MEDIEVAL WARFARE

The Eastern Way of War:  Survival of the Byzantine Empire
 

Heirs to the Roman Empire:
(1)  The Byzantine Empire
(2)  Islam
(3)  The Frankish Empire
The Byzantine (Eastern Roman Empire)
Diocletian
Constantine
Constantinople (Nova Roma)
Byzantium
Istanbul
Baghdad
Golden Horn
Reasons that the Eastern Empire survived when the west collapsed
"Silk Road"
Bezant
Leo I
Zeno
Foederati
Isaurians
Armenians
Cataphracti
Justinian I (527 to 565) 
Reasons for Justinian' success
Theodora
Belisarius
Narses
Battle of Tricameron
Battle of Taginae
Battle of Casilinum
Dromans
Procopius
Hagia Sophia
Corpus Juris Civilis
Tribonian,
Note:  the relationship of Latin and Greek in the Byzantine Empire
Real threat to the Empire:
Avars
Slavs
Sassanid Persians
Note:  Justinian illustrates the paradoxical fact that a ruler can prove highly successful in his own time yet set the stage for future disaster.
Lombards
Maurice
Themes (military districts)
Strategicon
Phocas
Heraclius
Byzantine-Persian War
A prime example of something which often happens in history:  two great powers fight each other to a exhausted stalemate, leaving the way clear for a third power to "pick up the pieces".