The Frankish invasion of Lombard lands in…

Maurice, with peace restored between Ctesiphon and Constantinople, can turn to the North, where nomadic Slavs and Avars are establishing permanent settlements in the empire.

The emperor begins a series of military expeditions to defend the Balkan provinces from the Avars and Slavs.

He stabilizes the Danube frontier (Limes Moesiae) from the Danube Delta to the fortress city of Singidunum (Belgrade); this permits Constantinople to reassert imperial authority in the interior.

Maurice, seeing an opportunity to end the prolonged war to the advantage of Constantinople, assists Khosrau II to regain the Persian throne.

He sends an imperial army of thirty-five thousand men under Narses into Mesopotamia through Syria.

At the same time a five thousand-man expeditionary force in Armenia advanced through Caucasian Iberia into Media (modern Azerbaijan).

Bahram retreats to Azerbaijan but is finally defeated at the Battle of Blarathon by a combined army led by John Mystacon, Narses, and Khosrau II.

Bahram, fleeing to the Turks in Central Asia, settles in Ferghana, but will be murdered some time after by a hired assassin sent by Khosrau II.

Khosrau, in gratitude for Maurice’s support, abandons the frontier cities and the claims to Armenia, the two major sources of contention between Constantinople and Ctesiphon.

Under the agreement, Constantinople ceases payments to Persia for forts in the Caucasus.

The terms of the treaty give the Romans access, in Armenia, to a land rich in the soldiers it desperately needs and, equally important, an opportunity to concentrate on other frontiers where the situation has worsened.

Khosrau is swiftly reinstated upon the Persian throne, and as agreed upon returns Dara and …

…Martyropolis.

Additionally, he agrees to a new partition of the Caucasus by which the Sassanids hand over to the Romans many cities, including Tigranokert, …

…Manzikert, …

…Baguana, …

…Valarsakert, …

…Bagaran, …

…Vardkesavan, …

…Yerevan, …