Mercenary (Byzantium)

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Foreigners had served as mercenaries in the Eastern Roman Army since the 4th century . The imperial bodyguard ( hetaireia ) consisted entirely of barbarians, around 900 besides Khazars and Arabs also Franks . They were less involved in inner-Byzantine power struggles and also had the advantage that, as foreigners, they could not pose as emperor themselves. The Byzantine polymath Michael Psellos described how the counter-emperor Isaak Komnenus surrounded himself in 1057 with a bodyguard made up of Italians (presumably Normans ) and Tauro Scythians . They were armed with long lances and battle axes.

terminology

The term mercenary ( mistophoroi ) appears from the end of the 10th century, later the terms symmachoi (allies) and ethnikoi (foreigners) are used synonymously. The mercenaries were theoretically under the command of a Byzantine ethnarch , but seem above all to have followed their own leaders.

pay

Since the late 6th century, the gold reserves of the Byzantine Empire were no longer sufficient to pay wages , and some soldiers were supplied with natural goods. The date of actual military land creation is controversial, but these are usually traced back to Emperor Herakleios . From when such lands were also assigned to mercenaries is unclear, but among the Comnenes a number of Franconian mercenaries held fortified goods in the province of Armeniakon .

The mercenaries did not have to be paid in gold either. Niketas Choniates describes how barbaric and semi-barbarian ( mixobarbaroi ) mercenaries were assigned goods, probably for their maintenance. There is also evidence that Robert Crispin and Roussel Phrangopolos owned goods in the Armeniakon.

Varangians

The Varangian Guard in the Chronicle of Johannes Skylitzes (12th century)

Varangians traditionally served in the imperial bodyguard ( Varägergarde ) and then returned to their Scandinavian homeland with rich wages from Tsarigrad or Tsarigard (German Tsar city , Slavic name for Constantinople ) . The most famous representative is the later King Harald III. from Norway , who commanded a troop of 500 men and whose treasures were allegedly barely able to carry even twelve young warriors when he returned home. Varangians have also been in the imperial army since 911 , 700 seamen ( Gasmouloi ) served in the navy in a campaign against Crete in 902 and 629 in 949 under Konstantin Porphyrogennetus .

415 Varangians took part in the Italian campaign of 936. They were also involved in the battles against the Arabs in Syria in 955. Anglo-Saxons have also been among the “Varangians” since the 11th century , perhaps through the direct mediation of Eduard the Confessor .

The expansionism of Basileos II.

Sheppard sees the expansion policy of Basil II (976-1018) as a main reason for the changed composition of the Byzantine army . With the transition from a defensive strategy to territorial expansion and the need for occupying forces, professional full-time soldiers were needed. Armenians , Magyars , Khazars , Rus , Serbs and Bulgarians were recruited through treaties with the respective rulers. Even the Arab enemies commented on the multicultural nature of the Byzantine troops, in which communication was no longer possible without an interpreter. However, these auxiliary troops were considered allies ( symmachoi ), not mercenaries.

The crisis in the 11th century

It is common to assume that the thematic constitution and the accompanying army of free peasants fell into crisis in the 11th century and mercenaries were increasingly employed.

Andersen assumes that it was Constantine X's (1059-1067) fear of further mutinies that led to a reduction in the standing army. “After a short time… stocky Anatolian peasants and Armenian mountain people were no longer marching under the flags of the empire, but hired mercenaries from the edge of the empire.” These included Pechenegs and Oghuz from the Danube , Varangians and Rus from the Volga, as well as Normans, Franks and Sicilians . Since Constantine had reversed the tax reforms of his predecessor, the Comnene Isaac, he had to save elsewhere, and this other position was the army. After Franzius the fortifications fell into disrepair, the ships rotted in the docks and the arsenals were no longer replenished. “... the Byzantine army was no longer the outstanding force it had been fifty years earlier [1017]. The provincial troops were insufficient to protect their own districts from the raids and could not deliver any men for the emperor's campaigns. ”This is how Steven Runciman describes the situation at the accession to the throne of Michael VII and then describes the reluctance of the nobility his estates troops dig , the resolution of the cavalry troops on the Syrian border and the understaffing of the Anatolian Guard regiments. "The bulk of the army consisted now of foreign mercenaries." Among them were Rus, Scandinavians ( Varangians ), Franconia, Turkmen , Pechenegs , Cumans and Guzzen ( Oguz ). The free farmers were impoverished and neglected at that time.

Forced recruitment

In addition to mercenaries, there were also foreigners who did not volunteer in the Byzantine army . These included deportees , prisoners of war and slaves. Manuel I compensated the owners when slaves entered the army.

In 688 Justinian II collected Slavs in Bulgaria and the area of Thessaloniki , "partly voluntarily and partly not" and settled them in the province of Opsikion . Among these settlers he brought together 30,000 soldiers for a campaign against the Arabs in AD 692, of whom 20,000 then deserted, whereupon the emperor had the remaining 10,000 killed along with the women and children who had remained in Bithynia .

In the 1040s 15,000 Pechenegen prisoners of war , who had been forcibly resettled as farmers on the Balkan Peninsula , were sent to eastern Anatolia to fight the Turks in Skylitzes (460) . In 1124 the Emperor John II captured numerous Turks whom he forced to convert and incorporated into the army. (Alexiade III, 26). The pirate Çaka Bey was also named after Nikephorus III. enlisted as a prisoner (Alexiade II, 114).

Before his ascent, Tatikios was a slave like his father.

In other cases it is not entirely clear whether military service was voluntary. In 843 about several thousand Persians fled to Byzantium and joined the army here. In 941, the entire tribe of the Arab Banū H'abit transferred to the Byzantine side, and the men subsequently also joined the army (ibid.).

Francs

This collective term included residents of Gaul (later Franconian Empire ), Germania (later Eastern Franconia ) and Germanic-speaking settlers from Italy.

Francs are proven from 900 in the imperial bodyguard. According to Shepard, however, there is no evidence of Frankish mercenaries in the Byzantine army before 1038; they only appear in mass form in the springs from the middle of the 11th century. Since 1047, the uprising of Leon Tornikes against Constantine IX. Monomachos they are also proven in Constantinople. Magadalino estimates that in 1057 around 2,000 and in 1071 at least 3,000 Normans served in the Byzantine army, mainly as heavy lancers. Two Tagmata were stationed in Koloneia in the province of Armeniakon , one in the capital itself. In addition, between 1050 and 1076 at least 500 francs had their winter quarters in Armeniakoi, including the notorious later rebels Hervé Phrangopoulos (with 300 men), Robert Crispin and Roussell von Bailleul (with 400 men). The Franks were traditionally considered greedy ( philochrēmaton )

Together with the Franks, Normans were recruited for campaigns against the Turks. Normans are thus occupied in battles in Diyarbakir , Erzerum , Mantzikert and Edessa .

Also Philaretos Brachamios sat in his part of the state to Germanikeia by Matthew of Edessa , a 800 Norman mercenaries.

Cumans

In the run-up to the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, the Cuman mercenaries under Joseph Tarchaniotes , after Runciman a born Turk, went over to Alp Arslan before the first enemy contact .

Pechenegen

In the 1040s 15,000 Pechenegen prisoners of war , who had been forcibly resettled as farmers on the Balkan Peninsula, were sent to eastern Anatolia to fight the Turks in Skylitzes (460) .

Rus

In 988, Basil II asked Vladimir I of Kiev for troops to put down a rebellion in his eastern armies. Vladimir sent 6,000 men and received the hand of Anna Porphyrogeneta , Basileos' sister. There were also initiatives by individual groups. In 1020, 800 Rus crossed the Black Sea , supposedly to hire mercenaries in Constantinople. However, due to previous bad experiences with marauding barbarians, their intentions were distrusted and they were all gutted.

Bulgarians

Under Justinian II , 688/89 or 689/90, Bulgarian or Slavic troops were forcibly recruited.

Serbs

According to Konstantin Porphyrogennetos, the Serbs had the status of federates in the first centuries of the Slavic conquest of the Balkan Peninsula and had to provide the Byzantine emperor with 500 soldiers for major military undertakings. In the battle of Sirmium in 1167, Serbian "allies" fought on the side of Byzantium for the last time.

Armenians

Armenians had always provided a significant part of the standing army. Constantine IX However, Monomachus had disbanded the Armenian militia in 1053 , and Constantine X. Dukas began persecutions of Armenian Monophysites , which complicated relations with the empire.

Armenians mostly made up the main group of ethnikoi . However, the empire had always been under strong Byzantine influence, and orthodox Armenians were not necessarily viewed as foreigners. Already Maurikios had Armenians to Thrace resettled where they were to serve as soldiers. From Constantine X to Alexios I , Armenians held high military posts throughout and were mostly quickly Byzantinized / Romanized .

Remarks

  1. ↑ Jonathan Shepard: The uses of the Franks in eleventh-century Byzantium. Anglo-Norman Studies 1993, p. 278
  2. ↑ Historia, 208f.
  3. ^ Charles M. Brand: The Turkish Element in Byzantium, Eleventh-Twelfth Centuries. Dumbarton Oaks Papers 43, 1989, 18
  4. ↑ Jonathan Shepard: The uses of the Franks in eleventh-century Byzantium. Anglo-Norman Studies 1993, 279
  5. ↑ Jonathan Shepard: The uses of the Franks in eleventh-century Byzantium. Anglo-Norman Studies 1993, 279
  6. ↑ cf. Enno Franzius: History of the Byzantine Empire. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1967
  7. ↑ Steven Runciman: History of the Crusades. Munich: Beck, 1978, p. 61
  8. ↑ Steven Runciman: History of the Crusades. Munich: Beck, 1978, p. 62
  9. ↑ Peter Charanis: The transfer of population as a policy in the Byzantine Empire. Comparative Studies in Society and History 3/2, 1961, p. 204
  10. ^ Charles M. Brand: The Turkish Element in Byzantium, Eleventh-Twelfth Centuries. Dumbarton Oaks Papers 43, 1989, p. 14
  11. ↑ Peter Charanis: The transfer of population as a policy in the Byzantine Empire. Comparative Studies in Society and History 3/2, 1961, p. 148
  12. ↑ Jonathan Shepard: The uses of the Franks in eleventh-century Byzantium. Anglo-Norman Studies 1993, 279
  13. ↑ Jonathan Shepard: The uses of the Franks in eleventh-century Byzantium. Anglo-Norman Studies 1993, 276
  14. ↑ Paul Magadalino: The Byzantine background to the First Crusade. Canadian Institute of Balkan Studies (1996)

literature

  • Jack D. Andersen: What went wrong at Manzikert ?, 2004 http://gainesjunction.tamu.edu/issues/vol2num2/jandersen.pdf
  • Charles M. Brand: The Turkish Element in Byzantium, Eleventh-Twelfth Centuries. Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 43, 1989, 1-25.
  • Peter Charanis: The transfer of population as a policy in the Byzantine Empire. Comparative Studies in Society and History 3/2, 1961, 140–154.
  • Enno Franzius: History of the Byzantine Empire. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1967
  • John Haldon: Military Service, Military Lands, and the status of soldiers: Current problems and interpretations. Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 47, 1993, 1-67.
  • Paul Magadalino: The Byzantine background to the First Crusade. Canadian Institute of Balkan Studies, 1996.
  • Steven Runciman: History of the Crusades. Munich: Beck, 1978.
  • KM Setton, MW Baldwin (Eds.): A history of the Crusades. Milwaukee, 1969.
  • Jonathan Shepard: The uses of the Franks in eleventh-century Byzantium. Anglo-Norman Studies 1993, 275ff.