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602] spheres drawn by the Diocletio-Constantinian reforms. Maurice however did not follow the principle of Justinian's tentative innovations: he chose to give to the military commander a position in the hierarchy of office superior to that of the civil administration, conferring on the old magistri militum of Africa and Italy the newly coined title of exarch: this supreme authority was to be the Emperor's vicegerent against Berber and Lombard. It was the first step towards the creation of the system of military themes. It was doubtless also considerations of practical convenience and a recognition of the stubborn logic of facts which led to Maurice's scheme of provincial redistribution. Tripolitana was separated from Africa and joined like its neighbour Cyrenaica to the diocese of Egypt; Sitifensis and Caesariensis were fused into the single province of Mauretania Prima, while the fortress of Septum and the sorry remnants of Tingitana were united with the imperial possessions in Spain and the Balearic Isles to form the province of Mauretania II, thus solidifying under one government the scattered Roman territories in the extreme West. Similar motives probably determined the new arrangements (after the treaty with Persia in 591) on the Eastern frontier. It was again Maurice the realist who disregarded the counsels of his ministers and made full use of the unique opportunity which the flight of Chosroes offered to the Empire.

In Italy the incursion of the Lombards presented a problem with which the wars on the Danube and in Asia rendered it difficult for Maurice to cope. Frankish promises of help against the invaders were largely illusory, even though the young West-Gothic prince Athanagild was held in Constantinople as a pledge for the fulfilment by his Merovingian kinsfolk of their obligations. It was further unfortunate that the relations between pope and Emperor were none of the best; many small disagreements culminated in the dispute concerning the title of oecumenical patriarch which John the Faster had adopted. The contention between Gregory and Maurice has certainly been given a factitious importance by later historians — the over-sensitive Gregory alone seems to have regarded the question as of any vital moment and his successors quietly acquiesced in the use of the offending word — but the disagreement doubtless hampered the Emperor's reforms; when he endeavoured to prevent soldiers from deserting and retiring into monasteries, the pope seized on the measure as a new ground of complaint and raised violent protest in the name of the Church.

As general in Asia Maurice had restored the morale of the army, and throughout his life he was always anxious to effect improvements in military matters. He was the first Emperor to realise fully the importance of Armenia as a recruiting ground, and it may well be from