Download PDF | Mirosław J. Leszka Szymon Wierzbiński - Strategoí_ early Byzantine military commanders in the times of Zeno and Anastasius (474–518) (2024).
304 Pages
Introduction
This book was created as part of research project Byzantine military elites from the time of Theodosius II to Anastasius I (408–518). Socio-political study1 and presents the eponymous issue during the reign of emperors Anastasius and Zeno2 . The period of the reign of the earlier Byzantine rulers, Theodosius II, Marcian and Leo I, was discussed in the work of Łukasz Pigoński3 , a member of the research team realising the aforementioned research project.
The publication is divided into five main parts. The first part presents the Byzantine army, the command of which was the basis for the position of the commanding staff in society. Various aspects of its functioning were shown, from its organisation, numbers, to the remuneration of soldiers. The second part was devoted to the policies of Zeno and Anastasius regarding the appointment to the highest positions in the Byzantine army, that is, the magistri militum in praesenti, per Orientem, per Illyricum and per Thracias. What guided the aforementioned rulers when they were deciding to entrust these positions to specific people, what criteria did they use, and to what extent were their decisions forced by a specific military or political situation? The answers to these questions are pivotal to the considerations in this part of the work. In the third, the main opponents of the Byzantine troops and of their commanders were characterised, in general terms. Both the common Byzantine soldiers and their leaders, the members of the military elites, fought i.a.
the Ostrogoths, Persians and Bulgars; this section also examines the fate of the struggles against these peoples in the times of Zeno and Anastasius. The fourth part traces the activity of military elites during important political events, such as usurpations and military rebellions. We attempt to indicate how each of the above-mentioned categories of events influenced the balance of power within the aforementioned elites.
The fifth and final part was devoted to ten selected as examples representatives of the military elites of the era of Zeno and Anastasius. The individual texts were constructed, as far as the source information allowed, according to the following scheme: origins, education, career (military, civilian), portrayal in the sources, family, and evaluation of achievements in the military sphere. Information about the military elites in the times of Zeno and Anastasius is scattered across various sources. Here we would like to draw attention to only some of these, the ones which are particularly important to us for various reasons. Candidus the Isaurian. Candidus wrote History, encompassing the years 457–4914 .
He came from Trachia in Isauria, was born around 430, and was an educated man – although educated only for an Isaurian, as Photius seems to suggest when assessing his way of writing5 . He served as secretary for, as he himself wrote, the most powerful men in Isauria6 . His work has survived only in a summarised form. For understandable reasons the author presented the Isaurian point of view. History was most likely written at the beginning of the reign of Anastasius. Malchus of Philadelphia in Palestine, a sophist, the author of a work entitled Byzantiaka, which has not survived. According to the text known to Photius, it covered the period from 474 to 480. We have indications that it co vered the period stretching back to Constantine the Great and up to the times of Anastasius (491/518). It was written either during the reign of Anastasius or Justin I.
The preserved fragments of this work provide important information regarding Gothic-Byzantine relations. In its tone, unlike Candide’s work, this work is anti-Isaurian in nature7 . Pseudo-Joshua the Stylite is the author of the Chronicle covering the years 495–506 and presenting the history of Edessa, Amida and Mesopotamia. The author was contemporary with the events about which he wrote. He served as treasurer of the Church in Edessa. The Chronicle was attributed to Joshua the Stylite, a monk at the monastery in Zuqnin.
It contains unique information regarding the usurpation of Illus and Leontius and the history of the Byzantine- -Persian war of 503–5068 . Procopius of Caesarea (ca. 500–ca. 560) – considered one of the greatest, if not the greatest, Byzantine historian – is the author of, among others, The Wars, which presents the history of the struggles of the Byzantine Empire in the era of Justinian I against the Persians, Vandals and Goths. This work is useful to us because its author preceded his story about Justinian’s times with information about the state of relations between Byzantium and the aforementioned peoples during the earlier period. Hence, his account contains valuable information about Byzantine commanders taking part in the struggle against the Vandals and the war with Persians of 503–5069 . John Malalas is the author of Chronography, which begins with the creation of the world and ends in 532 (in the Antiochian version, published just after this date), and in the year 565 (maybe 573/574) in the Constantinopolitan edition, written in the sixties and seventies of the sixth century.
It is not an outstanding work in terms of historical technique, but it sometimes provides information that is very interesting for our considerations and which is not available in other sources10. Marcellinus Comes, who came from Illyricum and wrote in the 6th century, is the author of the Chronicle, which covers the period from 379 to 534 and is a continuation of Jerome’s chronicle. Although the author was writing his work in Constantinople, he composed it in Latin, his native language. In the Chronicle, one can find a number of interesting from our perspective and absent from other sources information about the activity of Byzantine commanders, especially during the reign of emperors Zeno and Anastasius11.
John of Antioch is the author of a chronicle of the world, which opens with its creation and ends in the year 610. This work has survived only in fragments. It was written after 610 and probably before 631. Its author was to have been a bishop of Antioch (perhaps Monophysite, in the years 631–649). The chronicle is based on good sources, including some which are now lost (e.g. the work of Eustathius of Epiphania). Scholars consider John of Antioch’s technique as a historian to be very good. For our subject, this Chronicle is one of the best sources, providing a lot of information that cannot be found in other authors12. Chronography of Theophanes the Confessor encompasses years 284–813. It was created very soon after 813.
The role played by Theophanes - a monk and defender of the cult of icons - in the creation of this work is debatable. Some scholars see him not so much as the author but as the editor of the materials he received from George Syncellus, his friend. For the period in which we are in terested, the Chronography includes a number of important information which Theophanes took, among others, from Theodore Lector’s History of the Church, which has not been fully preserved to this day13, but he also knew the accounts of Priscus, Procopius of Caesarea, John Malalas and John of Antioch14.
The reader will find a detailed description of the source base constituting the foundation of our knowledge about the reigns of Zeno and Anastasius, and which is necessarily also useful for our research, in the works devoted to these rulers which we list below. Łukasz Pigoński made interesting comments about the source base for the considerations appearing in this book regarding the military elites in the period from Theodosius II to Leo I15. When it comes to the academic literature, our starting point consisted of three prosopographical works covering the period in which we are interested, and authored by: John R. Martindale16, Christoph Begass17 and Łukasz Jarosz18, as well as monographs presenting the rule of Emperor Zeno, by Rafał Kosiński19 and by Peter Crawford20, and the rule of Anastasius, by Carmelo Capizzi21, Fiona K. Haarer22 and Mischa Meier23.
Particularly significant for us, for its descriptions of the leadership of the Byzantine army, was the work of Evgenij Glušanin24. Texts devoted to individual representatives of military circles who were active in the period in question were also useful. It should be noted, however, that only some of them had separate works devoted to them. These were i.a. Illus25, Trocundes26 and Hypatius27.
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the reviewers of this work, Professor Ireneusz Milewski and Professor Szymon Olszaniec, for their valuable leads and inspiring suggestions. *** This book was written as part of a research project financed by the National Research Centre (Poland). Decision number DEC-2018/31/B/HS3/03038 (Wschodniorzymskie elity wojskowe od Teodozjusza II do Anastazjusza I (408-518). Studium społeczno-polityczne).
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