Mauros

He was bestowed the noble title of patrikios and was deeply involved in the power struggle between Justinian II and Philippikos Bardanes in the beginning of the 8th century.

Mauros is the earliest attested leader, styled archon, to be placed by the Byzantine government in charge of a dependent people, in this case the Bulgars and Sermesianoi who had fled to Byzantium.

From the testaments of contemporaneous historians, it is apparent that Mauros was a well-respected figure among the population ruled by Kuber, which consisted of Bulgars and Sermesianoi (Byzantine refugees from Sirmium on the Sava)[1] who had settled in Macedonia.

[2] Due to the increasing flight of Kuber's Byzantine subjects to Thessaloniki, he and Mauros hatched a plan to seize the city and use it as a base for future expansion.

Mauros was not only welcomed inside the city, but also put in charge of all Bulgar and Sermesianoi refugees and given the title of hypatos by Byzantine Emperor Justinian II (r. 685–695, 705–711).

[8][9][10] In fact, Mauros appears to have been the first attested case in a long Byzantine tradition of granting rulers of unassimilated but pro-imperial populations the title of archon.

[10][17][18][19] Justinian apparently sought to intercept the ships of the insurgents at Sinope, on the Black Sea coast of Asia Minor, since he moved to that city.

[19] As a close ally of the new ruler, Mauros was tasked with the arrest of Justinian's son Tiberios who had sought refuge inside the Church of St Mary of Blachernae.