Download PDF | Byzantine Imperial Guardsmen 925-1025 The Tághmata and Imperial Guard, By Raffaele D’Amato (Author), Giuseppe Rava (Illustrator), Osprey Publishing, 2012.
66 Pages
INTRODUCTION
Between the 9th and 11th centuries the East Roman Empire, at that time dominating most of south-eastern Europe from its capital in Constantinople, enjoyed a period of unprecedented splendour and renewed vigour under the rule of the Macedonian emperors of the Porphyrogenitus dynasty. (The modern Anglophone convention of referring to this polity as the Byzantine Empire is necessarily followed in this text for the sake of clarity, but it should be remembered that the inhabitants of the Eastern empire called themselves ‘Rhomaioi? or Romans.
The Byzantine state derived directly and without interruption from the Eastern capital, administration and provinces of the Late Roman state, which had survived the barbarian invasions of the 4th and Sth centuries AD that destroyed the Western Empire.) The Macedonian dynasty, originating in northwestern Thrace, acceded to the throne of Byzantium due to the energy and intelligence of its founder, Basil I (r.867-886). It based its strength on the twin foundations of a reasoned policy of fiscal and bureaucratic centralization, which allowed the emperors to contain the centrifugal tendencies of the powerful Anatolian aristocracy, and — above all — on military power. Despite the distractions of struggles over the Imperial succession, during this period the army was consistently well organized, well trained and well paid.
The proof of its efficiency is the success of the 9th-11th century Byzantine emperors in overcoming the serious crisis caused by Simeon I of Bulgaria’s invasion of the Western provinces; in repelling attacks against Constantinople itself by the Russo-Scandinavians of Igor and Svyatoslav of Kiev; and in resisting pressure in the East from powerful Islamic enemies — both the Hamdanid Emirate of Aleppo and Mosul (the guardian and rival of the now-decadent Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad), and the Fatimids, who from 969 dominated Egypt and threatened Byzantine Syria.
The elite element of the armies that achieved this success were the regiments forming the Imperial Tághmata, stationed around the capital, and the Guards forming the military elements of the Imperial household. Nikêphóros II Phokás (r.963–969), Iohannes Dzimiskés (r.969–976) and Basil II Porphyrogenitus (r.976–1025) were the protagonists of the great military victories that characterized the ‘age of Byzantine reconquests’ spanning the late 10th and early 11th centuries. These triumphs were due not only to the military genius of these rulers, but to the technical and organizational legacy of Imperial Rome. At the time of Basil II’s death in 1025 the empire extended from the river Danube to the Euphrates, and from the Adriatic Sea to the mountains of Armenia.
THE REGIMENTS – FORMATION & ORGANIZATION THE THÉMATA
The Byzantine army of this period was the result of a development that had started in the 7th century. The then Emperor Heraclius (r.610–641) had begun to divide the Imperial territories in Anatolia into military provinces or Thémata, which corresponded with the provincial army corps from which the Thémata took their names: e.g., Anatolikón, Opsíkion, Optímaton, etc.
With the passage of time the system was extended, since it allowed an easier defence of the Eastern Byzantine borders from the repeated Muslim incursions. This system of standing provincial army corps also spread to the empire’s Western fronts, and by the end of the 9th century this kind of subdivision appears to have been widely consolidated. By the death of Basil II in 1025 the whole Imperial territory apart from the region surrounding Constantinople itself was divided into 47 Thémata. Each Théma was subject to a military governor or stratêgós, who was also the military commander of the provincial army (stratós) that was stationed there. In some widespread border regions the military command was given separately to a dhoux, who led the army corps stationed in those places.
In some Thémata a civil officer, the protonotarios – assisted by a praitor (also called a dikasthes or krites), and by a sakellários or kartoularios – supervised the juridical and financial administration. The provincial army corps were composed partly of professional soldiers (stratiotes), and partly of local farmer-soldiers, who in exchange for periodic military service to the state were granted small land holdings. Both the land and the military obligation passed by inheritance to their sons, continued title to the former depending upon continued fulfillment of the latter. (Both professional and part-time soldiers were paid, however.) These Thematic armies constituted the military frontier forces of the Byzantine Empire, and were the true advocates of the ‘age of reconquest’. For much of this period the Eastern Thémata were predominant, and the elite Théma Anatólikon excelled above all. The soldiers of the Imperial Tághmata were often recruited among the Thematics.
THE TÁGHMATA
The territory of Constantinople and its surrounding regions was not organized as a Théma. The defence of the capital was guaranteed by the presence there, or within a practical distance, of a central field army. (This was stationed in the Thracian district called Tafla or Talaya in Islamic sources, in Macedonia in the west, and in Bithynia in the east.) These regiments formed the elite Imperial Tághmata; the cavalry joined the emperor on his military expeditions or manoeuvred to protect the capital when it came under threat, together with the infantry which normally formed the garrison of the city. These were the regiments that, at the moment of the appointment of a new Avtokrator or Vasiléfs (emperor), expressed the consensus of the whole army by raising the newly elected emperor on their shields. Collectively, this army was the spearhead during the Byzantine counteroffensives against the Arabs and Bulgarians in the 9th–10th centuries.
The Tághmata was composed of professional soldiers – paid, long-service mercenaries – who were recruited both inside and outside the territory of the empire. Detachments of the Tághmata were also stationed in the provinces, where they operated under the direction of their own officers responding to the local dhoukes or stratêgói. Indeed, in the period of the great Arab attacks by the Emir Saif ad-Dawla, the central army was constantly present in the border regions, and the unified command of the whole army under the Dhoméstikos of the Skhólai assured the co-ordination of defensive and offensive operations by Thematic and Taghmatic troops.
The 11th century was characterized by an increase in the Taghmatic units directly created by the central power, and a corresponding decrease in the numbers of Thematic contingents. The soldiers composing the Tághmata were under the administrative supervision of the Logothétês tou Stratiotikoù, the Imperial minister responsible for military affairs, whose office (logothésion) compiled and updated the katalogoi (lists) of the enlisted troops, and provided their salaries (rogai). The Tághmata of this period comprised five elite regiments: the Skhólai, Exkoúvitoi or Exkoubitores, Ikanátoi, Vighla or Arithmós, and – from AD 970 – the Athanatoi. In a wider sense, the denomination Tághmata also embraced parts of the Imperial Guard, the infantry regiments which defended Constantinople – the Noúmeroi and Teichistai – and also the units of the Vasilikoploimon, the Imperial war fleet stationed at Constantinople. THE SKHÓLAI The Tághma of Skhólai was the most important and certainly the oldest in the whole army, since it originated in the Scholae Palatinae units created by Constantine the Great at the beginning of the 4th century. The 5th-century Notitia Dignitatum lists seven Scholae for the Eastern Empire.
In time their role of palace guardsmen reduced their campaign effectiveness, but during the reign of Constantine V in the mid-8th century they were reorganized to restore their military value. They became an efficient cavalry field force, the spearhead of the renewed offensive capability of the empire in the 9th and 10th centuries. According to a treatise by Nikêphóros Ouranós, probably written for the emperor on the occasion of Basil II’s second campaign against the Bulgarians, during the 10th century the Skhólai were organized in 30 vánda.1 Since the 6th century the vándon had been the classic tactical unit, and in the 10th century the term might refer to a strength of either 300–400 men (according to the Taktika of Leo VI the Wise, c. 903, and the roughly contemporaneous Sylloge Tacticorum), or of only 50 (according to the Praecepta Militaria of the Emperor Nikêphóros Phokás). Indeed, with reference to the palace units the figure of 50 men per vándon is more probable, giving a total of 1,500 Skholárioi.
In any case, we should consider such numbers as purely indicative. New levies of Taghmatic soldiers were made on the occasion of large military expeditions or offensive operations: e.g. 1,037 Skholaríoi from Thrace and Macedonia (about 20 vánda) participated in the 911 expedition against Crete. For his campaigns against the Arabs, Nikêphóros Phokás increased the number of the Taghmatic vánda by strengthening the extra-heavy cavalry termed at that time klivanophoroi (horsemen wearing the heavy armour called the klivanion). In the whole Tághmata there were probably three units of klivanophoroi, of strengths varying between 384 and 504 men.
Officer ranks and appointments The commander of the Skhólai had the title of Dhoméstikos, inherited from a Late Roman subordinate of the Magister Officiorum, the first among the civilian functionaries of the empire. However, in 767 Constantine V used this title for a completely new rank to command the newly reorganized Skhólai. In the period considered here the Dhoméstikos of the Skhólai was the most senior officer of the whole Imperial Tághmata, supreme commander of the army in the absence of the emperor, and Stratêgós of the Théma Anatolikon.
In the usual Byzantine fashion, the officer holding this military appointment simultaneously held parallel Imperial court titles and dignities – those of Anthypatos and Patríkios, usually associated in his case with the rank or status of Protospathários, ‘first among the swordbearers’ (our sources are the 9th/ 10th-century Kletorologion of Phylotheus, the Taktikón Benesevic, and the Taktikón held in the Escorial Palace library). From the reign of Rhomanós I (r.920–944) the appointment was duplicated, with Dhoméstikoi for the Western and Eastern Skhólai; however, only the Eastern officer was called Megas Dhoméstikos (‘Great…’), and received all the titles and dignities mentioned.2 Directly subordinate to the Dhoméstikos was the Topotêrêtes (‘vice’ or ‘substitute’), who sometimes received the Imperial dignity of Spathárokandidatos (according to the Kletorologion of Phylotheus, AD 899). His substitute role, especially in the 10th–11th centuries, is indicated in the treatise De velitatione bellica attributed to Nikêphóros Phokás, in which the Topotêrêtes is listed as the operational commander of the possible Taghmatic regiment present in the theatre of war.
Again, the Topotêrêtes led the 869 Skholárioi stationed in Thrace and Macedonia who participated in the expedition against Crete in the year 969. We should remember that in this period the supreme army command role of the Megas Dhoméstikos made it necessary for him to delegate a part of his operational command function to an immediate subordinate. By at latest the early 970s, when the Escorial Taktikón was written, there were two Topotêrêtai. Third in rank among the senior offikialoi of the Skhólai was the Kartoularios, with the Imperial dignity of Spathários, who was responsible for the whole administration of the regiment, e.g. the enlistment and payment of the troops. His duties differed from those of analogous Thematic officers in that he also had an important operational role as commander of half the regiment under the Topotêrêtes when the Skhólai went to war without the Dhoméstikos. The individual vánda were commanded by kómites, who enjoyed the dignity of Imperial Spatharioi. Under them were officers called – confusingly – dhoméstikoi, second in rank and having the Imperial status of Stratores (‘shield-bearers’). In a 50-man unit they commanded a dekarchia or line of ten troopers.
These officers were the direct descendants of the domestici protectores of the Late Roman Empire. The Notitia Dignitatum and other sources of the Late Empire make a distinction between domestici equitum and domestici peditum, and the fact that the Liber de Ceremoniis still mentions dhoméstikoi peditou and skholárioi peditou confirms the existence, at the beginning of the 10th century, of the infantry vándon as a sub-unit among the Skhólai. The rank of Dhoméstikos was also held by the officer appointed as Proximos, and the importance of this appointment had increased in exactly the period under consideration. From an officer with the function of maintaining the contacts between the junior and senior ranks of a Tághma, he had been assigned to the entourage of the emperor both at court and during military campaigns, to manage special missions for the emperor and to act as liaison officer between him and the Taghmatic regiments. The Anonymus de re militari informs us that in camp his tent was pitched beside those of the Kómês ton Voukinon (the commanders of the trumpeters), so as to form a military staff ready to transmit the operational commands of the emperor or the Dhoméstikos. A letter of Rhomanós I informs us of a diplomatic mission performed in Armenia by the Spathárokandidatos and Proximos Konstantinos.
Next in rank were the junior officer standard-bearers of the regiment: the protiktores, the eutychophoroi, the skeptrophoroi (with status inferior to that of Stratores), and under them the axiomatikoi and the mandátores. The protiktores were descended directly from the bodyguards of the Late Roman Dominus, the Custodes Divini Lateris. Incorporated in the Domestici and then in the Scholae during the 6th–7th centuries, they now had the role of bearers of the skevi – a generic word that in the Liber de Ceremoniis Aulae Byzantinae of Constantine Porphyrogenitus denotes the Imperial emblems. In this case, however, it could be synonymous with the golden shafts also called trophea, mounting representations of arms and armour. In this period protiktores, dhoméstikoi and kómites were still appointed to their ranks directly by the emperor himself, in a ceremony that took place in the presence of the Dhoméstikos ton Skholón, during which the officer was handed a document termed the provatoreia or chartion, attesting to his investiture. The eutychophoroi bore the seven eutykia or ptykia, the standards with the image of Fortuna and of the Winged Victory inherited from the triumphal symbols of ancient Rome. The skeptrophoroi, with the status of Kandidatoi, bore the 15 Romaikà sképtra, i.e. the Roman consular sceptres; some of them, topped with a cross or an eagle and covered with purple cloth, were called Víla. It is probable that these three categories of standard-bearers were attached to the staff of each kómês. The axiomatikoi, according to Haldon, were the simple junior officers of the Skhólai – the equivalent of the old ducenarii and centenarii of the Scholae Palatinae. Following the reforms of Constantine V these had seen their importance reduced, but kept their The Slaying of the Holy Fathers on Sinai. This detail from a miniature of the turn of the 10th/ 11th centuries shows images of Imperial infantrymen, probably copied from the Constantinople garrison regiments. The headwear is the typical turban or phakeolion, those of alternate figures here being coloured violet-red and dark green. The military tunics are (from left to right) green, red, and white stripes; light blue with gold circlets; and dark red chequered with silver circlets, opening on the right and white-lined. All the embroidery round the cuffs is in gold thread. The trousers are (from left to right) scarlet embroidered in light yellow; violet-red with green-yellow lines and white dots; and green with gold embroidery. The low boots are white and silver. Note also the command sash of the officer in the foreground, probably the pektorarin or loros of the sources. The swords are in silver; the scabbards are black with white fittings, and dark red with yellow fittings. The small cheiroskoutaria shields are in red with a silver rim, and light blue with white dots and gold rim. (Menologion of Basil II, folio 316, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Rome; facsimile by Pio Franchi de Cavalieri, author’s collection)
official function of escorting during official ceremonies those who were invested with a dignity or axioma . Serving directly under the Proximos were the mandátores (‘messengers’), who provided liaison between different units or inside a single vándon . According to the Taktiká of Leo (XI, 20), each officer with the rank of kómês or above should have a mandátor at the disposition of his immediate superior officer, for the prompt transmission of his orders. Last in the hierarchy were the simple Skholárioi Tághmatikoi, the soldiers of the regiment. THE ESKOUBITORES This second regiment of the Tághmata was created in the second half of the 5th century by the Emperor Leo I the Thracian, with the purpose of creating a body of 300 fighting guardsmen more effective than the Scholae Palatinae . However, this unit too had lost much of its effectiveness before the 8th-century reforms of Constantine V put it alongside the Skhólai in the new field army. In the year 949 the Liber de Ceremoniis mentions 700 Eskoubitores with all their officers. However, this reference is only to the contingents in the capital, called ‘Peratics’ (from the name of the quarter of Sykai-Peran, on the opposite side of the Golden Horn waterway). Considering that sections of this Tághma were also located in Thrace and Macedonia, we might consider a total strength of 900 Eskoubitores reasonable. This would accord with the reference in the Vita Ioannici that mentions 18 vánda of Eskoubitores for the period immediately following the reforms of Constantine V. Officer ranks and appointments In 765 the command of this regiment was given to a Dhoméstikos, replacing the old Comes Excubitorum of the Late Roman period. Sources of the late 9th century and the Kletorologion of Phyloteus (pp. 111–113) give to him the status of Protospathários and the Imperial dignities of Patríkios and Anthypatos. The 10th-century Taktikón of the Escorial even mentions three dhoméstikoi : one for the Eastern Exkoubitorei, one for the Western, and a third, of slightly lower status, for the unit stationed inside the walls of Constantinople.
However, this triplication must have been only temporary, because the 11th-century sources mention only a single commander of the Eskoubitores . Within this Tághma too a Topotêrêtes – in our period, with the Imperial status of Spathárokandidatos – commanded the whole unit when the Dhoméstikos was absent, his duties being similar to those of his counterpart in the Skhólai. The triplication of the command of the Eskoubitores during the 10th century may explain why both the Liber de Ceremoniis and the Escorial Taktikón mention or suggest the existence of more than one Topotêrêtai . Next came the Kartoularios, with the Imperial dignity of Spathários , whose functions and duties were substantially identical in all the regiments of the Tághmata. The individual vánda within the Eskoubitores were commanded by skribones, with the Imperial status of Stratóres, who corresponded to the kómites of the Skhólai. (These senior officers of the Tághma should not be confused with the deputatoi skribones, who, according to the Taktiká of Leo VI, were attached to each Taghmatic and Thematic unit with the duty of recovering wounded men on the battlefield.) After the Protomandátor – an officer similar in functions to the Proximos of Skhólai – the junior officers of the Eskoubitores were standard-bearers with the ranks of drakonarioi , skeuophoroi , signophoroi and sinatores ithin the vánda corresponding to those of the junior dhoméstikoi of the Skhólai, as assumed after the reforms of Constantine V. They bore – with fierce pride – the 12 drakontia, which in peacetime were kept in the Church of the Lord inside the Sacred Palace. (The draco, which in Late Roman times had become the common standard of the legiones and vexillationes, was now mainly limited to the elite Guard regiments.) True flags were carried by 18 officers generically called skeuophoroi; this was the number of standard-poles kept in the Church of the Lord, corresponding with the presumptive number of vánda of Eskoubitores. Other standard-bearers, the signophoroi, carried the signa or semeia; these were either Imperial banners of purple cloth embroidered in gold with images of the emperor, or shafts bearing such images in gilded wood. With the reforms of Constantine V the sinatores had lost their original role of senior officers of the regiment, immediately subordinate to the old Comes Excubitorum and his Domesticus in the Late Roman period; now they were simply junior officers bearing skevi standards and flags.
The ranks of the Eskoubitores included the legatarioi mandátores, directly subordinate to the Protomandátor. In addition to their military functions as messengers, they also retained the city police duties typical of their Late Roman forerunners. THE ‘VIGLA’ OR ‘ARITHMÓS’ In AD 786 the Empress Irene ordered the cavalry troopers of the Théma Thrakésion (the Vexillationes Arithmói), under their commanders (kómites and dhroungárioi), to rush to Constantinople to strengthen her control over the capital. One of these regiments – perhaps the Comites Arcadiaci – was transformed into a new Tághma loyal only to her, the Víghla or Vigilia. During the reign of Nikêphóros I (r.802–811) the Víghla became, for all intents and purposes, an operational Taghmatic regiment. It is clear from the Liber de Ceremoniis that in the 10th century this Tághma mainly had the duty of ensuring the emperor’s security and protecting the Sacred Palace, as well as guarding the Constantinople Hippodrome. The name itself, from the Latin vigilia, is synonymous by extension with watchmen, guards or patrols, referring to its duties within the walls of the capital. We have no reference to its numerical strength, but it probably had a similar structure to the other Tághmata, being divided into vánda each of 50 men.
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