MEDIEVAL WARFARE

The Eastern Way of War:  Survival of the Byzantine Empire
 

There were three major heirs to the Roman Empire:
(1)  The Byzantine Empire
(2)  Islam
(3)  The Frankish Empire
During the early Middle Ages, these three societies replaced the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean zone.  Their borders shifted over the centuries, often at the expense of one another.  For example, in the east, Islam eventually took over much of the territory which had once belonged to the Byzantine Empire.  Meanwhile, in the west, several of the major nations of Europe, in particular France and Germany, eventually grew out of the Frankish Empire.
The Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire:  the most direct successor of Rome.  It was a continuation of the old Roman Empire in the eastern provinces, after the west had fallen to the Germans.  The Byzantine Empire owed a significant debt to two of the Balkan emperors, Diocletian and Constantine.
(1)  Diocletian:  through his scheme for an administrative division into a Roman Empire ruled by co-emperors and governed from different capitals, he had set the stage for the creation of the eastern empire.
(2)  Constantine contributed the eastern capital, Constantinople.
Constantinople:  the new imperial city which Constantine built on the site of an ancient Greek city named Byzantium (hence, the name Byzantine Empire.)  Since its establishment during the Greek period, Byzantium had controlled the entry to the Black Sea and therefore to the grain producing region of southern Russia which had long played a significant role in feeding the Mediterranean world.  Although the emperor named it Nova Roma (or 'New Rome'), it soon became Constantinople in his honor.  Today, it is called Istanbul, a name that dates to its fifteenth century conquest by the Ottoman Turks.  During the Middle Ages, Constantinople eclipsed Rome.  Due to its preeminent position among Christian cities, the people of Europe simply called  it 'the city.' In the early Middle Ages, perhaps only one city in the Mediterranean zone--the Islamic capital, Baghdad--rivaled Constantinople.
Golden Horn:  the fine natural harbor where Constantinople is built.  It takes its name from the fact that it was shaped like a horn. It was "golden" in the sense that so much lucrative trade flowed through Constantinople.
Reasons that the eastern empire survived when the west collapsed:
(1)  An unequal rate of decline: the decline in the west, where civilization had only recently arrived, was much sharper than in the east, where the roots of civilization were very deep.
(2)  A relatively strong economy in the east, based on trade and manufacture.
(3)  The survival of a powerful navy in the east:  during the early Middle Ages, the Byzantine fleet continued to control much of the Mediterranean Sea.  In the 8th century, it helped turn back the first great wave of Islamic conquest.
(4)  One of the best organized and trained armies of the Middle Ages
(5)  The west became the primary target of the German invasions 
Byzantine economy:  The Empire was a major manufacturer, especially of luxury goods.  The textile industry, in particular the manufacture of silk, was crucial to the Byzantine economy.  Until the 6th century, silk came from China along what became known as "the silk road"; then, the Byzantines acquired silk worms smuggled out of China in one of the earliest cases of "industrial espionage" on record. Silk production was converted into a highly profitable state monopoly.  The Byzantine government continued its regulation of the economy, just as in the later days of the Roman Empire.  Wages and prices were fixed and many occupations were hereditary.
Bezant:  the empire's major gold coin which became the international standard of value for centuries.  It was only considerably later in the Middle Ages (after around 1000 A. D.) that it was replaced by new monetary standards such as the Italian ducat.
Contribution of the fifth century Emperors (especially Leo I and Zeno):
(1)  Redirected invaders westward 
(2)  Rebuilt the Byzantine military, reversing the trend toward relying on German mercenaries (known as foederati) that came to prevail in the west
Isaurians and Armenians living in eastern Asia Minor were increasingly recruited.
Cataphracti:  mailed horse archers who were symbolic of the new military established by the Byzantines, just as the legion-based infantry had been the symbol of ancient Roman military strength.
As a result, the eastern empire got a much needed breathing space during the fifth century--a time when it could build up its own strength.  Consequently, by the beginning of the 6th century, the Empire was ready to mount a counter-offensive to regain Rome's lost western territory.
Justinian I (527 to 565):  the greatest of Byzantine emperors who led the counter-offensive in the west. He ranks with Mohammed and Charlemagne as one of the three most important figures of the early Middle Ages.
Reasons for Justinian' success:
(1)  The breathing space which the Empire had gained by redirecting the Germans to the west
(2)  Wise choice of advisers on the basis of talent rather than birth (Good examples are his wife, Theodora, and his principal generals, Belisarius and Narses, all of whom came from lower class origins.)
(3)  The reorganized army  passed down from the 5th century
(4)  Possession of the only real navy on the Mediterranean
(4)  A full treasury
Accomplishments of Justinian:
(1)  Reconquest of much Roman territory in the west (including Italy, North Africa, southern Spain, Sicily, Sardinia.)
(2)  Vast public works program, not only in Constantinople, but throughout the Empire (of which Hagia Sophia is just the most prominent example)
(3)  Recodification of Roman Law (earned Justinian the epithet, "the lawgiver")
(4)  Patronage of art and scholarship (including support of Procopius)
Theodora:  the comic actress who rose to become Justinian's wife and principal adviser, she helped save his crown during the Nika Revolt of 532.
Belasarius:  Brilliant young general of peasant-class origins.  Commanded the Byzantine army for decades, winning major victories such as Daras against the Persians and Tricameron in which he conquered the Vandals.  Relieved of command before he could complete the conquest of Italy when Justinian came to fear his popularity with the army and the size of her personal military following.
Narses:  70 year old eunuch who assumed command of the army, completed the conquest of Italy at the battles of Taginae and Casilinum, and went on to invade southern Spain.
Dromans:  fast, maneuverable ships built first by the Romans, later by the Byzantines.
Procopius:  the finest historian of the Byzantine Empire who lived during Justinian's reign and wrote a famous history of the emperor.
Hagia Sophia:  the church of 'Holy Wisdom' built in Constantinople by Justinian; it is the finest monument of Byzantine architecture.
Corpus Juris Civilis:  (literally translated "the body of civil law") the final codification of Roman Law undertaken by Justinian's lawyers, including his chief adviser, Tribonian, acting under his direction.  This multi-volume code has continued to influence law ever since; as a result, it can be ranked among the most important books of all  time.
Note:  the relationship of Latin and Greek in the Byzantine Empire. Greek had long been the common language of the eastern Mediterranean - widely used in trade, in religion, and in everyday contact between people who spoke different native tongues.  The importance of Greek had prevented Latin, which had taken over in the west, from spreading to the east.  In the east, its only use had been as the language of administration and the army; in other words, the language in which government business was conducted and military commands were issued.   Justinian was the last eastern emperor to use Latin as an administrative language. After his reign, the Byzantine government, like the people it ruled, adopted Greek.
Unfortunately for the Byzantine Empire, many of Justinian's policies were harmful in the longrun.  The emperor had begun the reign with a full treasury and a well-oiled military machine.  By the end of the reign, his massive expenditures on both the military and public works had depleted the treasury; and decades of continuous campaigning had left the military tired and weakened.
One of Justinian's greatest mistakes had been to devote his energy and resources to campaigning in the west where there was no real threat to the Byzantine Empire; while, at the same time, ignoring enemies closer to home, from whom the real threat came.  For example, Justinian crushed the Vandals (North Africa) and Ostrogoths (Italy), while ignoring the Avars and Slavs and bribing the Sassanid Persians to maintain the peace.  In reconquering North Africa, he brought back into the Empire large populations of Christian heretics (esp. Arians and Donatists) hostile to the Orthodox emperors ruling at Constantinople who became a continuing source of trouble.
Note:  Justinian illustrates the paradoxical fact that a ruler can prove highly successful in his own time yet set the stage for future disaster.
Fortunately for Justinian's reputation, he died in 565, before the problems brought on by his policies began to reverse his accomplishments.  It was his successor's who would have to deal with these problems.  For more than a century and a half, the Byzantine Empire would remain in a state of seige, combatting first one threat, then another; each of which seemed to be more severe than the one which had come before.  That the Empire survived, and even recovered a measure of its prosperity, is testimony to Byzantine staying power.
The first hint of future troubles came in 568, when the Lombards invaded Italy and again took the northern part of the peninsula away from the Empire.  In the end, Justinian's aggressive policy in Italy accomplished little except to replace the friendly Ostrogoths with the unfriendly Lombards!
Maurice (582-602):  Byzantine general and talented successor whose actions helped set the stage for Byzantine survival. 
(1)  Won important battles against Byzantine enemies in the east
(2)  Undertook military reforms that continued the move toward state control of the army rather than the long-established system where soldiers owed their loyalty to the commanders who had recruited them.
(3)  Built a system of forts to help efend the Danube valley
(4)  Divided the empire into a system of military districts (themes)
(2)  Wrote a military treatise, Strategicon, that helped establish a tradition of carefully studying warfare rather than just rushing in to the fight.
Maurice was killed in draft riots and succeeded by one of the worst emperors in Byzantine history who stationed the best troops near the capital, removing them from the threatened districts where they were most needed. 
Early in the 7th century, as Slavs and Avars continued to pressure Constantinople from the north, the Byzantine Empire became involved in a life-and-death struggle with Persia, a struggle which they at first seemed to be losing. Persian armies marched into the Near Eastern provinces, sacking Jerusalem and kidnapping the true cross, then besieging Constantinople from the south.  At the moment when it appeared that the Empire might collapse, much as the west had done two hundred years earlier, a new emperor, Heraclius, came to power.
Heraclius:  the second most important emperor; In 610, this general from North Africa seized the throne.  During the following decade, he rebuilt the army, reinstilled morale in the population, and defended the capital, using both food and propaganda to inspire his people.  Benefitting from the groundwork of Maurice and his own enormos efforts, he took the offensive, decisively defeated the Persians and regained the cross.
Unfortunately for both the Persians and Byzantines, while their empires were locked in this struggle, a new enemy arose to take advantage of their mutual exhaustion--the Arabs inspired by their new religion of Islam.  This is 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".