Maurice

Maurice was a general before he was emperor, chosen as heir by Tiberius II in 582. He forced Persia to terms for the first time in nearly two centuries, ending the annual tribute of thousands of pounds of gold and expanding Roman control deep into the South Caucasus. By 599 he'd driven the Avars back across the Danube and crossed it himself - the first emperor to do so in over two hundred years. In the west he created two exarchates, semi-autonomous provinces ruled by viceroys, to counter the Lombards in Italy and secure North Africa. But the wars drained the treasury. His cost-cutting measures turned the army and the public against him. In 602 the soldiers chose an officer named Phocas, who seized the throne and had Maurice and his six sons executed. The murder triggered a twenty-six-year war with Persia that gutted both empires just before the Arab conquests arrived.