Byzantine Military Revolution: The Army That Brought the Empire to A Golden Age in the 10th Century

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After the Fall of Rome in the 5th century AD, the Roman empire persisted in the east as what is known today as “Byzantine empire” or eastern roman empire. In the 7th and 8th centuries, the Byzantines underwent a period of cultural and military decline, often referred to as the Byzantine Dark Ages. Only after decades of internal struggle and military defeat, did the Byzantine Empire manage to stabilize its position in the 9th century. This was due in no small part to the defensive effectiveness of its army. Although the army was well organized according to the so-called themes, military or administrative districts and centered around the tagmata, professional standing regiments formed by Emperor Constantine V. it lacked offensive capabilities. This insufficiency of the Byzantine army stood in stark contrast with the ambitions of the emperors. They wanted to take the fight to the Muslim states on their borders. This policy, however, called for a more professional and more offensively capable army. It called for military reforms. In this Video we’re looking at the three central changes that turned the Byzantine army into the force that should bring the Empire to a new Golden Age.

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Bibliography:
Browning, Robert, The Byzantine Empire, Washington 1992.
Haldon, Warfare, State and Society in the Byzantine World, 565-1204, London 1999.
Kühn, Hans-Joachim, Die byzantinische Armee im 10. und 11. Jahrhundert: Studien zur Organisation der Tagmata, Wien 1991.
McCotter, Stephen, s.v. Byzantine army, in: The Oxford Companion to Military History (online).
Theotokis, Gergios, Tactical Changes in the Byzantine Armies of the Tenth Century: Theory and Practice on the Battlefields of the East, in: Byzantine Military Tactics in Syria and Mesopotamia in the Tenth Century, Edinburgh 2018.
Treadgold, Warren T., Byzantium and Its Army, 284–1081. Stanford 1995.

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