[FMArmenian], was Re: [OT] Bye, Temporarily, and [SGII] Grenzers

--- "Imre A. Szabo" <ias@sprintmail.com> wrote:

> I read ever book having anything at all to do with
> the Byzantines that I
> could find.  I don't remember most of the titles,
> nor do I remmeber if
> Treadgold's book was among them.

It's copyright 1995, so what I was asking was if you'd
read it since.	:)  I presume you've read his History
of the Byzantine State and Society.

> one of the biggest penny-pinching beauracrats of all
> time (and not just of
> the Byzantine Empire) was the Bulgarslayer, Basil
> II; and he did more to
> preserves and strengthen the Thematic system then
> anyone else.	His one
> catstrophic failure was not training a successor.

But Basil II never cut his Army's budget.  In fact, in
1025 the military budget was 4.2 million nom. which is
higher than it had been since 565 AD.  

Basil was succeeded by 3 incompetent idiots, (Con
VIII, Romanus III, Michael IV) only one of whom took
the field in person, and that was a disaster.  All
three relied on George Maniakes, who revolted in 1043
(after being treated incredibly poorly by the
government).  Constantine IX's distaste for the
military is evidenced by the 2 revolts he barely
fended off.  He then proceeded to spend every dime
Basil II had saved up by 1050 bulding churches and
other public buildings.  He started minting tetartera,
then debased even those by a fifth.  This reduced the
pay of the themes by about 28%, and then he permitted
the soldiers of the Armenian themes to stop training
in return for a tax!  That's in the neighborhood of
50,000 troops who were among the best of the Thematic
cavalrymen, who had stopped the Seljuks cold in 1048. 
Then we have Romanus IV actually starting to reverse
the trend before he was betrayed at Manzikert.	In the
chaos of the next 10 years, the recruiting grounds for
most (and all of the really good quality) of the
Thematics had been lost.  
 
> > But Thematics fought in the line of battle and
> were
> > overall excellent troops.  Grenzers, as the HRE
> used
> > on the Croatian frontier with the Ottomans, are
> > skirmishers as described.
> 
> The men in the Thematic troops did a lot more then
> just fight in the line of
> battle.  For example, they also operated as
> gureillas behind enemy lines if
> thier province was overrun before they were
> mobilized.  This was by desgin

Which thematics?  When the system was first
established, this was true of the border themes
(Anatoliacs and Armenians).  In fact, there remains
extant a manual on Skirmishing Warfare. This remained
true of the small themes established during the
conquest period under the Macedonian Emperors, eg.
Teluch, Artach, Gabala, Palatza.  Many of these
borderer themes (Akritai, as they were nicknamed, most
famously in the ballad of Diogines Akritas) continued
to be tripwires and guerillas.	However, the bulk of
the themes (as is attested to in accounts of campaigns
and in military manuals) such as the Thrakesians,
Anatolics, Armeniacs, and the so-called "Armenian
Themes" or "Iberian Army" were regular cavalry only
barely distinguishable in equipment, training, or
tactics from Tagmatic regiments.

John

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