Elite and Levy Units of the Eastern Roman Army

The rapid expansion of the Arab Caliphates, as well as the appearance of a new northern foe, the Bulgars, forced the Eastern Roman Empire to either reorganize its army and war strategy or become a memory of the past. But the ever-adaptive Romans took up the challenge and introduced one of the most famous military structures in history. In this third video on the The Eastern Roman Empire was able to remain competitive using the knowledge of yesteryear and contemporary know-how, and the sponsor of this video Blinkist will help you do the same in your personal and professional life. Blinkist is dedicated to helping you be your best self, as it takes more than 1,000 non-fiction books across 27 categories and turns them into 15-minute audios called Blinks. Only the most important ideas are collected, making Blinkist indispensable for a modern human. No matter if your goal is to get better at your job or become more knowledgeable, Blinkist is a great choice in our world where time is money. We have been using Blinkist for a few years now and have learned from dozens of books. We recommend you to join Blinkist and listen to Little Heart's Why Don't We Learn from History and Mary Beard's Civilizations, as both titles are essential for fans of history. Blinkist allows you to listen to every title offline. Now Blinkist has Shortcasts. Many of your favorite podcasts were turned into condensed audios, getting to the heart of an episode fast. So, what are you waiting for? Support our channel and your personal growth with Blinkist. The first 100 people to go to blinkist.com slash kingsandgenerals are going to get unlimited access for 1 week to try it out. Historians still debate as to exactly when the first themes were established, with some attributing their establishment to Emperor Heraclius, while others support a later date during the reign of Emperor Constans II. Another point of conflict between scholars is whether the themes were well-defined regions, or the word originally referred solely to the armies, and later also came to mean the district each army protected. In any case, we can safely say that the first themes were created sometime during the mid-7th century. The first mentioned in the bibliography was the Armeniac theme in 667AD. Also amongst the first to be created were the Anatolic, the Thracian, and the Obsidian themes. The latter was the most prestigious, and served as the imperial reserve until its involvement in several revolts in the 8th century, when it was subsequently demoted to an ordinary theme army. Starting with the eastern lands of the empire, the theme system gradually spread towards the west, and became the norm until its decline during the 12th century. The soldiers who served in the theme armies were, generally speaking, well-paid. They received both monetary compensation and grants of land, as well as rations during active service, occasional bounties, and a share of loot taken during the campaigns. Disabled men would receive a pension, and widows of fallen soldiers would get a lump sum as compensation. Their land holdings were heritable by the holder's eldest son, so long as he was to carry on his father's military obligations by becoming a soldier. As one can easily imagine, not every theme soldier was on an equal economic footing. Some were rich, to the point when they could afford to hire servants and slaves. These men usually constituted the elite thematic cavalry, as their higher income could ensure better equipment. On the other hand, there were soldiers so poor that they couldn't afford to buy their own equipment. These men would have to band together so as to at least make sure to equip one of them to serve, or have the gear sponsored by one of their richer comrades. Those who were still unable to supply one armored horseman to the army, even with the help of others, would be evicted from their land and transferred to the irregulars. This was the case for the cavalry. Regarding the thematic infantry, little is known from the sources of the era. A possible explanation could be that there was no distinction between cavalry and infantry. However, we can assume that at least a fraction of them must have been professionals and served permanently while others were levied. A special note should be made here for the Akiritai, men who guarded the eastern borders of the empire against Muslim raiders. These men were not a specialized unit, but rather a mix of professional soldiers, militiamen, and irregulars. Some of them were even of mixed ethnic or religious origin, as the empire recovered lands to the east. Despite that, their exploits were recognized by the population they protected, who sang numerous songs praising them, with the most famous being the epic poem of the half-Cappadocian Greek and half-Arab Degenes Acritas. But, how was the army organized during that period? From Leo the Wise's Tactica, we learn that the basic unit of the Byzantine army of the period was the bandon, which was led by a commis or count. The term bandon itself comes from the Gothic word bandwo, which in Latin became bandus and meant banner. For a cavalry unit, a normal bandon would consist of 50 or 100 riders, but there were bander that could number up to 400 men. Three bander would make a drungos, led by a drungarios, and in turn, three drungoi constituted a tourma, the highest subdivision of the army, which was commanded by a tourmakis. On top of the hierarchy stood the general of the army, the famous strategos, who was not only the military commander, but also the civil administrator of the district. As the strategoi of the Themes had absolute control over the districts they governed, it was not uncommon for the most powerful of them to covet the imperial crown and rebel to acquire it. The aforementioned hierarchy wasn't the only one used by the army. For battle, the equestrian units were subdivided into less permanent structures consisting of which were made up of 100, 50, 10, and 5 men, respectively. As for the infantry, the thematic army had the same structure down to the bandon, with the obvious difference being that of size. The average infantry bandon would be 256 men strong, and would be thus divided into 16 lokakiai, each numbering 16 men, that were commanded by a lokagos. Further infantry subdivisions included squads consisting of 10, 5, and 4 men. For heavy infantry units, three quarters of the total force would be men armed with spears and shields, called skutatoi, and the rest would be archers. It should be noted that here the size of a unit was not fixed, and there were cases of units being larger or most often smaller than the recommended strength. Leo VI warned that the size of the bandon should never exceed that of 400 soldiers, or a torma more than 6,000, as the increased size would hinder their ability to understand and effectively obey the commander's order. He also advised the generals to never have all of their banda on equal numbers, as the enemy would then be able to easily estimate the size of the force he would be facing. Finally, he noted that it's better for some fluidity to exist in the structure of the army, and that units should be created in accordance with the needs of the army and the available manpower. The themes were the armies that patrolled and protected the various provinces of the Byzantine Empire, but they were not the only armed force. Constantinople and its surrounding region were not organized in a theme, and the defense of the capital relied on the elite imperial tagmata. The cavalry of the tagmata was an offensive weapon as well, accompanying the emperor on expeditions, and there were cases of regiments accompanying the thematic armies in the defense of a district for long periods of time. The soldiers in these elite regiments were fully professional mercenaries, recruited from both within and outside Byzantium's borders. They were organized in various regiments, as emperors created new or disbanded old ones. During the 10th century, the most famous of them were the skolai, the excubitoris, the akhanatoi, vigla, and the athanatoi. In 988, Emperor Basil II would formally institute the most famous of the tagmata, the Varangian Guard. Along with those units, some sources include as part of the tagmata the infantry that served as the garrison of Constantinople, the numeroi and tekistai, as well as the men of the basilica pleumon, the imperial war fleet. These elite regiments had in general the same structure, though there were differences in the titles used by their commanders and their sizes. The skolai was considered the most important and oldest of the tagmata, descending from the skolae palatinae that was created by Constantine the Great. During the 10th century, they were organized in 30 banda, with each bandon most likely being 50 men strong, as suggested by Nikephoros Phokas in his work Praecepta Militaria. The commander of the skolai had the title of domesticos, while the second in command was called topoterites. These titles were used by the commanders of other tagmata, apart from that of vigla, who were called drungarioi. The domesticos of the skolai would become one of the most important figures in the Byzantine army, considered the most senior officer in the imperial tagmata and supreme commander of the army in the emperor's absence. Second in seniority was the tagma of the excobitos that were created by Leo I the Thracian around 460. Originally, they were a force of 300 men, with the purpose of replacing those of skolai palatinae as imperial bodyguards. Later, and as the excobitos seemed to have become a more or less parade unit, the emperor Constantine V reformed them into one of the elite tagmata. They too were commanded by a domesticos, with perhaps an anomaly occurring during the reign of Romanos II, as sources suggest the split of the excobitos into two units, each governed by a domesticos. The excobitos would participate in several campaigns until the disastrous Battle of Dyrrachium of 1081, where it was last mentioned. As we've already said, the vigla was the only unit that was not commanded by a domesticos. It was created in 786AD by Empress Irenae from the cavalry of the Thracian theme. Though we have no references regarding their numerical strength, we know that their duties included protecting the emperor and the sacred palace, as well as guarding Constantinople's Hippodrome. With a similar structure to that of the vigla, the akhenatoi was created in 809 by Nikephoros I to serve as his personal bodyguard. According to De Ceremonies, they numbered 456 men, or around 9 banda. Finally, the akhenatoi, their name literally meaning immortals, were created by John I Semiskis in 970 to fight off Sviatoslav's invasion and played a decisive role during the Siege of Dorostolon, where the Byzantines triumphed. In addition to these cavalry regiments, some sources include the infantry units that formed Constantinople's garrison, the numeroi and the taikistai. Totaling around 4,000 men, the recruits for these two units were provided by the demoi, or districts of the city, that were once associated with the Hippodrome factions, well known from the Nika riots, red, green, blue, and white. The taikistai, as their name implies, were responsible for defending the city's famous Theodosian walls. On the other hand, the numeroi's primary duty was guarding the imperial prisons, but they would also help in protecting the walls when such a need arose. Both of the infantry taikmata were permanently stationed inside the city and never left its walls, and were responsible for protecting the capital when the cavalry regiment accompanied by the emperor was on an expedition. Complementing the city's defense was a militia formed by members from various guilds and units of urban police, though these were not considered part of the taikmata. Finally, the imperial war fleet, the basiliko ploymon, was the naval equivalent of the taikmata. The fleet was stationed in Constantinople, and protected the queen city from seaborne attacks, from Propontis to the Black Sea. Aside from having the finest ships the docks of Constantinople produced, the 12,000 professional sailors that served in it were probably the best the empire could offer. The basiliko ploymon's command structure was similar to that of the other taikmata, with its commander bearing the title of Drungarios ton Ploymon, but informally called Strategos. The taikmata were elite fighting regiments, but besides them, there were four more major units and some minor that formed the authentic imperial guard, the basilike hetareia, the emperor's private flotilla, the maglavites, and the basiliko anthropoi. Later on, these regiments were joined by the famous varangoi, the Varangian guard. The men who served in the aforementioned units were palace guards and attendants, quartered within the sacred palace, and tasked with protecting the emperor at all times, while also performing various ceremonial roles. Earlier in the video we mentioned the skutatoi, the backbone of the Byzantine infantry, armed with shields and spears. Now we are going to take a closer look at the arms and armour of both the humble infantrymen and the prestigious cavalrymen. Three types of metal armour were used, scale armour, mail armour, and lamella, the so-called clevanion, which became the more prevalent of the three during the 10th century. Clevanion's lamellae were made of iron, leather, or even horn, and it was usually sleeveless, short-sleeved, and covered the torso only to the waist, however, some rarer versions were longer. It was often worn above mail armour, the lorikion elucidaton, which usually reached the wearer's knees, with the sleeves reaching the elbows or even the wrists. In the case of cataphractoi, the lorikion might even have been as long as to cover the ankles. Scale lorikion was also a popular alternative to mail. As the cataphractoi were the heaviest armoured unit of the empire, it's no surprise that they were further protected by wearing padded armour made of cotton, leather, or wool, either over the clevanion, called epilorikion, or under it, the kevadion. Tubular, splinted constructions were used to protect the forearms and the lower legs, named kyropsela and podopsela, respectively, while strips of leather, quilted cotton or splint armour were hung from the waist and the shoulders, resembling the turugis of antiquity. Their helms were also fitted with a mail skirt that covered the entire face except for the eyes. Finally, their defence was further boosted by a shield that was originally round and smaller than the one used by the infantry, but in the 12th century, it would be substituted by the kite shield. Their offensive gear was quite diverse. A cataphractos would be armed with a variety of weapons, as a mounted warrior could not simply dismount to recover a lost weapon, and there was always the danger of a weapon breaking. Their primary weapon was the lance, the kantarion, which was slightly shorter than the infantry spear, at about 2.5 meters. They would also carry two swords, the straight, double-edged spathion, which descended from the late Roman spatha, and the curved, single-edged paramerion, as well as the emblematic mace called madzukion or badukion. Finally, their arsenal was completed by an axe that was less favoured in comparison to the other weapons, but nonetheless still used on the battlefield. On the other hand, the light cavalry consisted of horse archers, who used a composite recurve bow for ranged attacks, and the paramerion for close quarters combat. As mobility was of the utmost importance for these troops, their armour was not as heavy and was mainly of padded cotton with full-length sleeves that were often fastened back behind the shoulder, while in some cases they could also wear a or a scale shirt. The defensive equipment of the infantry was more or less similar to that of the equestrian units. The famous barbarian spanganhelm remained in use, and from the 11th century onwards it is accompanied by its taller and pointier version, known as the carcassion. During the 12th century, the ancient type of the Phrygian helm was revived and quickly became popular, but we also have the appearance of another innovation, an early form of kettle hats. The types of armour that were worn by cavalrymen were also used by the infantry, though assuming the lower economic status of a humble foot soldier, the most common type must have been that of soft armour made from padded cotton. Their weaponry depended of course upon their type. Light infantry was armed with bows, javelins, and staff slings. An interesting part of the Byzantine gear was the solennarion, which was a hollow tube that enabled an archer to launch small darts, like those of the western crossbows, rapidly using a thumb draw. Because the darts were smaller and lighter than normal arrows, the energy transferred to them by the bow's string would accelerate them to greater speeds, potentially increasing the damage they could inflict. Another advantage that occurred from the usage of the solennarion was that the enemy could not pick up the darts and use them from their bows, as could have been the case with arrows. The infantry used the same types of swords as the cavalry did, but there were great differences in the spears used between the two forces, with foot soldiers using three different types. First was the small spear, kontarion mikron, which was about as long as the lance of the cavalry, but the pike used by the first ranks to form a Macedonian-like phalanx was about 4 meters long. The last type of spear was the manavlion, which was made from a long sapling with a thick shaft and was used to counter heavy cavalry charges. Lastly, another common weapon between the footmen of the empire were the axes, which could be either single or double-bladed, but always one-handed so as to allow the usage of a shield in the other hand. The imperial tagmata, with the notable exceptions of the Arangian guard and other foreign units, used the same types of armor and weapons as the thematic cavalry. However, owing to their wealth, their equipment was of considerably better quality and was often richly decorated. Weapons, and especially swords within the palace guards and courtiers, were used to signify their rank. One weapon that seems to have been used exclusively by the palace guards and not by the common troops fighting on the frontier was the romphaia. The exact nature of the romphaia remains unclear, though the most prevailing theory is that it was a phalx-like weapon, but with less curvature. The centuries that followed brought further changes to the Byzantine army. The introduction of pronoiae by the Komnenoi, the influence of the Franks of the Latin Empire, and finally the advent of gunpowder that reshaped the armed forces of Byzantium will be discussed in the next episode, so make sure you are subscribed and have pressed the bell button to see it. Please, consider liking, commenting, and sharing – it helps immensely. Our videos would be impossible without our kind patrons and youtube channel members, whose ranks you can join via the links in the description to know our schedule, get early access to our videos, access our discord, and much more. This is the Kings and Generals channel, and we will catch you on the next one.