Rise and Fall Of The Byzantine Military

Who are the Byzantines?

The Byzantines are often thought were the successors to the Roman Empire. The Byzantines can be dated back to 330 A.D. when the Roman Emperor Constantine split the Roman Empire into two, the East and the West. While the West struggled with Barbarians and larger states threatening its borders, the East lived in peace and was given time to prosper. As the West fell the East prospered and flourished and turned into the Byzantines. The Byzantines were a mighty empire stretching all across Asia and parts of Europe. Due to this they needed a strong military to defend their borders. At its peak, the Byzantines military was one of the strongest during the time. Though during its downfall the Byzantines relied on mostly mercenaries, militias, and civilians, its professional army was an amazing force to be reckoned with, utilizing modern weapons for their time while using Roman and Greek tactics. They were few in numbers they still fought with great courage and honor.

The Byzantine Military Structure:

The Byzantines took the idea of Roman Legions and improved it to help with a unit’s discipline and the fighting capabilities of the army. A group of 16 men formed what we in modern terms would call a platoon. Several of these “platoons” would form together to make a Bandon. The Bandons were made up of archers, normal infantry, and cavalry. Each separated in their own little “platoons”. Rather than the much later idea of Regiments of Horse during the 18th century where they acted individually from the infantry or skirmishes, the Byzantine Bandons each acted as one so the cavalry and infantry would fight as one. This meant that if one part of the Bandon was destroyed there would still be other units around. It allowed more flexible battle plans with each unit having their own cavalry and archer support. The Bandons formed together to make a Droungos, then two Drongos formed to make a Tourma. Four of those made a Thema, the largest military unit that the Byzantines fielded at that time.

Byzantine military units:

The Byzantine military and their units were a force to be reckoned with at their peak and they matched even Rome in terms of discipline and cohesion. Within their military they had special units and several shock units an example being the Cataphract. The Cataphracts were heavily armored cavalry that would charge into the front lines of the enemy. They wore such thick armor that swords and arrows were not be able to pierce it. The Byzantines used them as shock cavalry and to break through the opponent’s lines. The downside to this was that since they wore such heavy armor, they would get tired easily and they were very susceptible to heat stroke and heat exhaustion. Another unit was the Varangian Guard which was a crack infantry unit and the Emperor's personal bodyguards. They were armed with heavy armor like the Cataphracts and wielded large heavy axes that required two hands to use. The Varangian Guard served the Empire all the way up to the Fall of Constantinople. They also relied on barbarian mercenaries, often the same ones that sacked and destroyed the Western Roman Empire.

Byzantine Generals:

During the time of the Byzantine Empire they had several well respected and very skilled generals. They needed to be skilled due to the fact that they had such a small number of troops and they went up against enemies that were a lot larger in number. One of them being Belisarius, the man who was instrumental in taking back much of the Mediterranean from the Goths, he even fought his way back to Rome and conquered that. Along the way he became very popular with the people back in Byzantium. Due to this Emperor Justinian grew worried and he had him stripped of command, but several political friends saved him and gave him his command back but Justinian never gave him enough men or supplies. Another of their generals was Narses. Narses started out as the commander of the Imperial Bodyguards of Eunuchs and rose through the ranks quickly. He helped save Justinian’s throne during riots and helped establish Alexandria's leader. Soon he was put under command of Belisarius but the major differences between them caused the destruction of Milan and their arguments caused the whole campaign to halt. Later in his career he successfully defended the Balkans against barbarians and he destroyed the resurgence of the Ostrogoths.

Byzantine Equipment:

The Byzantines mainly used the same equipment as everyone else during this time with a few exceptions.One of these exceptions was Greek Fire. Greek Fire is most similar to Napalm or White Phosphorus. It was an incendiary liquid that the Byzantines would use to burn enemy ships during naval combat. It was most likely made using petroleum of some kind, because it wasn’t able to be put out using water. They used chain-mail armor for their troops whether they were on a horse or on foot. The Byzantine Navy was exceptionally skilled at defending their own seas using ships that look and fought like Roman ones. Thanks to Greek Fire they were able to defend their seas for much longer than they should have been able to. Their weapons were forged from iron and they carried shields into battle. They weren’t able to utilize any kind of gunpowder explosives or weapons and they probably wouldn’t have if they were given the opportunity. They mainly trained with a normal composite bows and javelins. Due to their numbers they wanted to be more mobile and a big factor of that was their horse archers and skirmishes. Gunpowder was unavailable to the Byzantines, though not having gunpowder weapons may have been their downfall towards the end of their empire. Most of the barbarian mercenaries that they hired used only the equipment they already had. Towards the end of their empire, the Byzantines struggled with supplying their own troops with weapons and equipment so they couldn't be worried with supplying mercenaries .

Fall of the Byzantine Military:

The Byzantine military at their prime was a force to be reckoned with but near their end and downfall of the empire they were reduced to only several thousand. This happened because they had over extended themselves and they were unable to defend their borders. The Byzantines under-estimated the need for good generals and a larger army when they lost their Western territories to their enemies. Due to several decades of warring and fighting, they slowly lost more and more soldiers and land until all that remained was Constantinople and a few other territories. Once the Ottoman Turks started to move in there was nothing the Byzantines had left to throw at their cannons and rifles. Their once proud Cataphracts and infantry could do nothing against the growing number of Turkish swordsmen and cannons. The fall of the Byzantines marked the end of the Middle Ages and began paving the way for rifles and cannons to become the new way to fight. The mighty Byzantines and their army are now just a footnote in history.

Sources:

Print: Greece and Rome at War by Adrian Goldsworthy

Online:

Diehl, Charles. “The Military of the Byzantines.” Weapons and Warfare, 15 Aug. 2015, weaponsandwarfare.com/2015/08/14/the-military-of-the-byzantines/.

“Byzantine Empire.” Wikipedia, 13 Oct. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_army.

Cartwright, Mark. “Byzantine Empire.” Ancient History, 19 Sept. 2018, www.ancient.eu/Byzantine_Empire/.

Pictures :

Nicol, Donald, and John Teall. “Byzantine Empire.” Britannica, 22 Aug. 2019, www.ancient.eu/Byzantine_Empire/.

“Cataphract.” Wikipedia, 12 Nov. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cataphract.

Mark, Joshua. “Belisaruis.” Ancient History, 20 Sept. 2019, www.ancient.eu/Belisarius/.