THE ART OF WAR IN THE MIDDLE AGES 24
The Lasting Success of the Imperial Reforms
3.09. The Lasting Success of the Imperial Reforms
The new system introduced by Maurice was destined to last for nearly five hundred years. Its unit, alike for infantry and cavalry, was the bandon - a weak battalion or horse-regiment of 400 men, commanded by an officer who usually bore the vulgarized title of comes, but was occasionally denominated by the older name of tribônos, or military tribune. Three bands, or tagmata as they were sometimes styled, formed a small brigade, called indifferently moira, chiliarchia, or droungos. Three drunges formed the largest military group recognised by Maurice, and the division made by their union was the turma or meros.
Nothing can be more characteristic of the whole Byzantine military system than the curious juxtaposition of Latin, Greek, and German words in its terminology. Upon the substratum of the old Roman survivals we find first a layer of Teutonic names introduced by the Foederati of the fourth and fifth centuries, and finally numerous Greek denominations, some of them borrowed from the old Macedonian military system, others newly invented. The whole official language of the Empire was in fact still in a state of flux; Maurice himself was hailed by his subjects as Pius, Felix, Augustus, though those who used the title were, for the most part, accustomed to speak in Greek. In the Stratêgikon the two tongues are inextricably mixed: ‘before the battle,’ says the emperor, ‘let the counts face their bands and raise the war-cry “Deous Nobiskoum,” and the troopers will shout the answering cry “Kyrie, Eleêson.”’
It would appear that Maurice had intended to break down the barrier, which had been interposed in the fourth century, between the class which paid the taxes and that which recruited the national army. ‘We wish,’ he writes, ‘that every young Roman of free condition should learn the use of the bow, and should be constantly provided with that weapon and with two javelins.’ If, however, this was intended to be the first step towards the introduction of universal military service, the design was never carried any further. Three hundred years later Leo is found echoing the same words, as a pious wish rather than as a practical expedient. The rank and file, however, of the imperial forces were now raised almost entirely within the realm, and well nigh every nation contained in its limits, except the Greeks, furnished a considerable number of soldiers. The Armenians and Isaurians in Asia, the ‘Thracians and Macedonians - or more properly the semi-Romanized Slavs - in Europe, were considered the best material by the recruiting officer.
The extraordinary permanence of all Byzantine institutions is illustrated by the fact that Maurice’s arrangements were found almost unchanged three hundred years after his death. The chapters of Leo’s Tactica which deal with the armament and organization of the troops are little more than a rendition of the similar parts of his predecessor’s Stratêgikon. The description of the heavy and light horseman, and of the infantry soldier, are identical in the two works, except in a few points of terminology.
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