The Byzantine army of the Komnenian era or Komnenian army was the force established by
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
emperor
Alexios I Komnenos
Alexios I Komnenos ( grc-gre, Ἀλέξιος Κομνηνός, 1057 – 15 August 1118; Latinized Alexius I Comnenus) was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118. Although he was not the first emperor of the Komnenian dynasty, it was during ...
during the late 11th/early 12th century, and perfected by his successors
John II Komnenos
John II Komnenos or Comnenus ( gr, Ἱωάννης ὁ Κομνηνός, Iōannēs ho Komnēnos; 13 September 1087 – 8 April 1143) was Byzantine emperor from 1118 to 1143. Also known as "John the Beautiful" or "John the Good" (), he ...
and
Manuel I Komnenos during the 12th century. From necessity, following extensive territorial loss and a near disastrous defeat by the
Normans
The Normans ( Norman: ''Normaunds''; french: Normands; la, Nortmanni/Normanni) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norse Viking settlers and indigenous West Franks and Gallo-Romans. ...
of southern Italy at
Dyrrachion in 1081, Alexios constructed a new army from the ground up. This new army was significantly different from previous forms of the Byzantine army, especially in the methods used for the recruitment and maintenance of soldiers. The army was characterised by an increased reliance on the military capabilities of the immediate imperial household, the relatives of the ruling dynasty and the provincial Byzantine aristocracy. Another distinctive element of the new army was an expansion of the employment of foreign mercenary troops and their organisation into more permanent units. However, continuity in equipment, unit organisation, tactics and strategy from earlier times is evident. The Komnenian army was instrumental in creating the territorial integrity and stability that allowed the
Komnenian restoration of the Byzantine Empire. It was deployed in the
Balkans
The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
,
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
,
Anatolia
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...
,
Syria, the
Holy Land and
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
.
Introduction
At the beginning of the
Komnenian period
The Byzantine Empire was ruled by emperors of the Komnenos dynasty for a period of 104 years, from 1081 to about 1185. The ''Komnenian'' (also spelled ''Comnenian'') period comprises the reigns of five emperors, Alexios I, John II, Manuel I, A ...
in 1081, the Byzantine Empire had been reduced to the smallest territorial extent in its history. Surrounded by enemies, and financially ruined by a long period of civil war, the empire's prospects had looked grim. The state lay defenceless before internal and external threats, as the Byzantine army had been reduced to a shadow of its former self. During the 11th century, decades of peace and neglect had reduced the old
thematic forces, and the military and political anarchy following the
Battle of Manzikert in 1071 had destroyed the professional Imperial ''
Tagmata'', the core of the Byzantine army. At Manzikert, units tracing their lineage for centuries back to the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...
were wiped out, and the subsequent loss of
Anatolia
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...
deprived the Empire of its main recruiting ground. In the Balkans, at the same time, the Empire was exposed to invasions by the Norman
Kingdom of Sicily, the expansionist activities of the principality of Dioclea (
Duklja
Duklja ( sh-Cyrl, Дукља; el, Διόκλεια, Diokleia; la, Dioclea) was a medieval South Slavic state which roughly encompassed the territories of modern-day southeastern Montenegro, from the Bay of Kotor in the west to the Bojana Riv ...
) and by
Pecheneg
The Pechenegs () or Patzinaks tr, Peçenek(ler), Middle Turkic: , ro, Pecenegi, russian: Печенег(и), uk, Печеніг(и), hu, Besenyő(k), gr, Πατζινάκοι, Πετσενέγοι, Πατζινακίται, ka, პაჭ ...
(Patzinak) raids across the
Danube
The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , p ...
.
The death knell of the traditional Byzantine army was at the Battle of Dyrrachion in 1081, where Alexios I was very heavily defeated by the Normans of southern Italy. The nadir of the Byzantine army as a professional fighting force was reached in 1091, when Alexios managed to field only 500 soldiers from the Empire's regular soldiery. These formed the nucleus of the army, with the addition of the armed retainers of Alexios' relatives and the nobles enrolled in the army, plus the substantial aid of a large force of allied
Cumans
The Cumans (or Kumans), also known as Polovtsians or Polovtsy (plural only, from the Russian exonym ), were a Turkic nomadic people comprising the western branch of the Cuman–Kipchak confederation. After the Mongol invasion (1237), many so ...
, which won the
Battle of Levounion
The Battle of Levounion was the first decisive Byzantine victory of the Komnenian restoration. On April 29, 1091, an invading force of Pechenegs was crushed by the combined forces of the Byzantine Empire under Alexios I Komnenos and his Cuman a ...
against the Pechenegs. Yet, through a combination of improved finances, skill, determination, and years of campaigning, Alexios, John, and Manuel Komnenos managed to restore the power of the Byzantine Empire, constructing a new army in the process. These developments should not, however, at least in their earlier phases, be seen as a planned exercise in military restructuring. In particular, Alexios I was often reduced to reacting to events rather than controlling them; the changes he made to the Byzantine army were largely done out of immediate necessity and were pragmatic in nature.
The new force had a core of units which were both professional and disciplined. It contained guards units such as the
Varangians
The Varangians (; non, Væringjar; gkm, Βάραγγοι, ''Várangoi'';[Varangian]
" Online Etymo ...
, the ''
vestiaritai'', the ''
vardariotai'' and also the ''
archontopouloi
The ''archontopouloi'' ( gr, Ἀρχοντόπουλοι) were an elite military formation of the Byzantine army during the Komnenian era, in the 11th-12th centuries. They were founded by Emperor Alexios I Komnenos () as part of his military refor ...
'' (the latter recruited by Alexios from the sons of dead Byzantine officers), foreign mercenary regiments, and also units of professional soldiers recruited from the provinces. These provincial troops included
''kataphraktoi'' cavalry from
Macedonia,
Thessaly
Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, The ...
and
Thrace
Thrace (; el, Θράκη, Thráki; bg, Тракия, Trakiya; tr, Trakya) or Thrake is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to ...
, plus various other provincial forces. Alongside troops raised and paid for directly by the state the Komnenian army included the armed followers of members of the wider imperial family, its extensive connections, and the provincial aristocracy (''
dynatoi''). In this can be seen the beginnings of the feudalisation of the Byzantine military.
The Komnenian period, despite almost constant warfare, is notable for the lack of
military treatise
A military treatise or treatise on war is any work that deals with the "art of war" in some basic aspect. Fundamentally military treatises are treatises on military strategy. Other works may also be included in the definition that, although they de ...
writing, which seems to have petered out during the 11th century. So, unlike in earlier periods, there are no detailed descriptions of Byzantine tactics and military equipment. Information on military matters in the Komnenian era must be gleaned from passing comments in contemporary historical and biographical literature, court panegyrics and from pictorial evidence.
Size
![Hosios Loukas (nave, west arch) - Mercurios](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Hosios_Loukas_%28nave%2C_west_arch%29_-_Mercurios.jpg)
There are no surviving reliable and detailed records to allow the accurate estimation of the overall size of the Byzantine army in this period; it is notable that John Birkenmeier, the author of the definitive study of the Komnenian army, made no attempt to do so. He merely noted that while Alexios I had difficulty raising sufficient troops to repel the Italo-Normans, John I could field armies as large as those of the
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephen ...
and Manuel I assembled an army capable of defeating the large crusading force of
Conrad III.
Other historians have, however, made attempts to estimate overall army size. During the reign of Alexios I, the field army may have numbered around 20,000 men. By 1143, the entire Byzantine army has been estimated to have numbered about 50,000 men and continued to remain about this size until the end of Manuel's reign. The total number of mobile professional and mercenary forces that the emperor could assemble was about 25,000 soldiers while the static garrisons and militias spread around the empire made up the remainder. During this period, the European provinces in the Balkans were able to provide more than 6,000 cavalry in total while the Eastern provinces of Anatolia provided about the same number. This amounted to more than 12,000 cavalry for the entire Empire, not including those from allied contingents.
Modern historians have estimated the size of Komnenian armies on campaign at about 15,000 to 20,000 men, but field armies with less than 10,000 men were quite common. In 1176 Manuel I managed to gather approximately 30,000-35,000 men, of which 25,000 were Byzantines and the rest were allied contingents from Hungary,
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...
, and Antioch, though this was for an exceptional campaign. His military resources stretched to putting another, smaller, army in the field simultaneously. After the death of Manuel I, the Byzantine army seems to have declined in numbers. In 1186, Isaac II assembled 250 knights and 500 infantry from the Latin population of Constantinople, an equivalent number of Georgian and Turkish mercenaries, and about 1,000 Byzantine soldiers. This force of possibly 2,500 managed to defeat
Alexios Branas
Alexios (or Alexius) Branas or Vranas ( el, ) (died 1187) was a Byzantine nobleman, attempted usurper, and the last Byzantine military leader of the 12th century to gain a notable success against a foreign enemy.
Background
Alexios Branas was a ...
' rebellion. The rebel army which could not have numbered much more than 3,000-4,000 men had been the field force sent against the Bulgarians. Another force of about 3,000-4,000 was stationed at the city of
Serres
Sérres ( el, Σέρρες ) is a city in Macedonia, Greece, capital of the Serres regional unit and second largest city in the region of Central Macedonia, after Thessaloniki.
Serres is one of the administrative and economic centers of Northe ...
. Expeditionary forces remained around the same size for the rest of Angeloi period. In 1187 Isaac II campaigned with 2,000 cavalry in Bulgaria.
Manuel Kamytzes
Manuel Kamytzes Komnenos Doukas Angelos ( gr, Μανουήλ Καμύτζης Κομνηνός Δούκας Ἄγγελος; after 1202) was a Byzantine general who was active in the late 12th century, and led an unsuccessful rebellion in 1201 ...
' army that ambushed Emperor
Frederick Barbarossa in 1189 was about 3,000 strong; it consisted of his own force of 2,000 cavalry and the garrison at
Philippopolis.
Supporting the army
The Byzantine army of the Komnenian era was recruited and maintained by disparate means, ranging from regular payment from the state treasury, through
tax-farming, reliance on the familial obligations of aristocrats, who fielded their armed retainers, to forcible impressment, especially of defeated enemies.
Taxation and pay
The financial state of the Empire improved throughout the Komnenian period; while Alexios I in the early part of his reign was reduced to producing coin from church gold and silver plate, his successors were able to spend very great sums on the army. One of the strengths of the Byzantine emperor was his ability to raise ready cash. After a period of financial instability, Alexios reformed the currency in 1092–1094, by introducing the high purity ''
hyperpyron
The ''hyperpyron'' ( ''nómisma hypérpyron'') was a Byzantine coin in use during the late Middle Ages, replacing the '' solidus'' as the Byzantine Empire's gold coinage.
History
The traditional gold currency of the Byzantine Empire had been the ' ...
'' gold coin. At the same time he created new senior financial officials in the bureaucracy and reformed the taxation system. Though Alexios I was sometimes forced by circumstances into extemporising finances, the ideal of using state resources from regular taxation to support the military was still adhered to. Despite a number of instances of the ''ad hoc'' hiring of bands of foreign troops and over-reliance on his kinsmen and other magnates to fill out the ranks of his armies, regular recruitment based on salaries, annual payments and bounties remained the preferred method of supporting soldiers.
Prior to the Komnenian period records of payment rates for troops are extant and show a great variation in the amounts paid to individuals, based on rank, troop type and perceived military worth, and the prestige of the unit that the soldier belonged to. There is almost no evidence of rates of pay for Komnenian soldiery, however, the same principles undoubtedly still operated, and a Frankish knightly heavy cavalryman was most probably paid considerably more than a Turkish horse archer.
''Pronoia''
The granting of ''
pronoia
The ''pronoia'' (plural ''pronoiai''; Greek: πρόνοια, meaning "care" or "forethought," from πρό, "before," and νόος, "mind") was a system of granting dedicated streams of state income to individuals and institutions in the late Byz ...
'' (from ''eis pronoian'' - 'to administer'), beginning in the reign of Alexios I, was to become a notable element in the military infrastructure towards the end of the Komnenian period, though it became even more important subsequently. The ''pronoia'' was essentially the grant of rights to receive revenue from a particular area of land, a form of tax farming, and it was held in return for military obligations. ''Pronoia'' holders, whether native or of foreign origin, lived locally in their holding and collected their income at source, eliminating the cost of an unnecessary level of bureaucracy, also the ''pronoia'' ensured an income for the soldier whether or not he was on active campaign or garrison duty. The ''pronoiar'' also had a direct interest in keeping his 'fief' productive and in defending the locality in which it was situated. The local people who worked the land under a ''pronoiar'' also rendered labour services, making the system semi-feudal, though the ''pronoia'' was not strictly hereditary. It is very probable that, like the landowning magnates, ''pronoiars'' had armed retinues and that the military service that this class provided was not limited to the ''pronoiar'' himself. Though Manuel I extended the provision of ''pronoia'', payment of troops by cash remained the norm.
Structure
Command hierarchy and unit composition
![Goldikone Demetrios KGM W3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Goldikone_Demetrios_KGM_W3.jpg)
Under the emperor, the commander-in-chief of the army was the ''
megas domestikos
The title of grand domestic ( grc-gre, μέγας δομέστικος, ''mégas doméstikos'') was given in the 11th–15th centuries to the commander-in-chief of the Byzantine army, directly below the Byzantine Emperor. It evolved from the earl ...
'' (Grand Domestic). His second-in-command was the ''
prōtostratōr''. The commander of the
navy
A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...
was the ''
megas doux'' (Grand Duke), who was also the military commander for Crete, the Aegean Islands and the southern parts of mainland Greece. A commander entrusted with an independent field force or one of the major divisions of a large expeditionary army was termed a ''
stratēgos'' (general). Individual provinces and the defensive forces they contained were governed by a ''doux'' (duke) or ''
katepanō'' (though this title was sometimes bestowed on the senior administrator below the ''doux''), who was a military officer with civil authority; under the ''doux'' a fortified settlement or a fortress was commanded by an officer with the title ''kastrophylax'' (castle-warden). Lesser commanders, with the exception of some archaic titles, were known by the size of the unit they commanded, for example a ''
tagmatarchēs'' commanded a ''tagma'' (regiment). The commander of the Varangians had a unique title, ''
akolouthos
''Akolouthos'' ( gr, ἀκόλουθος, , follower, attendant) was a Byzantine office with varying functions over time. Originally a subaltern officer of the imperial guard regiment (''tagma (military), tagma'') of the ''Vigla (tagma), Vigla'', ...
'' (acolyte), indicative of his close personal attendance on the emperor.
During the Komnenian period the earlier names for the basic units of the Byzantine cavalry, ''
bandon'' and ''
moira'', gradually disappear to be replaced by the ''
allagion
The ''allagion'' ( el, ) was a Byzantine military term designating a military unit of 50-400 soldiers. It first appeared in the mid-to-late 10th century, and by the 13th century had become the most frequent term used for the Byzantine army's sta ...
'' (), believed to have been between 300 and 500 men strong. The ''allagion'', commanded by an ''allagatōr'', was probably divided into subunits of 100, 50 and 10 men. On campaign the ''allagia'' could be grouped together (usually in threes) into larger bodies called ''taxeis'', ''syntaxeis'', ''
lochoi'' or ''tagmata''. The infantry unit was the ''taxiarchia'', a unit type first recorded under
Nikephoros II Phokas
Nikephoros II Phokas (; – 11 December 969), Latinized Nicephorus II Phocas, was Byzantine emperor from 963 to 969. His career, not uniformly successful in matters of statecraft or of war, nonetheless included brilliant military exploits whi ...
; it was theoretically 1,000 men strong, and was commanded by a ''
taxiarch
Taxiarch, the anglicised form of ''taxiarchos'' or ''taxiarchēs'' ( el, ταξίαρχος or ταξιάρχης) is used in the Greek language to mean "brigadier". The term derives from ''táxis'', "order", in military context "an ordered forma ...
ēs''.
Guards units and the Imperial household
![St George spearing Diocletian (11th c](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/St_George_spearing_Diocletian_%2811th_c.%2C_Georgia%29.JPG)
Many of the earlier guard units did not survive the reign of Alexios I; the ''
scholai'', Immortals (''athanatoi''), and ''
exkoubitoi'' are not mentioned in the reigns of his immediate successors. The notable exceptions to this process being the Varangians and ''vestiaritai'', and probably the ''archontopouloi''. The ''
hetaireia
The ( grc-gre, Ἑταιρεία, Latinized as ''hetaeria'') was a term for a corps of bodyguards during the Byzantine Empire.
Etymology and usage of the term
means 'the Company', echoing the ancient Macedonian Companions and the Classical Gr ...
'' (literally "companions"), commanded by the ''
megas hetaireiarchēs'', is still mentioned, though it was always more a collection of individual units under an administrative title than a single regiment. In this period, the Varangian Guard consisted of
Englishmen,
Russians
, native_name_lang = ru
, image =
, caption =
, population =
, popplace =
118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate)
, region1 =
, pop1 ...
, and
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...
ns, totalling 5,000 men. Immediately after the Battle of Dyrrachion, Alexios I recruited 2,000 men to form the ''tagma'' of the ''archontopouloi''. The Vardariots, a cavalry unit initially recruited from the Christianized Magyars of the Vardar valley, were a later addition to the guard and were probably raised by John II. They were commanded by an officer with the rank of ''
primmikērios''. Of increasing importance during the family-centric Komnenian period were the men known as ''oikeioi'' (, "those of the
household
A household consists of two or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is i ...
"); when mobilized for war the ''oikeioi'' were the equivalent of the household knights of western kings and would have served as ''kataphraktoi''. These household troops would have included the emperor's personal retinue, his relatives and close associates, also accompanied by their immediate retinues, and the young aristocrats attached to the court; plus they probably also included the ''vestiaritai'' guards. The ''oikeioi'' would have been equipped with the finest arms and armour and mounted on the highest quality war-horses available. Although not an entirely formal regiment the "household" (''oikos'') would have been a formidable fighting force, however, it would have been available only when the emperor took the field in person. Officers of the ''vestiaritai'' were given the lofty court title of ''sebastos'' and two of their number,
Andronikos Lampardas and
Alexios Petraliphas, were prominent generals. Under Alexios I, and probably subsequently, the imperial ''oikos'' also served as a sort of "staff college" for training promising young officers. Alexios took 300 young officers into his household, whom he trained personally. In the campaign against
Bohemond I of Antioch in 1107–1108 the best of these officers commanded the blockading forces keeping the Norman army pent up on the Albanian coast. The victorious outcome of this campaign probably resulted, in part, from the increased discipline the Byzantine forces showed due to the quality of their commanders.
Native regiments
In the course of the 11th century the units of part-time soldier-farmers belonging to the ''themata'' (military provinces) were largely replaced by smaller, full-time, provincial ''tagmata'' (regiments). The political and military anarchy of the later 11th century meant that it was solely the provincial ''tagmata'' of the southern Balkans which survived. These regiments, whose soldiers could be characterized as "native mercenaries," became an integral part of the central army and many field armies of the Komnenian period, the ''tagmata'' of Macedonia, Thrace and Thessaly being particularly notable. Though raised in particular provinces, these cavalry regiments had long ceased to have any local defence role. As regions were reconquered and brought under greater control provincial forces were re-established, though initially they often only served to provide local garrisons. In the reign of Manuel I the historian
Niketas Choniates mentions a division of a field army composed of "the eastern and western ''tagmata''." This wording implies that regular regiments were once again being raised in Anatolia. Military settlers, often derived from defeated foes, also supplied soldiers; one such group of settlers, defeated Pechenegs, was settled in the
Moglena district and provided a unit to the army; another was composed of
Serbs
The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language.
The majority of Serbs live in their na ...
who were settled around
Nicomedia
Nicomedia (; el, Νικομήδεια, ''Nikomedeia''; modern İzmit) was an ancient Greek city located in what is now Turkey. In 286, Nicomedia became the eastern and most senior capital city of the Roman Empire (chosen by the emperor Diocleti ...
in Anatolia. Towards the end of the period ''pronoia'' revenue grants, from the income generated by parcels of land, allowed the provinces to be used to raise heavy cavalrymen with less immediate drain on the state treasury. Most references to the organisation of soldiers that occur in the period concern cavalry. The origins and organisation of the native infantry of the Byzantine army of this period are obscure. It is known that there was an official register of soldiers serving as infantry, but their geographical origins and unit names are not recorded. Though rarely mentioned, the infantry were at least as numerous as the cavalry and were vital for prosecuting sieges.
Foreign regiments and allied contingents
The central army (''basilika allagia'' or ''taxeis''), in addition to the guards units and the native regiments raised from particular provinces, comprised a number of ''tagmata'' of foreign soldiers. These included the ''latinikon,'' a heavy cavalry formation of Western European 'knights', and members of families of western origin who had been in Byzantine employ for generations. Early in the period, during the reign of Alexios I, the westerners in the central army were referred to as ''ton Frangikon tagmaton'', "the Frankish regiment". It has been suggested that to regard these knights as mercenaries is somewhat mistaken and that they were essentially regular soldiers paid directly from the state treasury, but having foreign origins or ancestry. Another unit was the ''
tourkopouloi'' ("sons of Turks"), which, as its name implies, was composed of Byzantinised Turks and mercenaries recruited from the
Seljuk Sultanate
The Great Seljuk Empire, or the Seljuk Empire was a high medieval, culturally Turko-Persian, Sunni Muslim empire, founded and ruled by the Qïnïq branch of Oghuz Turks. It spanned a total area of from Anatolia and the Levant in the west to t ...
. A third was the ''skythikon'' recruited from the Turkic Pechenegs, Cumans and
Uzes of the
Pontic Steppes
Pontic, from the Greek ''pontos'' (, ), or "sea", may refer to:
The Black Sea Places
* The Pontic colonies, on its northern shores
* Pontus (region), a region on its southern shores
* The Pontic–Caspian steppe, steppelands stretching from no ...
.
In order to increase the size of his army, Alexios I even recruited 3,000
Paulicians
Paulicianism (Classical Armenian: Պաւղիկեաններ, ; grc, Παυλικιανοί, "The followers of Paul"; Arab sources: ''Baylakānī'', ''al Bayāliqa'' )Nersessian, Vrej (1998). The Tondrakian Movement: Religious Movements in the ...
from
Philippopolis and formed them into the "''Tagma'' of the Manichaeans", while 7,000 Turks were also hired. Foreign mercenaries and the soldiers provided by imperial vassals (such as the Serbs and Antiochenes), serving under their own leaders, were another feature of the Byzantine army of the time. These troops would usually be placed under a Byzantine general as part of his command, to be brigaded with other troops of a similar fighting capability, or combined to create field forces of mixed type. However, if the foreign contingent were particularly large and its leader a powerful and prominent figure then it might remain separate;
Baldwin of Antioch commanded a major division, composed of Westerners (Antiochenes, Hungarians and other 'Latins'), of the Byzantine army at the
Battle of Myriokephalon
The Battle of Myriokephalon (also known as the Battle of Myriocephalum, gr, Μάχη του Μυριοκέφαλου, tr, Miryokefalon Savaşı or ''Düzbel Muharebesi'') was a battle between the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk Turks in Phrygi ...
. The Byzantines usually took care to mix ethnic groups within the formations making up a field army in order to minimize the risk of all the soldiers of a particular nationality changing sides or decamping to the rear during battle. During the early part of the 12th century, the Serbs were required to send 300
cavalry whenever the Byzantine emperor was campaigning in Anatolia. This number was increased after Manuel I defeated the Serb rebellion in 1150 to 2,000 Serbs for European campaigns and 500 Serbs for Anatolian campaigns. Towards the end of the Komnenian period
Alan soldiers, undoubtedly cavalry, became an important element in Byzantine armies. It is notable that there was no major incident of mutiny or treachery involving foreign troops between 1081 and 1185.
Armed followers of the aristocracy
Though fief-holding as such did not exist in the Byzantine state, the concept of lordship pervaded society, with not only the provincial magnates but also state functionaries having authority over private citizens. The semi-feudal forces raised by the ''dynatoi'' or provincial magnates were a useful addition to the Byzantine army, and during the middle years of the reign of Alexios I probably made up the greater proportion of many field armies. Some leading provincial families became very powerful; for example, the Gabras family of Trebizond achieved virtual independence of central authority at times during the 12th century. The wealthy and influential members of the regional aristocracy could raise substantial numbers of troops from their retainers, relatives and tenants (called ''oikeoi anthropoi'' - "household men"). Their quality, however, would tend to be inferior to the professional troops of the ''basilika allagia.'' In the ''
Strategikon of Kekaumenos
The ''Strategikon of Kekaumenos'' ( el, Στρατηγικὸν τοῦ Κεκαυμένου, la, Cecaumeni Strategicon) is a late 11th century Byzantine manual offering advice on warfare and the handling of public and domestic affairs.
The bo ...
'' of c. 1078, there is mention of the armed retinue of a magnate, they are described as "the freemen who will have to mount horses together with you and go into battle".
The 'personal guards' of aristocrats who were also generals in the Byzantine army are also notable in this period. These guards would have resembled smaller versions of the imperial ''oikos''. The ''
sebastokrator
''Sebastokrator'' ( grc-byz, Σεβαστοκράτωρ, Sevastokrátor, August Ruler, ; bg, севастократор, sevastokrator; sh, sebastokrator), was a senior court title in the late Byzantine Empire. It was also used by other rulers wh ...
''
Isaac
Isaac; grc, Ἰσαάκ, Isaák; ar, إسحٰق/إسحاق, Isḥāq; am, ይስሐቅ is one of the three patriarchs of the Israelites and an important figure in the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He was th ...
, brother of John II, even maintained his own unit of ''vestiaritai'' guards. There is a record of Isaac Komnenos transferring ownership of two villages to a monastery. Alongside the land transfer, control of the local soldiery also passed to the monastery. This suggests that these soldiers were effectively members of a class of petty, "personal ''pronoiars''". A class that was not dependent on state-owned land for income, but upon the estates of a leading landowner, evidently the landowner could be either secular or ecclesiastical. The guard of the ''megas domestikos''
John Axouch
John Axouch or Axouchos, also transliterated as Axuch ( el, , flourished circa 1087 – circa 1150) was the commander-in-chief (''megas domestikos'') of the Byzantine army during the reign of Emperor John II Komnenos (r. 1118–1143), and during ...
was large enough to put down an outbreak of rioting between Byzantine troops and allied Venetians during the
siege
A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characteriz ...
of Corfu in 1149.
Equipment: Arms and Armour
The arms and armour of the Byzantine forces in the late 11th and 12th centuries were generally more sophisticated and varied than those found in contemporary Western Europe. Byzantium was open to military influences from the Muslim world and the Eurasian steppe, the latter being especially productive of military equipment innovation. The effectiveness of Byzantine armour would not be exceeded in Western Europe before the 14th century.
Arms
Close combat troops, infantry and cavalry, made use of a spear, of varying length, usually referred to as a ''kontarion.'' Specialist infantry called ''menavlatoi'' used a heavy-shafted weapon called the ''
menavlion
The ''menaulion'' or ''menavlion'' ( el, μεναύλιον), also ''menaulon'' or ''menavlon'' (μέναυλον) was a heavy spear with a length of 2.7 to 3.6 metres with a thick shaft, used by the Byzantine infantry as early as the 10th century ...
'' the precise nature of which is uncertain; they are mentioned in the earlier ''
Sylloge Tacticorum
''Sylloge Tacticorum'' is thought to have been written in the middle of the tenth century, and is a work on the making of order and organization of military forces (i.e. tactics), and ways to outwit and overcome opponents in the field of battle (i. ...
'' but may still have been extant. Swords were of two types: the ''spathion'' which was straight and double edged and differed only in details of the hilt from the typical ‘sword of war’ found in Western Europe, and the ''
paramērion'' which appears to have been a form of single-edged, perhaps slightly curved,
sabre
A sabre ( French: sabʁ or saber in American English) is a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the early modern and Napoleonic periods. Originally associated with Central European cavalry such as th ...
. Most Byzantine soldiers would have worn swords as secondary weapons, usually suspended from a
baldric
A baldric (also baldrick, bawdrick, bauldrick as well as other rare or obsolete variations) is a belt worn over one shoulder that is typically used to carry a weapon (usually a sword) or other implement such as a bugle or drum. The word ma ...
rather than a waist belt. Heavy cavalry are described (in slightly earlier writings) as being doubly equipped with both the ''spathion'' and ''paramērion''. Some missile-armed skirmish infantry used a relatively light axe (''tzikourion'') as a secondary weapon, whilst the Varangians were known as the “Axe-bearing Guard” because of their use of the double-handed
Danish axe
The Dane axe is an early type of battle axe, primarily used during the transition between the European Viking Age and early Middle Ages. Other names for the weapon include English long axe, Danish axe, and hafted axe.
Construction
Most axes, b ...
. The ''
rhomphaia
The rhomphaia ( grc, ῥομφαία) was a close-combat bladed weapon used by the Thracians as early as 350-400 BC. Rhomphaias were weapons with a straight or slightly curved single-edged blade attached to a pole, which in most cases was conside ...
'', a visually distinctive edged weapon, was carried by guardsmen in close attendance on the emperor. It was carried on the shoulder, but the primary sources are inconsistent as to whether it was single- or double-edged. Heavy cavalry made use of maces. Byzantine maces were given a variety of names including: ''mantzoukion'', ''apelatikion'' and ''siderorabdion'', suggesting that the weapons themselves were of varied construction.
Missile weapons included a javelin, ''riptarion'', used by light infantry, and powerful
composite bow
A composite bow is a traditional bow made from horn, wood, and sinew laminated together, a form of laminated bow. The horn is on the belly, facing the archer, and sinew on the outer side of a wooden core. When the bow is drawn, the sinew (stre ...
s used by both infantry and cavalry. The earlier Byzantine bow was of
Hunnic origin, but by the Komnenian period bows of Turkish form were in widespread use. Such bows could be used to fire short bolts (''myai'', "flies") with the use of an ‘arrow guide’ called the ''sōlēnarion.''
Slings and staff-slings are also mentioned on occasion.
Shields
![San marco demetrios](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/San_marco_demetrios.jpg)
Shields, ''skoutaria,'' were usually of the long “kite” shape, though round shields are still shown in pictorial sources. Whatever their overall shape, all shields were strongly convex. A large
pavise
A (or ) was an oblong shield used during the late 14th to early 16th centuries. Often large enough to cover the entire body, it was used by archers, crossbowmen, and other infantry soldiers.
Etymology
The name comes from the city of Pavia, Ita ...
-like infantry shield may also have been used.
Body armour
The Byzantines made great use of ‘soft armour’ of quilted, padded textile construction identical to the “jack” or ''aketon'' found later in the Latin West. Such a garment, called the ''kavadion'', usually reaching to just above the knees with elbow or full-length sleeves, was often the sole body protection for lighter troops, both infantry and cavalry. Alternatively the ''kavadion'' could provide the base garment (like an arming doublet) worn under metallic armour by more heavily protected troops. Another form of padded armour, the ''epilōrikion'', could be worn over a metal
cuirass
A cuirass (; french: cuirasse, la, coriaceus) is a piece of armour that covers the torso, formed of one or more pieces of metal or other rigid material. The word probably originates from the original material, leather, from the French '' cuirac ...
.
The repertoire of metal body armour included
mail
The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal sys ...
(''lōrikion alysidōton''),
scale (''lōrikion folidōton'') and
lamellar
A ''lamella'' (plural ''lamellae'') is a small plate or flake, from the Latin, and may also be used to refer to collections of fine sheets of material held adjacent to one another, in a gill-shaped structure, often with fluid in between though s ...
(''klivanion''). Both mail and scale armours were similar to equivalent armours found in Western Europe, a pull-on “shirt” reaching to the mid-thigh or knee with elbow length sleeves. The lamellar ''klivanion'' was a rather different type of garment. Byzantine lamellar, from pictorial evidence, possessed some unique features. It was made up of round-topped metal lamellae riveted, edge to edge, to horizontal leather backing bands; these bands were then laced together, overlapping vertically, by laces passing through holes in the lamellae. Modern reconstructions have shown this armour to be remarkably resistant to piercing and cutting weapons. Because of the expense of its manufacture, in particular the lamellae surrounding the arm and neck apertures had to be individually shaped, this form of armour was probably largely confined to heavy cavalry and elite units.
![Byzantine fresca from St-Lucas](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Byzantine_fresca_from_St-Lucas.jpg)
Because lamellar armour was inherently less flexible than other types of protection the ''klivanion'' was restricted to a cuirass covering the torso only. It did not have integral sleeves and reached only to the hips; it covered much the same body area as a bronze ‘
muscle cuirass
In classical antiquity, the muscle cuirass ( la, lorica musculata), anatomical cuirass, or heroic cuirass is a type of cuirass made to fit the wearer's torso and designed to mimic an idealized male human physique. It first appears in late Archaic ...
’ of antiquity. The ''klivanion'' was usually worn with other armour elements which extended the area of the body given protection. The ''klivanion'' could be worn over a mail shirt, as shown on some contemporary icons depicting military saints. More commonly the ''klivanion'' is depicted being worn with tubular upper arm defences of a
splinted construction often with small
pauldron
A pauldron (sometimes spelled pouldron or powldron) is a component of plate armor that evolved from spaulders in the 15th century. As with spaulders, pauldrons cover the shoulder area. Pauldrons tend to be larger than spaulders, covering the a ...
s or ‘cops’ to protect the shoulders. In illustrated manuscripts, such as the
Madrid Skylitzes
The ''Madrid Skylitzes'' is a richly illustrated illuminated manuscript of the ''Synopsis of Histories'' ( el, Σύνοψις Ἱστοριῶν, ), by John Skylitzes, which covers the reigns of the Byzantine emperors from the death of Nicep ...
, these defences are shown decorated with gold leaf in an identical manner to the ''klivanion'' thus indicating that they are also constructed of metal. Less often depicted are
rerebrace
A rerebrace (sometimes known as an upper cannon) is a piece of armour designed to protect the upper arms (above the elbow). Splint rerebraces were a feature of Byzantine armour in the Early Medieval period. The rerebrace seems to have re-emerged i ...
s made of “inverted lamellar."
A garment often shown worn with the ''klivanion'' was the ''kremasmata''. This was a skirt, perhaps quilted or of pleated fabric, usually reinforced with metal splints similar to those found in the arm defences. Although the splinted construction is that most often shown in pictorial sources, there are indications that the kremasmata could also be constructed of mail, scale or inverted lamellar over a textile base. This garment protected the hips and thighs of the wearer.
Defences for the forearm are mentioned in earlier treatises, under the name ''cheiropsella'' or ''manikellia'', but are not very evident in pictorial representations of the Komnenian period. Most images show knee-high boots (''krepides'', ''hypodemata'') as the only form of defence for the lower leg though a few images of
military saints show tubular greaves (with no detailing indicative of a composite construction). These would presumably be termed ''podopsella'' or ''chalkotouba''. Greaves of a splint construction also occur, very sporadically, in illustrated manuscripts and church murals. A single illustration, in the Psalter of Theodore of Caesarea dating to 1066, shows mail
chausses
Chausses (; ) were a Medieval term for leggings, which was also used for leg armour; routinely made of mail and referred to as mail chausses. They generally extended well-above the knee, covering most of the leg. Mail Chausses were the standar ...
being worn (with boots) by a Byzantine soldier.
Helmets
![Yaroslav II helmet](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Yaroslav_II_helmet.jpg)
Icons of soldier-saints, often showing very detailed illustrations of body armour, usually depict their subjects bare-headed for devotional reasons and therefore give no information on helmets and other head protection. Illustrations in manuscripts tend to be relatively small and give a limited amount of detail. However, some description of the helmets in use by the Byzantines can be given. The so-called ‘Caucasian’ type of helmet in use in the
Pontic Steppe
Pontic, from the Greek ''pontos'' (, ), or "sea", may refer to:
The Black Sea Places
* The Pontic colonies, on its northern shores
* Pontus (region), a region on its southern shores
* The Pontic–Caspian steppe, steppelands stretching from no ...
area and the Slavic areas of Eastern Europe is also indicated in Byzantium. This was a tall, pointed
spangenhelm where the segments of the composite skull were riveted directly to one another and not to a frame. Illustrations also indicate conical helmets, and the related type with a forward deflected apex (the
Phrygian cap style), of a single-piece skull construction, often with an added brow-band. Helmets with a more rounded shape are also illustrated, being of a composite construction and perhaps derived from the earlier '
ridge helmet' dating back to Late Roman times.
Few archaeological specimens of helmets attributable to Byzantine manufacture have been discovered to date, though it is probable that some of the helmets found in pagan graves in the Ukrainian steppe are of ultimately Byzantine origin. A rare find of a helmet in Yasenovo in Bulgaria, dating to the 10th century, may represent an example of a distinctively Byzantine style. This rounded helmet is horizontally divided: with a brow-band constructed for the attachment of a face-covering
camail
An aventail () or camail () is a flexible curtain of mail attached to the skull of a helmet that extends to cover the throat, neck and shoulders. Part or all of the face, with spaces to allow vision, could also be covered.
The earliest camail ...
, above this is a deep lower skull section surmounted by an upper skull-piece raised from a single plate. The upper part of the helmet has a riveted iron crosspiece reinforcement. A high-quality Byzantine helmet, decorated in gilt brass inlay, was found in Vatra Moldovitei in Rumania. This helmet, dating to the late 12th century, is similar to the Yasenovo helmet in having a deep lower skull section with a separate upper skull. However, this helmet is considerably taller and of a conical 'pear shape', indeed it bears some similarity in outline to the later
bascinet
The bascinet – also bassinet, basinet, or bazineto – was a Medieval European open-faced combat helmet. It evolved from a type of iron or steel skullcap, but had a more pointed apex to the skull, and it extended downwards at the rear an ...
helmets of Western Europe. The helmet has a decorative finial, and a riveted brow-reinforce (possibly originally the base-plate of a nasal). A second helmet found in the same place is very like the Russian helmet illustrated here, having an almost identical combined brow-piece and nasal, this helmet has a single-piece conical skull, which is fluted vertically, and has overall gilding. It has been characterised as a Russo-Byzantine helmet, indicative of the close cultural connection between
Kievan Rus
Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern Europe, Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Hist ...
sia and Byzantium. A remarkably tall Byzantine helmet, of the elegant 'Phrygian cap' shape and dating to the late 12th century, was found at
Pernik
Pernik ( bg, Перник ) is a town in western Bulgaria (about south-west of Sofia) with a population of 70,285 . Pernik is the most populated town in western Bulgaria after Sofia. It is the main town of Pernik Province and lies on both bank ...
in Bulgaria. It has a single-piece skull with a separate brow-band and had a nasal (now missing) which was riveted to the skull.
![Polish helmet from X century](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Polish_helmet_from_X_century.PNG)
In the course of the 12th century the brimmed ‘
chapel de fer
A kettle hat, also known as a war hat, is a type of helmet made of iron or steel in the shape of a brimmed hat. There are many design variations. The only common element is a wide brim that afforded extra protection to the wearer. It gained it ...
’ helmet begins to be depicted and is, perhaps, a Byzantine development.
Most Byzantine helmets are shown being worn with armour for the neck. Somewhat less frequently the defences also cover the throat and there are indications that full facial protection was occasionally afforded. The most often illustrated example of such armour is a sectioned skirt depending from the back and sides of the helmet; this may have been of quilted construction, leather strips or of metal splint reinforced fabric. Other depictions of helmets, especially the ‘Caucasian’ type, are shown with a mail
aventail
An aventail () or camail () is a flexible curtain of mail attached to the skull of a helmet that extends to cover the throat, neck and shoulders. Part or all of the face, with spaces to allow vision, could also be covered.
The earliest camai ...
or camail attached to the brow-band (which is confirmed by actual examples from the Balkans, Romania, Russia and elsewhere).
Face protection is mentioned at least three times in the literature of the Komnenian period, and probably indicates face-covering mail, leaving only the eyes visible. This would accord with accounts of such protection in earlier military writings, which describe double-layered mail covering the face, and later illustrations. Such a complete camail could be raised off the face by hooking up the mail to studs on the brow of the helmet. However, the remains of metal ‘face-mask’ anthropomorphic visors were discovered at the site of the
Great Palace of Constantinople
The Great Palace of Constantinople ( el, Μέγα Παλάτιον, ''Méga Palátion''; Latin: ''Palatium Magnum''), also known as the Sacred Palace ( el, Ἱερὸν Παλάτιον, ''Hieròn Palátion''; Latin: ''Sacrum Palatium''), was th ...
in association with a coin of Manuel I Komnenos. Such masks were found on some ancient
Roman helmets and on contemporary helmets found in grave sites associated with
Kipchak Turks
The Kipchaks or Qipchaks, also known as Kipchak Turks or Polovtsians, were a Turkic people, Turkic nomadic people and confederation that existed in the Middle Ages, inhabiting parts of the Eurasian Steppe. First mentioned in the 8th century as p ...
from the Pontic Steppe. The existence of these masks could indicate that the references to face-protection in Byzantine literature describe the use of this type of solid visor.
Horse armour
![Byzantine Greek Alexander Manuscript Cataphract (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Byzantine_Greek_Alexander_Manuscript_Cataphract_%28cropped%29.JPG)
There are no Byzantine pictorial sources depicting horse armour dating from the Komnenian period. The only description of horse armour in the Byzantine writing of this time is by Choniates and is a description of the front ranks of the cavalry of the Hungarian army at the Battle of Sirmium. However, earlier military treatises, such as that of
Nikephoros Ouranos
Nikephoros Ouranos ( el, Νικηφόρος Οὐρανός; fl. c. 980 – c. 1010), Latinized as Nicephorus Uranus, was a high-ranking Byzantine official and general during the reign of Emperor Basil II (r. 976–1025). One of the emperor's clo ...
, mention horse armour being used and a later, 14th century, Byzantine book illustration shows horse armour. It is therefore very likely that horse armour continued to be used by the Byzantines through the Komnenian era; though its use was probably limited to the very wealthiest of the provincial ''kataphraktoi'', aristocrats serving in the army, members of some guards units and the imperial household. The construction of horse armour was probably somewhat varied; including bardings composed of metal or rawhide lamellae, or soft armour of quilted or felted textile. The historian John Birkenmeier has stated: "The Byzantines, like their Hungarian opponents, relied on mailed lancers astride armored horses for their first charge."
Equipment: Artillery
![Trebuchet1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Trebuchet1.png)
The Komnenian army had a formidable artillery arm which was particularly feared by its eastern enemies. Stone-firing and bolt-firing machines were used both for attacking enemy fortresses and fortified cities and for the defence of their Byzantine equivalents. In contemporary accounts the most conspicuous engines of war were stone-throwing
trebuchet
A trebuchet (french: trébuchet) is a type of catapult that uses a long arm to throw a projectile. It was a common powerful siege engine until the advent of gunpowder. The design of a trebuchet allows it to launch projectiles of greater weight ...
s, often termed ''helepolis'' (city-takers); both the man-powered and the more powerful and accurate counterweight trebuchets were known to the Byzantines. The development of the trebuchet, the largest of which could batter down contemporary defensive walls, was attributed to the Byzantines by some western writers. Additionally, the Byzantines also used long range, anti-personnel, bolt firing machines such as the 'great crossbow,' which was often mounted on a mobile chassis, and the 'skein-bow' or
'espringal' which was a torsion device using twisted skeins of silk or sinew to power two bow-arms. The artillerists of the Byzantine army were accorded high status, being described as "illustrious men." The emperor John II and the generals
Stephanos
Stephanos or Stefanos, in Greek , is a masculine given name derived from the Greek word (''stéphanos''), meaning "wreath, crown" and by extension "reward, honor, renown, fame", from the verb (''stéphein''), "to encircle, to wreathe". In Ancient ...
and
Andronikos Kontostephanos
Andronikos Komnenos Kontostephanos ( el, ; ca. 1132/33 – after 1183), Latinized Andronicus Contostephanus, was a major figure in the Eastern Roman Empire during the reign of his uncle Manuel I Komnenos as a general, admiral, politician and a l ...
, both leading commanders with the rank of ''megas doux'', are recorded personally operating siege engines.
Troop types
The Byzantine Empire was a highly developed society with a long military history and could recruit soldiers from various peoples, both within and beyond its borders; as a result of these factors a wide variety of troop types were to be found in its army.
Infantry
With the notable exception of the Varangians, the Byzantine infantry of the Komnenian period are poorly described in the sources. The emperors and aristocracy, who form the primary subjects of contemporary historians, were associated with the high-status heavy cavalry and as a result the infantry received little mention.
Varangians
![The body of Leo V is dragged to the Hippodrome through the Skyla Gate](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/The_body_of_Leo_V_is_dragged_to_the_Hippodrome_through_the_Skyla_Gate.jpg)
The Varangian Guard were the elite of the infantry. In the field they operated as
heavy infantry
Heavy infantry consisted of heavily armed and armoured infantrymen who were trained to mount frontal assaults and/or anchor the defensive center of a battle line. This differentiated them from light infantry who are relatively mobile and l ...
, well armoured and protected by long shields, armed with spears and their distinctive two-handed Danish axes. Unlike other Byzantine heavy infantry their battlefield employment appears to have been essentially offensive in character. In both of the battles in which they are recorded as playing a prominent role they are described as making aggressive attacks. At Dyrrhachion they defeated a Norman cavalry charge but then their counterattack was pushed too far and, finding themselves unsupported, they were broken. At
Beroia
Veria ( el, Βέροια or Βέρροια), officially transliterated Veroia, historically also spelled Berea or Berœa, is a city in Central Macedonia, in the geographic region of Macedonia, northern Greece, capital of the regional unit of I ...
the Varangians were more successful, with John II commanding them personally, they assaulted the Pecheneg
wagon fort
A wagon fort, wagon fortress, or corral, often referred to as circling the wagons, is a temporary fortification made of wagons arranged into a rectangle, circle, or other shape and possibly joined with each other to produce an improvised milit ...
and cut their way into it, achieving a very complete victory. It is likely, given their elite status and their constant attendance on the emperor, that the Varangians were mounted on the march though they usually fought on foot. It has been estimated that throughout Alexios I's reign, some 4,000–5,000 Varangians in total joined the Byzantine army. Before he set out to relieve Dyrrhachion in 1081, the emperor left 300 Varangians to guard Constantinople. After the defeat, Alexios left 500 Varangians to garrison
Kastoria
Kastoria ( el, Καστοριά, ''Kastoriá'' ) is a city in northern Greece in the region of Western Macedonia. It is the capital of Kastoria regional unit, in the geographic region of Macedonia. It is situated on a promontory on the weste ...
in an unsuccessful attempt to halt the Norman advance. At Dyrrhachion there were 1,400 Varangians while at Beroia, only 480–540 were present. This suggests that emperors usually only brought around 500 Varangians for personal protection on campaigns, unless they needed a particularly strong force of infantry. A garrison of Varangians was also stationed in the city of
Paphos
Paphos ( el, Πάφος ; tr, Baf) is a coastal city in southwest Cyprus and the capital of Paphos District. In classical antiquity, two locations were called Paphos: Old Paphos, today known as Kouklia, and New Paphos.
The current city of Pap ...
in
Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...
during the Komnenian period, until the island's conquest by King
Richard I
Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was ...
.
Native heavy infantry
Heavy infantry are almost invisible in the contemporary sources. In the
Macedonian period a heavy infantryman was described as a ''skoutatos'' (shieldbearer) or ''hoplites''. These terms are not mentioned in 12th-century sources; Choniates used the terms ''kontophoros'' and ''lonchephoros'' (spearbearer/spearman). Choniates' usage was, however, literary and may not accurately represent contemporary technical terminology. Byzantine heavy infantry were armed with a long spear (''kontos'' or ''kontarion'') but it is possible that a minority may have been armed with the ''menavlion'' polearm. They carried large shields, and were given as much armour as was available. Those in the front rank, at least, might be expected to have metal armour, perhaps even a ''klivanion''. The role of such infantrymen, drawn up in serried ranks, was largely defensive. They constituted a bulwark which could resist enemy heavy cavalry charges, and formed a movable battlefield base from which the cavalry and other more mobile troops could mount attacks, and behind which they could rally.
Peltasts
The type of infantryman called a
peltast
A ''peltast'' ( grc-gre, πελταστής ) was a type of light infantryman, originating in Thrace and Paeonia, and named after the kind of shield he carried. Thucydides mentions the Thracian peltasts, while Xenophon in the Anabasis distin ...
(''peltastēs'') is far more heavily referenced in contemporary sources than the “spearman”. Although the peltasts of Antiquity were light skirmish infantry armed with javelins, it would be unsafe to assume that the troops given this name in the Komnenian period were identical in function; indeed, Byzantine peltasts were sometimes described as “assault troops”. Komnenian peltasts appear to have been relatively lightly equipped soldiers capable of great battlefield mobility, who could skirmish but who were equally capable of close combat. Their arms may have included a shorter version of the ''kontarion'' spear than that employed by the heavy infantry. At Dyrrachion, for example, a large force of peltasts achieved the feat of driving off Norman cavalry. Peltasts were sometimes employed in a mutually supportive association with heavy cavalry.
Light infantry
The true skirmish infantry, usually entirely unarmoured, of the Byzantine army were the ''
psiloi
In Ancient Greek armies, the ''psiloi'' (Ancient Greek , singular ψιλός, ''psilos'', literally "bare, stripped") were the light infantry who usually acted as skirmishers and missile troops, and who were distinguished from the armored '' hopl ...
''. This term included foot archers, javelineers and slingers, though archers were sometimes differentiated from the others in descriptions. The ''psiloi'' were clearly regarded as being quite separate from the peltasts. Such troops usually carried a small buckler for protection and would have had an auxiliary weapon, a sword or light axe, for use in a close combat situation. These missile troops could be deployed in open battle behind the protective ranks of the heavy infantry, or thrown forward to skirmish. The light troops were especially effective when deployed in ambush, as at the
Battle of Hyelion and Leimocheir
The Battle of Hyelion and Leimocheir saw the almost complete destruction by the Byzantines of a large Seljuq Turk army. The Seljuq army had been raiding Byzantine territory in the Maeander Valley in Anatolia, and had sacked a number of cities. ...
in 1177.
Cavalry
The earlier Byzantine heavy cavalryman, who combined the use of a bow with a lance for close combat, seems to have disappeared before the Komnenian age. The typical heavy cavalryman of the Komnenian army was a dedicated lancer, though armoured horse-archers continued to be employed.
Heavy cavalry
The heavy cavalry were the social and military elite of the whole army and were considered to be the pre-eminent battle winners. The charge of the lancers, and the subsequent melee, was often the decisive event in battle. The lance-armed heavy cavalry of the Komnenian army were of two origins, firstly ‘Latin knights', and secondly native ''kataphraktoi''.
=Latin knights
=
Latin heavy cavalry was recruited from the warriors and knights of Italy, France, The Low Countries, Germany and the Crusader States. The Byzantines considered the French to be more formidable mounted warriors than the Germans. Some Latin cavalrymen formed part of the regular soldiery of the empire and were supported by pay from the imperial treasury, or by ''pronoia'' grants, and were organised into formal regiments. Regular Latin 'knightly' heavy cavalry were part of the guard, with individual Latins or those of Western descent to be found in the imperial household, others were grouped into a formation later known as the ''latinikon.'' Alternatively, bands of mercenary knights were often hired for the duration of a particular campaign. The charge of the western knight was held in considerable awe by the Byzantines; Anna Komnene stated that "A mounted Kelt
n archaism for a Norman or Frank
N, or n, is the fourteenth Letter (alphabet), letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphabet# ...
is irresistible; he would bore his way through the walls of Babylon." The Latins’ equipment and tactics were identical to those of their regions of origin; though the appearance and equipment of such troops must have become progressively more Byzantine the longer they were in the emperor's employ. Some Latin soldiers, for example the Norman
Roger son of Dagobert, became thoroughly integrated into Byzantine society. The descendants of such men, including the general Alexios Petraliphas and the naval commander Constantine Frangopoulos (“son-of-a-Frank”), often remained in military employ. The son of the Norman knight Roger son of Dagobert,
John Rogerios Dalassenos, married a daughter of John II, was made caesar and even made an unsuccessful bid for the imperial throne.
=''Kataphraktoi''
=
![Byzantine Greek Soldiers Alexander Manuscript Thessaly](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Byzantine_Greek_Soldiers_Alexander_Manuscript_Thessaly.JPG)
The native ''kataphraktoi'' were to be found in the imperial ''oikos'', some imperial guards units and the personal guards of generals, but the largest numbers were found within the provincial ''tagmata''. The level of military effectiveness, especially the quality of the armour and mount, of the individual provincial ''kataphraktos'' probably varied considerably, as both John II and Manuel I are recorded as employing formations of “picked lancers” who were taken from their parent units and combined. This approach may have been adopted in order to re-create the concentration of very effective heavy cavalry represented by the Imperial ''Tagmata'' of former times. The ''kataphraktoi'' were the most heavily armoured type of Byzantine soldier and a wealthy ''kataphraktos'' could be very well armoured indeed. The ''Alexiad'' relates that when the emperor Alexios was simultaneously thrust at from both flanks by lance-wielding Norman knights, his armour was so effective that he suffered no serious injury.
In the reign of Alexios I, the Byzantine ''kataphraktoi'' proved to be unable to withstand the charge of Norman knights, and Alexios, in his later campaigns, was forced to use stratagems which were aimed at avoiding the exposure of his heavy cavalry to such a charge. Contemporary Byzantine armour was probably more effective than that of Western Europe therefore reasons other than a deficit in armour protection must be sought for the poor performance of the Byzantine cavalry. It is probable that the Byzantine heavy cavalry traditionally made charges at relatively slow speed, certainly the deep wedge formations described in Nikephoros II Phokas’ day would have been impossible to deploy at anything faster than a round trot. In the course of the late 11th century the Normans, and other Westerners, evolved a disciplined charge at high speed which developed great impetus, and it is this which outclassed the Byzantines. The role of the couched lance technique, and the connected development of the high-cantled war saddle, in this process is obscure but may have had considerable influence.
There is evidence of a relative lack of quality warhorses in the Byzantine cavalry. The Byzantines may have suffered considerable disruption to access to
Cappadocia
Cappadocia or Capadocia (; tr, Kapadokya), is a historical region in Central Anatolia, Turkey. It largely is in the provinces Nevşehir, Kayseri, Aksaray, Kırşehir, Sivas and Niğde.
According to Herodotus, in the time of the Ionian Re ...
and Northern
Syria, traditional sources of good quality cavalry mounts, in the wake of the fall of Anatolia to the Turks. However, by the reign of Manuel I the Byzantine ''kataphraktos'' was the equal of his Western counterpart. Although Manuel was credited by the historian Kinnamos with introducing Latin 'knightly' equipment and techniques to his native cavalry, it is likely that the process was far more gradual and began in the reign of Alexios. Manuel's enthusiastic adoption of the western pastime of
jousting
Jousting is a martial game or hastilude between two horse riders wielding lances with blunted tips, often as part of a tournament. The primary aim was to replicate a clash of heavy cavalry, with each participant trying to strike the opponen ...
probably had beneficial effects on the proficiency of his heavy cavalry. The ''kataphraktos'' was famed for his use of a fearsome iron mace in melee combat.
=''Koursores''
=
![Persecution of Russ by the Byzantine army John Skylitzes](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/Persecution_of_Russ_by_the_Byzantine_army_John_Skylitzes.jpg)
A category of cavalryman termed a ''koursōr'' (pl. ''koursores'') is documented in Byzantine military literature from the sixth century onwards. The term is a transliteration of the Latin ''cursor'' with the meaning 'raider' (from ''cursus:'' course, line of advance, raid, running, speed, zeal - in
Medieval Latin
Medieval Latin was the form of Literary Latin used in Roman Catholic Western Europe during the Middle Ages. In this region it served as the primary written language, though local languages were also written to varying degrees. Latin functione ...
a term for a raider or brigand was ''cursarius'', which was the origin of '
corsair'). According to one theory, it is posited as the etymological root of the term
hussar, used for a later cavalry type. The ''koursōr'' had a defined tactical role but may or may not have been an officially defined cavalry type. ''Koursores'' were mobile close-combat cavalry and may be considered as being drawn from the more lightly equipped ''kataphraktoi''. The ''koursores'' were primarily intended to engage enemy cavalry and were usually placed on the flanks of the main battle line. Those on the left wing, termed ''defensores,'' were placed to defend that flank from enemy cavalry attack, whilst the cavalry placed on the right wing, termed ''prokoursatores,'' were intended to attack the enemy's flank. Cavalry on detached duty, such as scouting or screening the main army, were also called ''prokoursatores''. It is thought that this type of cavalry were armed identically to the heavy ''kataphraktoi'' but were armoured more lightly, and were mounted on lighter, swifter horses. Being relatively lightly equipped they were more suited to the pursuit of fleeing enemies than the heavyweight ''kataphraktoi.'' In the Komnenian period, the more heavily equipped of the ''kataphraktoi'' were often segregated to create formations of "picked lancers," presumably the remainder, being more lightly equipped, provided the ''koursores''. A type of cavalry, differentiated from both horse archers and those with the heaviest armour, is referred to by Kinnamos in 1147 as forming a sub-section of a Byzantine army array; they are described as "those who rode swift horses," indicating that they were ''koursores'', though the term itself is not employed.
Light cavalry
![Hungarian warrior](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Hungarian_warrior.jpg)
The light cavalry of the Komnenian army consisted of horse-archers. There were two distinct forms of horse-archer: the lightly equipped skirmisher and the heavier, often armoured, bow-armed cavalryman who shot from disciplined ranks. The native Byzantine horse-archer was of the latter type. They shot arrows by command from, often static, ranks and offered a mobile concentration of missile fire on the battlefield. The native horse-archer had declined in numbers and importance by the Komnenian period, being largely replaced by soldiers of foreign origins. However, in 1191
Isaac Komnenos of Cyprus
Isaac Doukas Komnenos (or Ducas Comnenus, c. 1155 – 1195/1196) was a claimant to the Byzantine Empire and the ruler of Cyprus from 1184 to 1191. Contemporary sources commonly refer to him as the emperor of Cyprus. He lost the island to King ...
is recorded firing arrows at
Richard I of England
Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was overl ...
from horseback during the latter's conquest of Cyprus. This suggests that mounted archery remained a martial skill practised within the upper reaches of Byzantine aristocracy.
Turks from the Seljuk and
Danishmend
The Danishmendids or Danishmends ( fa, دودمان دانشمند; tr, Dânişmendliler) was a Turkish beylik that ruled in north-central and eastern Anatolia from 1071/1075 to 1178. The dynasty centered originally around Sivas, Tokat, an ...
realms of central and eastern Anatolia, and those Byzantinised Turks and Magyars settled within the Empire, such as the Vardariots, supplied the bulk of the heavy horse-archers of the Komnenian army. Towards the end of the period Alans were also supplying this type of cavalry. Such horse archers were often highly disciplined. The Byzantine horse-archers (termed ''doryphoroi'' – indicating guard status) at Sozopolis in 1120 performed a feigned flight manoeuvre, always demanding the greatest self-confidence and discipline, which led to the taking of the city from the Turks. Given that they were usually armoured, even if it was comparatively light armour, this type of horse-archer also had the capability to fight with melee weapons in close combat.
Skirmish horse-archers, usually unarmoured, were supplied by the Turkic Pechenegs, Cumans and Uzes of the steppes. These troops were ideal scouts and were adept at harassment tactics. They usually attacked as a swarm and were very difficult for a more heavily equipped enemy to bring into close combat. Light horse-archers were also effective as a screening force, preventing an enemy discerning the dispositions of other troops (for example at the Battle of Sirmium).
Development
![Alexius I](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Alexius_I.jpg)
Alexios I inherited an army which had been painstakingly reconstituted through the administrative efforts of the able eunuch
Nikephoritzes
Nikephoritzes ( el, Νικηφορίτζης) was an influential Byzantine eunuch official, who served as chief minister and virtual ruler of the Byzantine Empire during the reign of Emperor Michael VII Doukas (r. 1071–1078). His actual name was ...
. This army, though small due to the loss of territory and revenue, was in its nature similar to that of earlier Byzantine armies back as far as Nikephoros Phokas and beyond; indeed some units could trace their history back to the
Late Roman army. This rather traditional Byzantine army was destroyed by the Italo-Normans at Dyrrachion in 1081. In the aftermath of this disaster Alexios laid the foundations of a new military structure. He raised troops entirely by ''ad hoc'' means: raising the regiment of the ''archontopouloi'' from the sons of dead soldiers and even pressing heretic Paulicians from Philippopolis into the ranks. The only Anatolian troops that are mentioned as part of the army of Alexios are the
Chomatenes. Most important is the prominent place in this new army of Alexios' extended family and their many connections, each aristocrat bringing to the field his armed retinue and retainers. Before campaigning against the Pechenegs in 1090 he is recorded as summoning "his kinsmen by birth or marriage and all the nobles enrolled in the army." From pure necessity an army based on a model derived ultimately from Classical Antiquity was transformed, like the empire as a whole, into a type of family business. At this point the army could be characterised as being a feudal host with a substantial mercenary element.
Later in his reign, when the empire had recovered territory and its economic condition had improved, the increased monetary revenue available allowed Alexios to impose a greater regularity on the army, with a higher proportion of troops raised directly by the state; however, the extended imperial family continued to play a very prominent role. Alexios, it is recorded, personally educated an elite corps of young, aspiring commanders. The best of them were then given commands in the army. In this manner Alexios improved both the quality of his field officers and the level of loyalty they had to him. This was the army that his successors inherited and further modified.
Under John II, a Macedonian division was is described, and new native Byzantine troops were recruited from the provinces. As Byzantine Anatolia began to prosper under John and Manuel, more soldiers were raised from the Asiatic provinces of
Thrakesion,
Mylasa and Melanoudion,
Paphlagonia
Paphlagonia (; el, Παφλαγονία, Paphlagonía, modern translit. ''Paflagonía''; tr, Paflagonya) was an ancient region on the Black Sea coast of north-central Anatolia, situated between Bithynia to the west and Pontus (region), Pontus t ...
and even
Seleucia (in the south-east). Soldiers were also drawn from defeated peoples, who were forcibly recruited into the army; examples include the Pechenegs (horse archers) and Serbs, who were transplanted as military settlers to the regions around Moglena and Nicomedia respectively. Native troops were organised into regular units and stationed in both the Asian and European provinces. Later Komnenian armies were also often reinforced by allied contingents from Antioch, Serbia and Hungary, yet even so they generally consisted of about two-thirds Byzantine troops to one-third foreigners. Units of archers, infantry and cavalry were grouped together so as to provide combined arms support to each other. Field armies were divided into a vanguard, main body and rearguard. The vanguard and rearguard could operate independently of the main body, where the emperor would be. This suggests that subordinate commanders were able to take tactical initiatives, and that the officer class was well trained and trusted by the emperor. John fought fewer pitched battles than either his father or son. His military strategy revolved around sieges and the taking and holding of fortified settlements, in order to construct defensible frontiers. John personally conducted approximately twenty five sieges during his reign.
The emperor Manuel I was heavily influenced by Westerners (both of his empresses were Franks) and at the beginning of his reign he is reported to have re-equipped and retrained his native Byzantine heavy cavalry along Western lines. It is inferred that Manuel introduced the couched lance technique, the close order charge at speed and increased the use of heavier armour. Manuel personally took part in knightly tournaments in the Western fashion; his considerable prowess impressed Western observers. Manuel organised his army in the Myriokephalon campaign as a number of 'divisions' each of which could act as small independent army. It has been argued that it was this organisation which allowed the greater part of his army to survive the ambush inflicted on it by the Seljuk Turks. Indeed, it was a stock of Byzantine writing to contrast the order of the Byzantine battle array with the disorder of barbarian military dispositions. Manuel is credited with greatly expanding the ''pronoia'' system. In the reign of Alexios I ''pronoia'' grants were limited to members of the imperial family and their close connections; Manuel extended the system to include men of considerably more lowly social origins and foreigners. Both classes of new ''pronoiar'' infuriated the historian Choniates, who characterised them as: tailors, bricklayers and "semi-barbarian runts".
Permanent military camps were established in the Balkans and in Anatolia, they are first mentioned during the reign of Alexios I (
Kypsella and
Lopadion), but as Lopadion is recorded as being newly fortified in the reign of John II it is the latter who seems to have fully realised the advantages of this type of permanent camp. The main Anatolian camp was at Lopadion on the
Rhyndakos River near the
Sea of Marmara
The Sea of Marmara,; grc, Προποντίς, Προποντίδα, Propontís, Propontída also known as the Marmara Sea, is an inland sea located entirely within the borders of Turkey. It connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea via t ...
, the European equivalent was at Kypsella in Thrace, others were at
Sofia
Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...
(Serdica) and at
Pelagonia, west of
Thessalonica
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...
. Manuel I rebuilt
Dorylaion
Dorylaeum or Dorylaion ( el, Δορύλαιον; tr, Şarhöyük) was an ancient city in Anatolia. It is now an archaeological site located near the city of Eskişehir, Turkey.
Its original location was about 10 km southwest of Eskişehi ...
on the Anatolian plateau to serve the same function for his Myriokephalon campaign of 1175–76. These great military camps seem to have been an innovation of the Komnenian emperors, possibly as a more highly developed form of the earlier ''aplekta'' (military stations established along major communication routes), and may have played an important role in the improvement in the effectiveness of the Byzantine forces seen in the period. The camps were used for the training of troops and for the preparation of armies for the rigours of campaign; they also functioned as supply depots, transit stations for the movement of troops and concentration points for field armies. It has also been suggested that the regions around these military bases were the most likely areas for ''pronoia'' grants to be located.
Legacy
![Manuel'sEmpire](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Manuel%27sEmpire.png)
The Komnenian Byzantine army was a resilient and effective force but it was over-reliant on the leadership of an able emperor. After the death of Manuel I in 1180 able leadership was wanting. First there was
Alexios II, a child-emperor with a divided regency, then a tyrant,
Andronikos I, who attempted to break the power of the aristocracy who provided the leadership of the army, and finally the incompetents of the Angeloi dynasty. Weak leadership allowed the Komnenian system of rule through the extended imperial family to break down. The regionally based interests of the powerful aristocracy were increasingly expressed in armed rebellion and secession; mutual distrust between the aristocracy and the bureaucrats of the capital was endemic and both these factors led to a disrupted and fatally weakened Empire.
When Constantinople fell to the
Fourth Crusade in 1204, the Byzantine successor states established at
Epirus
sq, Epiri rup, Epiru
, native_name_lang =
, settlement_type = Historical region
, image_map = Epirus antiquus tabula.jpg
, map_alt =
, map_caption = Map of ancient Epirus by Heinri ...
,
Trebizond and especially
Nicaea
Nicaea, also known as Nicea or Nikaia (; ; grc-gre, Νίκαια, ) was an ancient Greek city in Bithynia, where located in northwestern Anatolia and is primarily known as the site of the First and Second Councils of Nicaea (the first and s ...
based their military systems on the Komnenian army. The success of the Empire of Nicaea in particular in reconquering former Byzantine territories (including Constantinople) after 1204, may be seen as evidence of the strengths of the Komnenian army model. Though there is some reason to restrict the term Komnenian army solely to the period of the rule of the Komnenian emperors, the real break with this system came after the recovery of Constantinople in 1261, when the Byzantine army became sufficiently distinct from its earlier form to deserve a separate identity as the
Palaiologan army. The Byzantine Empire enjoyed an economic and cultural renaissance during the
12th century and the Komnenian army played a crucial part in providing the political and territorial stability which allowed this cultural flowering.
Timeline
* 1081 – Alexios I led an army of 20–25,000 men to attack the invading Normans, but was heavily defeated at the Battle of Dyrrhachion.
* 1083 – Leading his rebuilt army of 15,000 men (including 7,000 Seljuk Turks), the emperor decisively defeated the Norman army at the
Battle of Larissa
The Battle of Larissa was a military engagement between the armies of the Byzantine Empire and the Italo-Norman County of Apulia and Calabria. On 3 November 1082, the Normans besieged the city of Larissa. In July of the following year, Byzantin ...
.
* 1091 – A massive invasion by the
Pechenegs
The Pechenegs () or Patzinaks tr, Peçenek(ler), Middle Turkic: , ro, Pecenegi, russian: Печенег(и), uk, Печеніг(и), hu, Besenyő(k), gr, Πατζινάκοι, Πετσενέγοι, Πατζινακίται, ka, პა ...
was defeated at the
Battle of Levounion
The Battle of Levounion was the first decisive Byzantine victory of the Komnenian restoration. On April 29, 1091, an invading force of Pechenegs was crushed by the combined forces of the Byzantine Empire under Alexios I Komnenos and his Cuman a ...
by an army of Byzantines with the assistance of 5,000
Vlach
"Vlach" ( or ), also "Wallachian" (and many other variants), is a historical term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate mainly Romanians but also Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, Istro-Romanians and other Easter ...
mercenaries, 500
Flemish
Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...
knights, and supposedly 40,000 Cumans.
* 1092–1097 – John Doukas, the ''megas doux'', led campaigns on both land and sea and was responsible for the re-establishment of firm Byzantine control over the
Aegean, the islands of
Crete
Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...
and Cyprus and the western parts of
Anatolia
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...
.
* 1107–1108 - The Italo-Normans under Bohemond invaded the western Balkans. Alexios' response was cautious, he relied on defending mountain passes in order to keep the Norman army pent up on the Albanian coast, where they were
besieging Dyrrhachion. Using delaying tactics and not offering battle, while his navy cut all communications with Italy, Alexios starved and harassed the Normans into capitulation. Bohemond was forced to become a vassal of the emperor for his principality of Antioch, but was unable or unwilling to put this agreement into effect.
* 1116 - the
Battle of Philomelion
The Battle of Philomelion ( Latinised as Philomelium - modern Akşehir) of 1116 consisted of a series of clashes over a number of days between a Byzantine expeditionary army under Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and the forces of the Sultanate of Rûm ...
consisted of series of clashes over a number of days between a Byzantine expeditionary army under Alexios I and the forces of the Sultanate of Rûm under Sultan
Malik Shah; the Byzantine victory ensured a peace treaty advantageous to the Empire.
* 1119 - The Seljuks had pushed into the southwest of Anatolia cutting the land route to the Byzantine city of
Attalia and the region of
Cilicia
Cilicia (); el, Κιλικία, ''Kilikía''; Middle Persian: ''klkyʾy'' (''Klikiyā''); Parthian: ''kylkyʾ'' (''Kilikiyā''); tr, Kilikya). is a geographical region in southern Anatolia in Turkey, extending inland from the northeastern coa ...
. John II responded with a campaign which recaptured
Laodicea and
Sozopolis, restoring Byzantine control of the region and communications with Attalia.
* 1122 – At the
Battle of Beroia, realizing the Imperial army was making little headway, John II personally led 500 Varangians forward to smash through the Pecheneg defensive wagon fort. As an independent people the Pechenegs disappear from historical records following this defeat.
* 1128 - An army led by John II inflicted a significant defeat on the Hungarians at the
Battle of Haram
The Battle of Haram or Chramon (modern Nova Palanka) was fought between the forces of King Stephen II (r. 1116–1131) of Hungary and Emperor
An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, ...
on the River
Danube
The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , p ...
.
* 1135 – After successfully capturing
Kastamon
Kastamonu is the capital district of the Kastamonu Province, Turkey. According to the 2000 census, population of the district is 102,059 of which 64,606 live in the urban center of Kastamonu. (Population of the urban center in 2010 is 91,012.) The ...
, John II marched on to
Gangra which capitulated and was garrisoned with 2,000 men.
* 1137-1138 - John II recovered control of Cilicia, enforced the vassalage of the crusader Principality of Antioch and campaigned against the Muslims of Northern
Syria. The city of
Shaizar
Shaizar or Shayzar ( ar, شيزر; in modern Arabic Saijar; Hellenistic name: Larissa in Syria, Λάρισα εν Συρία in Greek) is a town in northern Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, located northwest of Hama. Nearby lo ...
was besieged and bombarded with 18 large
mangonel
The mangonel, also called the traction trebuchet, was a type of trebuchet used in Ancient China starting from the Warring States period, and later across Eurasia by the 6th century AD. Unlike the later counterweight trebuchet, the mangonel o ...
s (traction trebuchets).
* 1140 - John II besieged but failed to take the city of
Neocaesarea
Niksar, historically known as Neocaesarea (Νεοκαισάρεια), is a city in Tokat Province, Turkey. It was settled by many empires, being once the capital city of the province. Niksar is known as "Çukurova of the North-Anatolia" due to it ...
. The Byzantines were defeated by the conditions rather than by the Turks: the weather was very bad, large numbers of the army's horses died, and provisions became scarce.
* 1147 - At the
Battle of Constantinople a Byzantine army defeated part of the crusading army of Conrad III of Germany outside the walls of the city. Conrad was forced to come to terms and have his army rapidly shipped across the Bosphoros to Anatolia.
* 1148 - Before setting out to recapture Corfu, Manuel I diverted his army to the Danube after learning of a Cuman raid. Leaving the bulk of the army south of the river, the emperor personally crossed the Danube with 500 cavalry and defeated the Cuman raiding party.
* 1149 – Manuel I commanded 20–30,000 men at the siege of
Corfu supported by a fleet of 50 galleys along with numerous small pirate galleys, horse transports, merchantmen, and light pirate skiffs.
* 1155–56 – The generals
Michael Palaiologos and
John Doukas were sent with 10 ships to invade
Apulia. A number of towns, including
Bari, and most of coastal Apulia were captured, however, the expedition ultimately failed, despite the reinforcements sent by the emperor because the Byzantine fleet of 14 ships was vastly outnumbered by the Norman fleet. The Byzantine army never numbered more than a few thousand and consisted of Cuman, Alan, and Georgian mercenaries.
* 1158 – At the head of a large army, Manuel I marched against
Thoros II of Armenia. The emperor left the main body of the army at
Attaleia while he led 500 cavalry to
Seleukeia and from there entered the Cilician plain as part of a surprise attack.
* 1165 – The
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephen ...
was invaded by a Byzantine army and the city of
Zeugminon was placed under siege. The commanding general, and future emperor, Andronikos I Komnenos personally adjusted the 4 ''helepoleis'' (
counterweight trebuchets) that were used to bombard the city.
* 1166 – Two Byzantine armies were dispatched in a vast pincer movement to ravage the Hungarian province of Transylvania. One army crossed the
Walachian Plain and entered Hungary through the Transylvanian Alps (
Southern Carpathians
The Southern Carpathians (also known as the Transylvanian Alps; ro, Carpații Meridionali ; hu, Déli-Kárpátok) are a group of mountain ranges located in southern Romania. They cover the part of the Carpathian Mountains located between the Pr ...
), whilst the other army made a wide circuit to the south-western Russian principality of
Galicia and, with Galician aid, crossed the
Carpathian Mountains.
* 1167 – With an army of 15,000 men, general
Andronikos Kontostephanos
Andronikos Komnenos Kontostephanos ( el, ; ca. 1132/33 – after 1183), Latinized Andronicus Contostephanus, was a major figure in the Eastern Roman Empire during the reign of his uncle Manuel I Komnenos as a general, admiral, politician and a l ...
scored a decisive victory over the
Hungarians
Hungarians, also known as Magyars ( ; hu, magyarok ), are a nation and ethnic group native to Hungary () and historical Hungarian lands who share a common culture, history, ancestry, and language. The Hungarian language belongs to the Urali ...
at the Battle of Sirmium.
* 1169 – A Byzantine fleet of about 150
galleys, 10-12 large transports and 60
horse transports under ''megas doux'' Andronikos Kontostephanos was sent to
invade Egypt. The combined Byzantine-Crusader army successfully captured the cities of Tounion and
Tinnis
Tennis or Tinnīs ( arz, تنيس, cop, ⲑⲉⲛⲛⲉⲥⲓ) was a medieval city in Egypt which no longer exists. It was most prosperous from the 9th century to the 11th century until its abandonment. It was located at 31°12′N 32°14′E, o ...
before besieging
Damietta
Damietta ( arz, دمياط ' ; cop, ⲧⲁⲙⲓⲁϯ, Tamiati) is a port city and the capital of the Damietta Governorate in Egypt, a former bishopric and present multiple Catholic titular see. It is located at the Damietta branch, an easter ...
. The Byzantine army launched several assaults and were about to capture the city when King
Amalric made peace and withdrew. The Byzantine fleet withdrew after a siege of over 50 days and sailed away in some haste, leaving only 6
triremes
A trireme( ; derived from Latin: ''trirēmis'' "with three banks of oars"; cf. Greek ''triērēs'', literally "three-rower") was an ancient vessel and a type of galley that was used by the ancient maritime civilizations of the Mediterranean S ...
for Kontostephanos. With an escort, the general decided to march via Jerusalem back to Constantinople.
* 1175 – The Emperor dispatched Alexius Petraliphas with 6,000 men to capture Gangra and
Ancyra
Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, mak ...
, however the expedition failed due to heavy resistance from the Turks.
* 1176 – In his last attempt to capture
Iconium, Manuel I led a large army of 25–40,000 men which was supported by 3,000 wagons carrying supplies and siege engines. The campaign ultimately ended in failure after suffering defeat at the Battle of Myriokephalon.
* 1177 – Andronikos Kontostephanos led a fleet of 150 ships in another attempt to conquer Egypt, the force returned home after landing at
Acre. The refusal of Count Philip of Flanders to co-operate with the Byzantine force led to the abandonment of the campaign. A large raiding force of Seljuk Turks was destroyed by a Byzantine army commanded by
John Komnenos Vatatzes
John Komnenos Vatatzes, ( gr, Ἰωάννης Κομνηνὸς Βατάτζης, ''Iōannēs Komnēnos Vatatzēs''), or simply John Komnenos or John Vatatzes (the transliteration 'Batatzes' is also employed) in the sources, was a major military ...
in an ambush in Western Anatolia (
Battle of Hyelion and Leimocheir
The Battle of Hyelion and Leimocheir saw the almost complete destruction by the Byzantines of a large Seljuq Turk army. The Seljuq army had been raiding Byzantine territory in the Maeander Valley in Anatolia, and had sacked a number of cities. ...
).
* 1185 - Following the sack of the city of
Thessalonica
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...
by the Siculo-Normans of the
Kingdom of Sicily, the Norman army was routed at the
Battle of Demetritzes
The Battle of Demetritzes in 1185 was fought between the Byzantine army and the Normans of the Kingdom of Sicily, who had recently sacked and captured the Byzantine Empire's second city, Thessalonica. It was a decisive Byzantine victory, which ...
by a Byzantine army led by Alexios Branas. Thessalonica was re-occupied by the Byzantines soon after the battle.
* 1187 – After a successful campaign against the Bulgarians and Vlachs, General Alexios Branas rebelled.
Conrad of Montferrat
Conrad of Montferrat ( Italian: ''Corrado del Monferrato''; Piedmontese: ''Conrà ëd Monfrà'') (died 28 April 1192) was a nobleman, one of the major participants in the Third Crusade. He was the ''de facto'' King of Jerusalem (as Conrad I) by ...
assembled 250 knights and 500 infantry from the Latin population of Constantinople to join Emperor
Isaac II Angelos
Isaac II Angelos or Angelus ( grc-gre, Ἰσαάκιος Κομνηνός Ἄγγελος, ; September 1156 – January 1204) was Byzantine Emperor from 1185 to 1195, and again from 1203 to 1204.
His father Andronikos Doukas Angelos was a ...
's army of 1,000 men. Together they defeated and killed the rebel commander outside the city walls. Later in the year, the Emperor returned to Bulgaria with 2,000 men (possibly cavalry) to quell the rebellion.
* 1189 – On the orders of Emperor Isaac II, the ''protostrator''
Manuel Kamytzes
Manuel Kamytzes Komnenos Doukas Angelos ( gr, Μανουήλ Καμύτζης Κομνηνός Δούκας Ἄγγελος; after 1202) was a Byzantine general who was active in the late 12th century, and led an unsuccessful rebellion in 1201 ...
(with 2,000 cavalry) attempted to ambush part of
Frederick Barbarossa's army near Philippopolis but was defeated.
* 1198–1203 – Successive revolts by semi-autonomous magnates and provincial governors. Those of
Dobromir Chrysos
Dobromir, known to the Byzantines as Chrysos ( mk, Добромир Хрс, bg, Добромир Хриз, el, Δοβρομηρός Χρύσος), was a leader of the Vlachs and Bulgarian Slavs in eastern Macedonia during the reign of the Byzan ...
,
Ivanko
Ivanko is a Slavic given name and a surname, a diminutive from the given name Ivan, a Slavic variant of the name "John". It may be a transliteration from Иванко or Иванько.
Notable people with the name include:
Given name
* Ivank ...
and
John Sypridonakes in Macedonia and Thrace are suppressed, those of
Leo Chamaretos
Leo or Léo may refer to:
Acronyms
* Law enforcement officer
* Law enforcement organisation
* ''Louisville Eccentric Observer'', a free weekly newspaper in Louisville, Kentucky
* Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity
Arts a ...
and
Leo Sgouros
Leo Sgouros ( el, Λέων Σγουρός), Latinized as Leo Sgurus, was a Greek independent lord in the northeastern Peloponnese in the early 13th century. The scion of the magnate Sgouros family, he succeeded his father as hereditary lord in th ...
in Greece succeed in establishing their authority.
* 1204 – When the
Fourth Crusade reached Constantinople, the city was defended by a garrison of 10,000 men including the Imperial Guard of 5,000 Varangians.
[Phillips, p. 159]
Notes
Bibliography
;Primary sources
*
Choniates, Niketas (1984) ''O City of Byzantium: Annals of Niketas Choniates'', trans. by H. Magoulias, Wayne State University Press, Detroit
*
Kinammos, Ioannes (John Cinnamus) (1976), ''Deeds of John and Manuel Comnenus'', trans. Charles M. Brand.
Columbia University Press
Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by Jennifer Crewe (2014–present) and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fiel ...
, New York
*
Komnene (Comnena) Anna (1969) ''The ''Alexiad'' of Anna Comnena'', trans. by Edgar Robert Ashton Sewter. Penguin Classics, London
;Secondary sources
*
* Bartusis, Mark C. (1997).
The Late Byzantine Army: Arms and Society 1204–1453'' Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. .
*
*
* Brand, Charles M. (1989) The Turkish Element in Byzantium, Eleventh-Twelfth Centuries, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Cambridge MA, Vol. 43, pp. 1–25.
* D'Amato, Raffaele (2010) ''The Varangian Guard 988-1453,'' Osprey, Oxford
*
*
*
* Grotowski, Piotr (2010) ''Arms and Armour of the Warrior Saints: Tradition and Innovation in Byzantine Iconography (843–1261)'', Brill, Leiden
*
*
*
*
*
*
* Mitchell, Russell (2008) ''Light Cavalry, Heavy Cavalry, Horse Archers, Oh My! What Abstract Definitions Don’t Tell Us About 1205 Adrianople'', in: Journal of Medieval Military History, Volume VI: Rogers, Clifford J., DeVries, Kelly and France, John (ed.s), Boydell & Brewer, Boydell Press, Woodbridge ISSN 1477-545X
*
* Nishimura, David (1988) ''Crossbows, Arrow–guides, and the "Solenarion"'', Byzantion, Vol. 58, No. 2 (1988), pp. 422–435, Peeters Publishers, Leuven
*
* Ostrogorsky, G. (1971) ''Observations on the Aristocracy in Byzantium'', Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol. 25 (1971), pp. 1–32, Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University, Cambridge MA
* Ostrogorsky, G. (1980) ''History of the Byzantine State'', Basil Blackwell, Oxford,
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Komnenian Byzantine Army
Byzantine army
Warfare of the Middle Ages
Komnenos dynasty
Second Crusade
Byzantine–Seljuk wars
Military reforms
Fourth Crusade