 The Balkan frontier was largely pacified, for the first time since the reign of Anastasius I ().Maurice planned to repopulate the devastated lands which the Byzantines had recovered by settling Armenian peasants, whose homeland was the eastern part opposite to the Western Balkan part in the Empire -It was a deliberately enforced imperial strategy in order to prevent ethnic/tribal consolidation as the independent rebellious forces-, as well as Romanizing the Slavic settlers already in the area.Maurice also planned to lead further campaigns against the Avar Khaganate, so as to either destroy them or force them into submission.