BYZANTINE MERCENARIES
Byzantine soldiers currently fall, primarily, into three distinct categories: pronoiars; smallholding soldier-farmers; or foreigners, either auxiliaries or mercenaries. Distinctions between these categories are often blurred. Some auxiliaries receive pay, for instance, numerous mercenaries received prononoiai, and some smallholding soldiers receive pay as well as land. However, in broad terms pronoiars are the least common troop-type and mercenaries/auxiliaries by far the most common. Indeed, the greater part of all Byzantine
armies consists of foreigners, and the native element has become so small that foreign commentators often barely noticed its existence.
The importance of mercenaries has steadily increased following the loss of the majority of Asia Minor and its manpower reserves in the late eleventh century, despite the Empire's increasing difficulty in paying them as its economy progressively collapsed. Their employment was simply an acknowledgment of the fact that well-armed 'professional' soldiers were usually more loyal, and undeniably more effective, than native troops.
Although a few are native Byzantines, and others consist of prisoners of war settled within the Empire in exchange for military service, most are simply individual foreigners taken on as required, some being maintained on a permanent basis while others are employed only temporarily. Though the provincial governors and field commanders sometimes hire their own, the majority of mercenaries are hired directly by the central government, which called them misthophoroi, after their pay (misthos or roga). Consequently most are found in, or attached to, the central army. Pay is in theory distributed every two to six months but rarely materialized on time, despite the fact that delays often prompt mass desertions.
Mass desertions of the eleventh century, most significantly at Mantzikert, has taught the Byzantines that it is best if all mercenary units are kept to manageable proportions. Unfortunately this lesson will be forgotten after the fall of Constantinople, leading to such difficulties as the infamous Catalan 'Grand Company' of the thirteenth century.
The following guide of foreign contingents should help to understand the truly cosmopolitan nature of Byzantine armies.
Alans
Often referred to as Massagetoi, these are nominally Christian Turks from the Caucasus, and in Byzantine service provide light, bow-armed cavalry. They are employed from the late eleventh century to the mid-twelfth century in large numbers, and again in the mid-thirteenth century.
Armenians
In the twelfth through thirteenth centuries contingents of Armenian auxiliaries raised in Cilicia are occasionally found fighting alongside Byzantine field armies in Northern Syria and Anatolia. Twelfth-century Cilician contingents are effectively indistinguishable from native Byzantine troops, but by the thirteenth century their equipment became distinctly Westernized under the influence of the neighboring Crusader Principalities.
Cumans
In Byzantine service these Asiatic nomads serve exclusively as horse-archers, and consequently are usually brigaded alongside Uzes, Seljuks and other Turkish troops. First employed at the end of the eleventh century, Cumans constitute one of the most important elements of Byzantine armies, those in the central army being collectively referred to as Skythikon (a term originally used to describe the armies Patzinak troops).
Englishmen
The English were found in Byzantine employ by the 1080s. During the course of the twelfth century they are absorbed into the Varangian Guard in increasing numbers, so that by c. 1180 it is described as being 'of British race,' even though it also contains Scandinavians until 1204. It is probably all but entirely English by 1272, when Michael VII specifically refers to it as comprising Englinvarrangoi. Like their Scandinavian predecessors, English guardsmen consisted of ax-armed infantry.
Georgians
Georgian mercenaries are occasionally recorded in the twelfth century, being present, for instance, among the Byzantines fighting in Italy in the 1150s, and auxiliary contingents are later loaded to the Empire by King George IV (1212-23). Invariably cavalry, they are armed with a mixture of bows and lances.
Hungarians
Contingents of Hungarian auxiliaries occur spasmodically in the eleventh through thirteenth centuries, such as in the army raised by John II in 1137. These almost invariably consist of cavalry.
'Latins'
Though some are Italians, Germans and Spaniards, Frenchmen constitute the majority of the Western mercenaries referred to in Byzantine sources as 'Latins,''Franks' or 'Kelts'. They have been hired in considerable numbers since the eleventh centuries, initially from Norman Italy and Sicily but subsequently chiefly from the Palestinian Crusader states until their demise, and after that even via Frankish Greece. Their numbers have increased considerably under the Latinophile Emperor Manuel I, so that after the Turks they are the predominant mercenary element. Though some are foot soldiers, specifically specialists such as crossbowmen, most are inevitably armored horse soldiers.
Patzinaks
The Turkic Pechenegs or Patzinaks, often archaically referred to as 'Scyths,' constituted the majority of the Empire's Asiatic mercenaries during the middle Byzantine period, but their employment was in decline by the twelfth century. Patzinaks captured at Eski Zagra in 1122 were settled as military colonists in Thrace and Macedonia, and thrive there until the Latin Conquest in 1204, but the last record of Patzinak mercenaries in the field seems to date to 1136-39.
Russians
Auxiliaries were provided by various Russian princes in the twelfth century. They probably served in the Varangian Guard.
Scandinavians
At the current time the Varangian Guard still consists predominantly of Norwegians and Danes, and 'King Sverrir's Saga' claims that as late as 1195 Alexius III made a direct request to the kings of Scandinavia for 1,200 men to fill its ranks. 'Danish' guardsmen are last recorded in 1204.
Serbs
In the first half of the twelfth century the Serbs were obliged to provide the Empire with 300 cavalry for campaigns in Asia Minor, a figure increased following Serbia's defeat by Manuel I in 1150, to 500 for Asiatic campaigns and 2,000 for service in Europe. Others are provided by Serbian prisoners settled in Anatolia by John II in the 1120s. Even after Serbia's secession from the Empire, contingents of Serbian mercenaries and auxiliaries continue to be regularly encountered in Byzantine service.
Turks
Hired extensively during the middle Byzantine era, the employment of large numbers of Turks was revived under Michael VII in the second half of the thirteenth century.
Often to be found brigaded alongside the Turks after the twelfthcentury, and sometimes indistinguishable from them, was a corps of regular troops called the Tourkopouloi or 'sons of Turks.' Nominally consisting of the descendants of Christianized Turks or the issue of mixed unions, on occasion the include natives of the Empire's Anatolian provinces.
Uzes
A Turkish people very similar in appearance and identical in armament to the Cumans and/or Seljuks, the Uzes were found in the Balkans in the eleventh through twelfth centuries. The Byzantines employ them in considerable numbers, and they apparently constituted the largest part of the Empire's Turkish mercenaries at the time of both Mantzikert (1071) and Myriokephalon (1176), but disappear after the latter date.
Vlachs
First employed in the eleventh century, Vlach or Wallachian troops are regularly utilized from there on, despite being considered 'faithless and perverse.'
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Last modified: Thurs Dec 10, 1998