Strategos: Island in the Storm (45 page)

Apropos the Seljuk armies: I have portrayed Taylan ‘inventing’ flat-bottomed stirrups. These almost certainly had been around for some time by 1071, but I wanted to highlight the expertise in horse archery the Seljuk riders had honed so well. Likewise, Taylan’s White Falcons’ practice of wearing raptor feathers in their helms is something the original Seljuk steppe peoples had once practiced many years previously. As the Battle of Manzikert saw Alp Arslan throw off the trappings of the armies he had assimilated in his time (the Persian artillerymen, lancers and spear infantry) and fall back to the guile of the ghazis – the closest thing to those original steppe riders – I thought the return of the falcon feathers was rather apt.

There are probably many more points for discussion, but I’ll leave it at that. Please do feel free to get in touch if you’d like to chat over any other details or theories.

Usually at this point, I would inform you when you could expect the next volume in the series. But instead I have to bring the curtain down on the story of ‘Strategos’. Apion’s tale is over, yet the journey in telling it is one I will never forget. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking that journey with me.

Yours faithfully,

Gordon Doherty

www.gordondoherty.co.uk

Glossary

Adnoumion
: The great Byzantine mustering. This usually happened at Malagina, near the Zompos Bridge by the River Sangarios in Bithynia.

Akhi
: Seljuk infantry armed with long anti-cavalry spears, scimitars, shields and sometimes armoured in lamellar, leather or horn.

Archiatros
: Byzantine physician.

Armamenta
: State-funded imperial warehouses tasked with producing arms, clothing and armour for the armies. They were usually situated in major cities and strongholds.

Ballista
: Primarily anti-personnel missile artillery capable of throwing bolts vast distances. Utilised from fortified positions and on the battlefield.

Bandon (pl. Banda)
: The basic battlefield unit of infantry in the Byzantine army. Literally meaning ‘banner’, a
bandon
typically consisted of between two hundred and four hundred men, usually
skutatoi
, who would line up in a square formation, presenting spears to their enemy from their front ranks and hurling
rhiptaria
from the ranks behind.
Banda
would form together on the battlefield to present something akin to the ancient phalanx
.

Basileus
: The Byzantine emperor (feminine:
Basileia
).

Bey
: The leader of a Seljuk warband or minor army.

Breidox
: The battle-axe used by the
Varangoi
.

Buccina
: The ancestor of the trumpet and the trombone, this instrument was used for the announcement of night watches and various other purposes in the Byzantine forts and marching camps as well as to communicate battlefield manoeuvres.

Buccinator
: A soldier who uses the
buccina
to perform acoustical signalling on the battlefield and in forts, camps and settlements
.

Chi-Rho
: The
Chi-Rho
is one of the earliest forms of Christogram, and was used in the early Christian Roman Empire through to the Byzantine high period as a symbol of piety and empire. It is formed by superimposing the first two letters in the Greek spelling of the word
Christ
,
chi = ch and rho = r, in such a way to produce the following monogram:

Daylamid warriors
: Fierce and rugged warriors from the mountains of northern Iran. It is thought that they may have fought with twin-pronged spears (though many argue that this is a mistranslation and that they actually fought with double-edged blades).

Dekarchos
: A minor officer in charge of a
kontoubernion
of ten
skutatoi
who would be expected to fight in the front rank of his
bandon
. He would wear a red* sash to denote his rank.

Djinn
: Islamic demon.

Domestikos
: A title afforded to the man in charge of the eastern or western half of Byzantine military affairs
.

Doux
: One of the titles for the leader of a Byzantine
tagma.

Dromon
: Byzantine war galley with twin triangular sails. Capable of holding up to three hundred men.

Droungarios
: A Byzantine officer in charge of two
banda,
who would wear a silver* sash to denote his rank.

Er-ati
: A Seljuk warrior name.

Fatimid Caliphate
: Arab Islamic caliphate that dominated the area comprising modern-day Tunisia and Egypt in the Middle Ages.

Foulkon
: The Byzantine heir to the famous Roman
testudo
or ‘tortoise’ formation.

Ghulam
: The Seljuk heavy cavalryman, equivalent to the Byzantine
kataphractos.
Armoured well in scale vest or lamellar, with a distinctive pointed helmet with nose guard, carrying a bow, scimitar and spear.

Ghazi
: The Seljuk light cavalryman, a blend of steppe horse archer and light skirmisher whose primary purpose was to raid enemy lands and disrupt defensive systems and supply chains.

Haga
: A ferocious two-headed eagle from ancient Hittite mythology. Also the basis for what would become the emblem of both the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk Sultanate.

Kampidoktores
: The drill master in charge of training Byzantine soldiers.

Kataphractos (pl. Kataphractoi)
: Byzantine heavy cavalry and the main offensive force in the
thema
and
tagma
armies. The riders and horses would wear iron lamellar and mail armour, leaving little vulnerability to attack. The riders would use their
kontarion
for lancing,
spathion
for skirmishing or their bow for harrying.

Kathisma
: The imperial box at the Hippodrome in Constantinople. This was connected directly to the Imperial Palace via the Cochlia Gate and a spiral staircase.

Kentarches
: A Byzantine officer in charge of one hundred Byzantine soldiers or the crew of a
dromon
. A descendant of the Roman centurion.

Klibanion (pl. Klibania)
:
The characteristic Byzantine lamellar cuirass made of leather, horn or iron squares, usually sleeveless, though sometimes with leather strips hanging from the waist and shoulders.

Komes
: An officer in charge of a
bandon
who would wear a white* sash to denote his rank.

Kontarion
:
A spear between two and three metres long, the
kontarion
was designed for Byzantine infantry to hold off enemy cavalry.

Kontoubernion
: A grouping of ten Byzantine infantry who would eat together, patrol together, share sleeping quarters or a pavilion tent while on campaign. They would be rewarded or punished as a single unit.

Kursoris (pl. Kursores)
: Byzantine scout rider, lightly armed with little or no armour.

Menavlion
: A weighty, thick and extremely lengthy (11 feet or more) spear used to repel cavalry charges.

Nomisma (pl. Nomismata)
: A gold coin that could be debased by various degrees to set its value.

Numeroi (sing. Numeros):
A Byzantine imperial
tagma
, stationed in Constantinople. They guarded the prisons, the walls, the site of the Baths of Zeuxippus and parts of the Imperial Palace.

Pamphylos (pl. Pamphyloi)
: A small, round-hulled Byzantine cargo ship, used typically to transport horses and artillery.

Portatioi
: A shadowy subset of the
Numeroi
. It is thought that they were employed as torturers.

Protoproedros
: Title of a senior Byzantine court official.

Rhiptarion
: A short throwing spear.
Skutatoi
carried two or three of these each.

Salep
: A hot drink made with orchid root, cinnamon and milk.

Shatranj
: A precursor to modern-day chess.

Signophoros (pl. Signophoroi)
: Byzantine standard bearers for the
tagmata.
They would carry the sacred purple and gold banners on campaign.

Siphonaros (pl. Siphonarioi)
: Operators of Greek-fire throwing siphons. They operated large siphons mounted on towers or walls, and it is thought that they also carried smaller, hand-held siphons into field battles.

Skutatos (pl. Skutatoi)
: The Byzantine infantryman, based on the ancient hoplite. He was armed with a
spathion
, a
skutum
, a
kontarion
, two or more
rhiptaria
and possibly a dagger and an axe. He would wear a conical iron helmet and a lamellar
klibanion
if positioned to the front of his
bandon
, or a padded jacket or felt vest if he was closer to the rear.
Tagma
skutatoi
may well all have been afforded iron lamellar armour.

Skutum
: The Byzantine infantry shield that gives the
skutatoi
their name. Usually kite or teardrop-shaped and painted identically within a
bandon
.

Spathion
: The Byzantine infantry sword, derived from the Roman
spatha
. Up to a metre long, this straight blade was primarily for stabbing, but allowed slashing and hacking as well.

Strategos (pl. Strategoi)
: The
themata
armies of Byzantium were organised and led by such a man. The
strategos
was also responsible for governance of his
thema.

Tagma (pl. Tagmata)
: The
tagmata
were the professional standing armies of the Byzantine Empire. They were traditionally clustered around Constantinople. These armies were formed to provide a central reserve, to meet enemy encroachment that could not be dealt with by the
themata,
and also to cow the potentially revolutionary power of those regional armies
.
They were well armoured, armed, paid and fed. Each
tagma
held several thousand men and was composed exclusively of cavalry or infantry. In the 11
^th
century AD, some of these
tagmata
were moved closer to the borders to deal with emerging threats. In addition, a raft of smaller, ‘mercenary’
tagmata
were formed in these regions, comprising largely of Rus, Normans and Franks.

Thema (pl. Themata)
:
In the 7
^th
century AD, as a result of the crisis caused by the Muslim conquests, the Byzantine military and administrative system was reformed: the old late Roman division between military and civil administration was abandoned, and the remains of the Eastern Roman Empire’s field armies were settled in great districts, the
themata
, that were named after those armies
. The men of the
themata
would work their state-leased military lands in times of peace and then don their armour and weapons when summoned by the
strategos
to defend their
thema
or to set out on campaign alone or with the
tagmata
. The manpower of each thema varied vastly, with some able to field only a few thousand men while others could muster as many as ten or fifteen thousand men. The diagram at the front of the book depicts the structure these forces would be organised into. In the 11
^th
century, the thematic system was in steep decline, with the
tagmata
gradually taking over as defenders of the borderlands.

Tourmarches (pl. Tourmarchai)
: A Byzantine officer in charge of the military forces and administration of a
tourma.

Toxotes (pl. Toxotai)
: The Byzantine archer, lightly armoured with a felt jacket and armed with a composite bow and a dagger.

Tourma (pl. Tourmae)
: A subdivision of a Byzantine
thema
, commanded by a
tourmarches
. Each
tourma
was comprised of some two thousand soldiers of the
thema
army and encompassed a geographical subset of the
thema
lands.