Some forty years before Mavrikios Gavras gained the throne and became Avtokrator of Videssos, Yezda tribesmen sacked Mashiz and managed to seize all of Makuran. They continued to raid and expanded through Vaspurakan to challenge the Empire. Mavrikios was one of a long line of dissatisfied western noblemen who tried for the red boots (the symbol of authority which only Avtokrators were permitted to wear) but the first to gain control by dividing the various bureaucratic factions in the capital and getting some to support him.