In Persia, Maurice achieved a significant coup when he interfered in a Persian succession dispute to depose Hormizd IV and replace him with his son Khosrow II. Maurice formally adopted Khosrow, and agreed a new “perpetual” peace with Persia. But things did not go so well in Italy, where Byzantine territory was now designated the Exarchate of Ravenna.* There, the Lombards remained an immovable presence. Maurice fell out frequently with Pope Gregory I the Great, who resented the patriarch of Constantinople’s claim to be the “ecumenical” leader of the entire Church. And in the Balkans, Maurice
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