Tagma (unit)

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Tagma ( Greek τάγμα , plural τάγματα tagmata ) was a unit of the Byzantine army . The Tagma was also called Bandon , numerus or Greek arithmos , which was commanded by a Tagmatarches, Komes or Tribounos. The term is related to the Syntagma , a company of the Macedonian Phalanx .

In both the Strategicon and the later tactics, the terms in the chapter on military titles and units appear to be interchangeable, but in the following chapters the term bandon is used exclusively for cavalry tagma, while the infantry tagma is referred to as arithmoi. The commanders are named accordingly. In the Strategikon, the Banda are commanded by Committees and the Arithmoi by Tribunes. In the tactics, the distinction between Banda and Arithmoi remains, but Tagma of both branches of arms are commanded by committees.

In modern literature, however, the term Banda is mostly used in an undifferentiated manner .

The Tagmata

After the topics were introduced , the term tagma almost exclusively describes units of the professional army, which is why in later days the tagma as a military unit was usually referred to as a bandon . Its final form received tagmata under Emperor Constantine V .

These include primarily the Tagma of the Scholai , the Tagma of the Exkubitai , the Tagma of the Biglia and the Tagma of the Ikanatoi . Around 971 the Tagma of the Athanatoi was added. These elite associations stationed in the capital are usually given in historical sources with a strength of 4,000 to 6,000 men. However, some modern historians dismiss this information as being too large.

In the 10th century, tagmata were also part of the themes , each with its own headquarters . For these, a strength of the original band of 200 to 500 men is usually assumed. Around 967, goods with three times the minimum size were set up by Nikephoros II , the owners of which probably belonged to the armored riders now increasingly deployed . The owners of these estates were often of non-Greek descent.

In the course of the 10th and 11th centuries, military goods ( stratiotika ktemata ) , which in and of themselves were not transferable, came more and more into the possession of the nobility and monasteries, who again increasingly became large landowners.

Modern times

In the modern Greek army , the term Tagma is used again for the battalion and also finds its equivalent in the rank names for the rank group of the army staff officers : the major is called Tagmatarches ("Tagma-Kommandeur"), while the term for regiment ( Syntagma ) the rank designations Syntagmatarches ( colonel ) and Antisyntagmatarches ( lieutenant colonel ) are derived.

swell

  • Maurice's Strategicon. Handbook of Byzantine Military Strategy. Translated by George T. Dennis. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia PA 1984, ISBN 0-8122-7899-2 (Reprinted ibid 2001, ISBN 0-8122-1772-1 ).
  • The strategy icon of Maurikios. = Mauricii Strategicon (= Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae. Series Vindobonensis 17). Introduction, edition and indices by George T. Dennis. Translated by Ernst Gamillscheg . Verlag der Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1981, ISBN 3-7001-0403-0 .

literature

  • Mark C. Bartusis: The late Byzantine Army. Arms and society 1204-1453. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia PA 1992, ISBN 0-8122-3179-1 .
  • TG Kolias: Tagma. In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages . Vol. 8, Col. 434.
  • Hans-Joachim Kühn: The Byzantine Army in the 10th and 11th centuries. Studies on the organization of the Tagmata (= Byzantine historians. Supplementary volume 2). Fassbaender, Vienna 1991, ISBN 3-900538-23-9 .
  • Warren Treadgold : Byzantium and Its Army. 284-1081. Stanford University Press, Stanford CA 1995, ISBN 0-8047-2420-2 .