Gas mules

The gas mules or gas muli ( Middle Greek γασμοῦλοι , singular: γασμοῦλος ), or Vasmuli ( Middle Greek βασμοῦλοι , singular: βασμοῦλος ) were people whose ancestors were Byzantine Greeks and " Franks ", i.e. Western Europeans. The name was used in the last centuries of the Byzantine Empire, when crusaders came into contact with Greek women. Gasmulen were later accepted as marines in the Byzantine Navy by Emperor Michael VIII (r. 1259–1261). With this, the term lost its ethnic (disparaging) connotation . It has generally been used to describe military personnel since the 14th century.

history

Michael VIII , who took Gasmulen into his fleet as marines.

After the Fourth Crusade there were isolated connections between Greeks and Latins, when the Latin Empire and the other Frankish principalities were established on Byzantine soil. The etymology of the name gasmulos is unknown. It appeared in the second half of the 13th century at the earliest. However, it is likely that it represents a connection with the Franconian word mulus = mule ". Even if it was generally used to designate children from mixed connections, in individual cases it was more likely to refer to the children of a Greek mother and a Franconian (often Venetian ) father. The gas mules were socially excluded. Neither the Greeks nor the Franks, who mistrusted their dual identity, trusted them. In a French account from around 1330 it says: "They introduce themselves to Greeks as Greeks and to Latins as Latins, they are everything to everyone ... "In a 1277 treaty between Michael VIII and the Venetians, the gasmules of Venetian origin were treated as Venetian citizens, but in the decades that followed many were made Byzantine subjects again. Some of their descendants wanted to sue their Venetian citizenship again, burdened them Byzantine-Venetian relations until the 1320s.

After Constantinople had been recaptured by Michael VIII's troops in 1261, the Emperor recruited the Gasmulen as mercenaries . Together with men from Laconia , they served as lightly armed naval infantry in Michael's efforts to rebuild a strong Byzantine navy . The Gasmulikon Corps played a prominent role in the Byzantine campaigns to retake the Aegean islands from around 1260 to 1270, but after the death of Michael VIII in 1285, his successor Andronikos II Palaiologos largely neglected the navy. After they were denied any payment by the ruler, only a few gas mules remained in the imperial service. Many of them sought employment in the Frankish and Turkish fleets, as bodyguards for dignitaries, or they turned to piracy.

At the beginning of the 14th century, the term "gas mulic service" (Greek: γασμουλική δουλεία, "service as gas mulos ") lost its specific ethnic connotations and was gradually expanded to include any service of lightly armed soldiers on water and on land. Under this name gas mules were used in the troops of the Byzantines and Ottomans and even in the Latin principalities of the Aegean (there the servitio et tenimento vasmulia was hereditary) in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Byzantine fleet, as it was built in the last century of its existence, continued to use its services. The Gasmulen played a role in the Byzantine Civil War of 1341-47 , when they their commander, the Megas Doux Alexios Apokaukos against John VI. Kantakouzenos supported. After the latter's victory, many of the gas pumps were released. Those from Gallipoli defected to the Turks and formed the teams for the first Ottoman fleet .

Individual evidence

• WA Heurtley: A Short History of Greece from Early Times to 1964 . Cambridge University Press, New York, New York and London, United Kingdom 1967, ISBN 0-521-09454-2 .

1. ↑ Heurtley 1967, p. 72 .: "The Frankish rule left many traces in the landscape, with great castles and isolated towers but it left little impression on the Greek population and their institutions. Conquerors and the conquered never really merged, except for a few cases of despised half-bloods (gas mules) who usually took the side of the Greeks. The new masters did not come in sufficient numbers to gain permanent access to the land and until the end they remained a group of garrisons in a foreign land. Their conquest remained an episode, never a formative factor in the life of the Greeks. "The New Franconian Empire" was supposed to disappear before the Turks invaded. They left little more than a few archaeological remains reminiscent of a brilliant interlude of Western knighthood. (The Frankish occupation has left many traces upon the countryside, in great castles and isolated towers, b ut it made little mark upon the Greek people and their institutions. Conquerors and the conquered never really amalgamated except to produce some despised half-castes ( Gasmoûloi ) who usually sided with the Greeks. The new comers did not come in sufficient numbers to obtain a firm grip on the country, and they remained to the end of a series of garrisons in a foreign country. Their conquest became an episode, not a formative factor in the life of Greece. 'New France' was to pass away for ever before the advance of the Turk, leaving behind not much more than archaeological remains to recall the brilliant interlude of western chivalry.)

• Mark C. Bartusis: The Late Byzantine Army: Arms and Society 1204-1453 . University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1997, ISBN 0-8122-1620-2 .

1. ↑ Bartusis 1997, page 44.
2. ↑ Bartusis 1997 pp. 45, 140 .: "They present themselves as Greeks to Greeks and Latins to Latins, being all things to everyone ...".
3. ↑ Bartusis 1997 pp. 44-47.
4. ↑ Bartusis 1997 pp. 68-69.
5. ↑ Bartusis 1997, pp. 69-70.

• Donald M. Nicol : Byzantium and Venice: A Study in Diplomatic and Cultural Relations . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom 1992, ISBN 978-0-521-42894-1 .

1. ^ Nicol 1992 pp. 199, 233.

• Hélène Ahrweiler : Byzance et la Mer: La Marine de Guerre, la Politique et les Institutiones Maritimes de Byzance aux VIIe – XVe Siècles ( French ). Presses universitaires de France, Paris, France 1966.

1. ↑ Ahrweiler 1966, page 405.

• Angeliki E. Laiou : Constantinople and the Latins: The Foreign Policy of Andronicus II, 1282-1328 . Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts 1972.

1. ↑ Laiou 1972 page 65.
2. ↑ Laiou 1972 pp. 271-272, 277.
3. ↑ Laiou 1972 page 75.

• Alexander Petrovich Kazhdan : Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium . Oxford University Press, New York, New York and Oxford, United Kingdom 1991, ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6 .

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Kazhdan 1991 page 823.