Byzantine Policy in the West under Tiberius II and Maurice: The Pretenders Hermenegild and Gundovald (579–585)

So then, the Romans being at peace with the whole world, … Justinian kept bringing all the barbarians into collision with one another, and summoning the leaders … for no good reason, he handed over to them with amazing prodigality huge donatives…. And they, even after having received the money, would send some of their fellow leaders together with their followers, bidding them overrun and ravage the Empire's land, so that they too might be able to sell peace to the man who for no good reason wished to purchase it. Procopius, Anecdota 11.5–6. However much Procopius' judgment of Byzantine diplomacy must be corrected, his outraged statement cannot be said to be entirely without justification. Subsidies did form one of the principal tools of Byzantine relations with the barbarians, and the results obtained therefrom were seldom commensurate with the sums expended.