Balkan Peninsula After 602
Maurice had pacified the Balkan borders, a feat not performed since the reign of Anastasius I. Avars and Slavs had been kept sternly at bay. The provinces were at a stage of potential recovery; reconstruction and resettlement were the keys to firmly secure Roman rule again. Maurice had planned to settle Armenian militia peasants within the depopulated areas and to romanize the Slavs settlers in the area. After his overthrow, these plans went astray as well as the campaigns and the possible destruction or submission of the Avar empire. The new Roman emperor Phocas (602–610) would have to fight against the Persians once more: the eastern enemy occupied Armenia in the first phase of the new war. Therefore, Phocas could not continue the campaigns on the same scale as before, or settle any Armenians in Balkans. This finally led to the decline of Roman rule in the Balkan Prefecture, marking the end of Late Antiquity in that region.
Read more about this topic: Maurice's Balkan Campaigns
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