After the capture of the city by the westerners, in 1204, and the establishment of the state of Nicaea, the Byzantine Army changed to a great extent. Recognizing the inability of the Byzantine cavalry to oppose the Latin knights, the leaders of the Empire of Nicaea formed units of mercenary knights, the so-called "Latin" alegia.
And the body they formed was called "Latinicon". Latin mercenaries had also been used by the Komnenians, earlier, but not to the extent and importance that their successors did. At the same time, however, there were also the changes of the native "Soldiers".
Allaya
During this period the Byzantine Army changed its organization. So the old battalions were abolished and replaced by the alters, units believed to have had a strength of up to 500 or so men. The alters are mentioned, for the first time, in the "Tacticals" of Leo VI the Wise, alongside the battalions, denoting exclusively cavalry units, perhaps mercenaries.
The term change comes from the Latin ala, which in turn probably comes from the Greek ilis. According to another version, the term comes from the word change, as these departments alternated in the service. Roman alae had a commanding force of 480-720 horsemen. In the age of Augustus, alae of auxiliary infantry were formed.
In the Late Byzantine Army the composition of the changes is not precisely known. Most sources, however, allow us to assume that they had a theoretical force of 200-500 men. In the Chronicle of Moreos, however, the general Constantinos Palaiologos appears, in 1260, to have 18 battalions, with a total force of 6,000 men, with a strength of approximately 330 men each.
Each change was commanded by the changer, an officer equivalent to a count or major. The Roman alae consisted of 16 turmas (ulamas) of 30 men. However, in the Byzantine Army the tourma was a group-level unit. The alters were composed of pronoirians.
Other units, the so-called "kastrini", undertook the guarding of cities and fortresses, against certain benefits from the state, in land, money, or tax exemption. The Byzantine sources mention the alters with various individual designations, as "royal alters", "great alters", "authentic alters", but also orders.
Georgios Pachymeris mentions stories from various regions of the Empire, but also stories of Latin and Cuman mercenaries. However, he identifies the alters with the battalions. Evidently the large battalions were regiment-level formations or brigade-level formations, in today's terms, into which the original battalions or battalions were incorporated. The term royal alegia obviously denotes units of the imperial guard.
Cavaliers, Prenoirs, Soldiers
The term Soldier, in the Byzantine Army, meant a warrior on horseback, exclusively. Foot soldiers were named according to the weapons they carried. The best Soldiers of the time carried a chain or leather or flannel breastplate, helmet, shield, swords and long lance. The less well armed did not carry breastplates. They were also called "Pronoiarii" because as a reward for their services they received areas of land, or monetary remuneration or tax exemption, the so-called provisions or economies.
From the moment Michael ascended the throne of Constantinople he made every effort to rebuild the Byzantine Army. Thus the "Latinicon" was gradually abolished. Many of his men had already been Hellenized and remained in the reorganized army in the ranks of the "Cavalry", but they were trained to fight, like the Western knights, that is, to carry out rapid advances with the lance.
Cavalry, the most elite body of cavalry, were outnumbered. They constituted only 1/5 of the total cavalry force and were probably part of the royal changelings. The rest of the heavy cavalry consisted of the battalions of the advance soldiers. The Soldiers carried, like the Cavalry, lances, swords, shields, and halberds. But while the Cavaliers generally wore chain mail, the Soldiers usually wore lower armor – a short chain or leather breastplate. Also, the Soldiers were behind in training, as they were not permanently under arms, but were called to serve when the need arose.
The akrites of the time of Michael VIII were also pioneer soldiers, who guarded the eastern borders of the state, until the moment when Michael imposed heavy taxation on them, instead of the immunity they enjoyed until then. This move of his was to have fatal consequences, as the guarding of the borders was neglected, if not completely abandoned, while many went into the service of the Turks, especially from the beginning of the 14th century onwards.
Mercenary light horsemen
A big problem for the Byzantine Army of the time was the lack of light cavalry in its ranks. This problem was aggravated by the fact that the main opponent, the Turks, had a large number of Achinesian light horse archers.
The situation was dealt with, in the period of the Empire of Nicaea, by the hiring of a large number of Hungarians and Cumans, as well as Turkish horse archers, who made up the so-called "Scythian" body, which had been first formed during the Komnenian period, by Pecheneg mercenaries. The Hungarians and the Cumans were settled by the emperor John III Vatatzis in the upper valley of Axios (Vardaris) and for this they were called Vardariotes.
The Vardariotes, although foreigners, were gradually Hellenized and were considered, from a certain point on, subjects of the Empire and not mercenaries, even constituting a unit of the imperial guard. Also, there was the corps of "Turkopoulos", who were Christianized Seljuks, mainly Turks and Turkomans who fought in their traditional way, as light horse archers. However, these bodies were dissolved by Andronikos II.
The infantry, the poor relative
Infantry were divided into heavy and light. The heavy infantry were "Kontarata" units, while the archers and psiloi were characterized as light infantry. The infantry was the Achilles heel of the late Byzantine armies. It was mainly used to guard cities and castles and its training was neglected.
The Kontarats were the descendants of the old "Scutas", i.e. the satellites. They carried a long spear, a sword, and a long, western-style, almond-shaped shield. The first yokes also carried a chain or leather breastplate. They lined up usually four yokes deep. They did not have organic divisions of archers, as in the past, for their direct support.
Archers were divided into two subcategories. The first involved well-equipped and organized bodies of archers who fought in formation by releasing "volleys" of arrows, lined up in dense formation. These archers also carried light armour, a helmet, shield and sword and could fight from the pack.
But they were few. On the contrary, the bulk of the archers consisted of unarmoured men, who in addition to the bow also carried a sword or a manual. From the end of the 13th century, these light archers were not even soldiers, but citizens - serfs, who, based on feudal or other obligations to the state, enlisted when there was a need, for a period of a few months, at most. These men basically fought in a loose order, as small skirmishers and were naturally unable to face a raid by heavier units, much less a cavalry charge.
In some cases, peasants armed only with agricultural tools were also conscripted. As a rule, these divisions fled at the appearance of the enemy. In the 14th century several archers were equipped with crossbows instead of the traditional compound bow. However, the use of the crossbow required good training and its use, consequently, by the militia-parish archers was limited.
Most of the Cretan soldiers serving in the Imperial Army at that time were also archers. The crossbowmen were a separate body and were commanded by the Field Marshal of the Jagradors (the Byzantines called the crossbow jagra).
There were also units of light infantry, which were capable of fighting from the cluster, much like the ancient peltasts. The sections came mainly from the Peloponnese and specifically from Laconian Mani. They were the so-called Tsakones, who also served as marines in the imperial fleet.
Later, a unit of the imperial guard was formed from Tsakones and another from "Janissaries", the composition, or organization and the armament carried by the men are unknown. They are probably to be identified with the Murtates. The Tsakones and the so-called "Gazmouli" (descendants of Greeks and Latins) carried shields, javelins and spears. The best armed also had breastplates. And the units of the Chacones and the Gazmouli were disbanded by Andronikos II, with the exception of the guard units.
The Guard
The imperial guard consisted of two battalions of the Paramons, one of cavalry and one of cavalry, from a section of Tsakonas, commanded by Stratopedarchi, a battalion of cavalry of Vardariotes, the Catalans, that is, Catalans, who remained loyal to the Empire and the Varangian garrison, which however , until the middle of the 14th century, guarded the respective emperor, but did not campaign outside of Constantinople, probably due to the small number of men it now had. Later, a unit of Murta archers, perhaps Christianized Turks or other elite archers, was formed, commanded by the Murta Quartermaster. Some historians identify the Murtatri with the Vardariotes or the Janissaries.
Nikiforos Grigoras mentions that the emperor John V Kantakuzenos had as a personal guard a detachment of 500 Catalan soldiers, with Juan Pellatra as his lieutenant. Apart from the Paramons, the guards formed the so-called Companies. The term was old and denoted the mercenary divisions of the imperial guard. Their commander was the mega etariarchus, or corporator, with the corporator second in command. The commander of the guard of the Paramons bore the title of protalagator.
Mercenaries and Civilians
The various mercenary divisions, Catalan, Turkish, Serbian, Bulgarian, Vlach, Latin or Alan mercenaries, constituted, in most cases, the bulk of the imperial troops. Other officials of the time, with unclear roles, were the Great Archon, the Archon of Allagio, the Great Chaoussios and the Acolothus. The first seems not to have had a military role, unlike the second who, rather, commanded the men of the royal bodyguard. The Great Chausius also probably had a ceremonial role, while the Follower was the head of the Varangian guard.
When the civil war broke out between John Kantakouzenos and John V Palaiologos, in 1341, the sources state that Kantakouzenos, as the great domestic (commander-in-chief), had 16 alters. If these changes were in full force, we can assume that he had a total of about 8,000 men. A year later, however, Kantakouzenos appears to have only 2,000 men, while at the end of the civil war, when he entered Constantinople, he appears to have only 1,000 men.
Even if the bulk of his army, at the start of the civil war, consisted of mercenary units, the course of that devastating war shows the complete collapse of whatever military power was left in the Empire. Under Michael VIII, the Byzantine Army could line up 20,000 men. Andronikos II was forced to apply heavy taxation in the early 14th century to raise only 3,000 soldiers. The decline, within a few years, was evident.
Pantelis D. Karikas