenshtresa ne tri kenge te Ciklit te Kosoves". Studime Shoqerore (9)]: 245–285.</ref>