Οι πόλεμοι του Βυζαντίου: Μάχες και εκστρατείες της βυζαντινής εποχής

by John F. Haldon

Στα μέσα του έκτου αιώνα ο Βυζαντινός αυτοκράτορας κυβερνούσε μια πανίσχυρη αυτοκρατορία που εκτεινόταν σε περιοχές της Ευρώπης, της Ασίας και της Βόρειας Αφρικής. Μέσα σε εκατό χρόνια η ισχυρή αυτή αυτοκρατορία είχε χάσει τις μισές από τις κτήσεις της. Δύο αιώνες αργότερα, η Βυζαντινή Αυτοκρατορία είχε επανέλθει και πάλι δυναμικά στο προσκήνιο ως κυρίαρχη δύναμη στην Ανατολική Μεσόγειο και τη Βαλκανική Χερσόνησο, ο μυθικός πλούτος της οποίας προσέλκυε στους στρατούς της μισθοφόρους Βίκινγκς και πολεμιστές νομάδες από τις στέπες της Κεντρικής Ασίας. Και μόνο η εμφάνιση αυτών των στρατευμάτων στο πεδίο της μάχης προκαλούσε δέος και πανικό και οδηγούσε τους εχθρούς σε άμεση υποχώρηση και διαπραγματεύσεις. Η Βυζαντινή Αυτοκρατορία παραμένει για το σημερινό μέσο αναγνώστη αινιγματική, αν όχι για άλλο λόγο, τουλάχιστον, για τις δραματικές διακυμάνσεις στις πολιτικές της τύχες και το ρομαντικό της τέλος, το 1453, όταν ο τελευταίος αυτοκράτορας, Κωνσταντίνος Παλαιολόγος, σκοτώθηκε στα τείχη της σε μια, μέχρις εσχάτων, μάχη με τα επίλεκτα οθωμανικά σώματα των γενιτσάρων που εισέβαλαν στην πολιορκημένη Κωνσταντινούπολη, μια πόλη που, στη διάρκεια της χιλιόχρονης ιστορίας της, δεν είχε αλωθεί ποτέ από άμεση έφοδο.

Genres: History, War, Nonfiction, Military History, Medieval History, Ancient History

275 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2013

About the author

John Haldon is Shelby Cullom Davis '30 Professor of European History, and Professor of Byzantine History and Hellenic Studies. He has been Director of Graduate Studies for the History Department since July 2009. His research centers on the socio-economic, institutional, political and cultural history of the early and middle Byzantine empire from the seventh to the eleventh centuries. He also works on political systems and structures across the European and Islamic worlds from late ancient to early modern times and has explored how resources were produced, distributed and consumed, especially in warfare, during the late ancient and medieval periods. Professor Haldon is the author and co-author of more than two dozen books. His most recent books are The social history of Byzantium (Blackwell, Oxford 2008) and Byzantium in the iconoclast era: a history, with L. Brubaker (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2011).

Professor Haldon is the director of the Euchaita/Avkat Project - an archaeological and historical survey in north central Turkey. As well as traditional methods of field survey and historical research, this long-term project employs cutting edge survey, mapping and digital modeling techniques to enrich our understanding of the society, economy, land use, demography, paleo-environmental history and resources of the late Roman, Byzantine and Seljuk/Ottoman periods. Further information on the Euchaita/Avkat Project is available through the following links.

He is also co-director of the international Medieval Logistics Project - an international project deploying Geographical Information Systems and sophisticated modelling software to analyze the logistics of East Roman, early medieval Western European and Early Islamic warfare and structures of resource allocation.

A native of Northumbria, England, Professor Haldon has worked at the Universities of Athens and Munich, at the Max-Planck-Institut for European Legal History in Frankfurt, and at the University of Birmingham, where from 1995 he was Director of the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies and from 2000-2004 Head of the School of Historical Studies. He came to Princeton University in 2005. From 2007-2013 he is a Senior Fellow at the Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies in Washington D.C. He is a Corresponding Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna and a member of the editorial boards of several scholarly journals in Europe and the USA.

Reviews

[Anatolikon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Haldon has crafted an excellent introductory survey of Byzantine military history. Polybius himself would be proud to read the coherent and illuminating geographical descriptions provided in this book. An exceptional selection of maps accompany the many photos of the battle sites, as well as a useful glossary. The bibliography is atypical, and instead of simply providing citations, it provides some information on the sources and scholarly works, all intended to provide the reader with "further reading" material rather than straight citations. I prefer standard citations, but as this is an introductory text, it is quite acceptable, and more useful for someone unfamiliar with the sources.

Each chapter typically has sections on changes in strategy and tactics, followed by a few examples of battles. A little information is present on variations of equipment over time. The battle narratives are very well done, and easy to follow. I have never read better accounts of Yarmuk and Manzikert. The battles are rounded out with a good variety of Byzantine victories and defeats, and enough information is present to give the reader an idea of exactly who the Byzantines were fighting and how they fought.

My only quibble with this book is that it is too short, and at times it feels like Dr. Haldon has a word limit. The wars of Herakleios aren't even mentioned, and the sections on Basil II and Alexios Komnenos were a little brief. However, none of those complaints are enough to warrant knocking off a star. The theme system could have used some elaboration, but if readers want more they can look at Treadgold's mediocre 'Byzantium and its army, 284-1081', or Haldon's own 'Warfare, State and Society in the Byzantine World'.

In sum, this is an excellent survey. There is a lot of good stuff in here for beginners, while more advanced students will find Dr. Haldon's battle narratives and maps to be of use. There is no reason for any student of Byzantine, medieval or near Eastern military history to not have this book. It begins with Dara commanded by Belisarios, and ends with the Byzantine defeat at Myriokephalon under Manuel Komnenos in 1176.

[Comes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although not particularly deep it provides an excellent overview of the military of the Byzantine Empire for different eras. The author traces the developments and the overall military situation of the army in each period leaving no gaps for the reader. The book can be separated into three sections for each era. Military situation, Military development and examples in the form of battles. The examples and analysis of battles is a highlight of the book and allows the reader to understand the practice of the Byzantine military rather than just the theory.

[Elias Kreouzis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfull book with a plethora of battles at medieval ages. I expected also a more battles of Nikiforos Fokas, Iraklitos, Tsimiskis as well as Basil 2 but i am happy.

[Peter Redington · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting read, good overview without too much detail, but I wonder why the last 250 ish years were not included, seemed a bit of an arbitrary end point.

[Zare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Content of the book can be summarized in following - development of Byzantine military thought, equipment and organization through the centuries. All these elements are more than adequately mirrored in results of numerous battles both won and lost.

My only remark is a rather "dry" narrative (entire text feels like it was taken from some scholarly paper intended for the audience that knows the basic elements of the topic).

Nevertheless great read with lots of information.

[Alexmacensky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid examination of the evolution of Byzantine military stragetgy and logistical concerns. Does an excellent job of showing the tention between an increased need for expensive cavalry and diminishing economic resources.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

it's refreshing to read a history of Byzantium that doesn't paint a story of loss after loss. the six hundred years covered by this book show the ups and downs and show a society able to bounce back time and time again.

[Альберто Лорэдо · Rating 4 out of 5]

Light account of main Byzantine battles, easy to read and interesting throughout.

[Heinz Reinhardt · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the Western Empire fell in 476, following the sack of Rome, few still acknowledge that there was still the Eastern Empire and the city of Christ: Constantinople.
While they called themselves Romans, and carried on the legacy of Rome until their ultimate demise in 1453, we know them as the Byzantines. While there has been a cornucopia of myth and legend surrounding the Byzantines(even their name is synonymous with backstabbing intrigue and malicious politicking) we in the West still don't know a considerable amount of the truth of the Eastern Romans.
This book, a brief survey of Roman warfare conducted by Constantinople from the 6th to the 12th centuries (the point at which Imperial decline was terminal), is a valiant effort to shed light on the one instrument that ensured that, far from dying entirely in the fifth century, Rome would last, at least in spirit, into the 15th: that instrument being the Army.
The Byzantine Army is shown for what it was, warts and all, a highly trained, well equipped force, professional, that had a long legacy stretching back to the days of the initial conquest of the Latins by the city state of Rome. This intellectual undergirding of the Army and of Eastern Roman war fighting, preserved in numerous manuals on strategy, tactics, logistics, historical analysis and engineering, ensured that few foes could match them for their technical prowess.
And while the army wasn't always well led (a Belisarius tends to come along only once every few lifetimes), it's doctrine and it's heritage allowed it to showcase amazing recuperative powers. And often the defeats of yesteryear, where wiped away by renewed campaigns, marked by a willingness to learn from prior mistakes.
In fact, even in the face of the ever crashing tides of Muslim Turkish armies, the Byzantine Army remained the best in the western hemisphere until, by the time of the Third Crusade, western Europe, and especially the Holy Roman Empire, had begun to outpace and outmatch the Eastern Romans in tactics and military technology.
Even so, and even after being pushed out of most of Anatolia by the 12th century, the Empire lasted for two centuries further, bouncing back to smash her enemies on more than a few occasions.
This is an excellent overview of a neglected period in western military history, and itself a valuable look at how an army, and the state it serves, in the face of numerous external threats, can adapt and produce strategic and tactical doctrine to act as a force multiplier to keep itself alive far longer than anyone could think possible.
Highly recommended.

[Mike A · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a quick overview of major developments in military force structure and strategy of the East Roman state in the 6th-12th centuries, as well as descriptions of several battles during those times. These are described in a series of chronologically parsed chapters.

By nature of the data, we don't have all (or even most of) the details about numbers of forces, gear, and exact developments (both in terms of organization as well as in terms of the battles themselves). However, the author, a well-known senior academic, appears to have relied on careful analysis of primary sources as well as in-person survey of some of the battlefields, to reconstruct a broad picture in both areas of investigation (military organization & battles).

The end-result emphasizes the importance of discipline, careful strategic and operational arrangements, as well as skilled leadership, as the main factors behind Roman successes (and their lack as key drivers of defeat), although the perennial absence of a dedicated corpus of professional junior officers seemed to be a persistent liability. Indeed, the thus far unrivaled in time survival of the Roman state in such a tumultuous area of Eurasia was, in large part, the result of the significant organizational and tactical feats of its armed forces (& the strength of the fiscal/tax system that supported them, as well as skilled diplomacy).
The work could be better served by more tactical maps and perhaps a greater description of recruitment and pay practices, although the limitation likely remains the lack of data. Overall, a useful read.

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was interested in the Commenan recovery period and how the army evolved from the late Roman period to the Commenan era.. I think the author did a nice job of describing the reasons for the empire's highs and lows over a very long period of time.

[Ben Duval · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid overview of seven centuries of Byzantine warfare, tracing the changes in military organization, tactics, and strategy. Less detailed than Michael Decker's "Byzantine Art of War", but it is better as a historical overview.

[Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

A highly readable overview of Byzantine military history, including coverage of strategy, organization, leadership, and tactics. Several key battles are highlighted.

[Νίκος Vitoliotis) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Πολύ καλό και κατανοητό εισαγωγικό ανάγνωσμα για το θέμα.

[Piotr Kosakowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dobrze mi się ją czytało.

[Al · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, Haldon has neatly summarized for the general reader, as well as the specialist, the military history and development of Byzantine warfare from the 6th century to the 12th century in six chapters. Each chapter gives an overview of the strategy of the Byzantine state and army, followed by a brief summary of changes in tactics, equipment, and organization. Haldon then describes certain battles of each period, and how these exemplified the tactics and organization for each particular period. The book has plenty of maps which outline the battles discussed in the text by phase, as well as terrain and elevation maps. This is a significant strength of the text. In the bibliography, Haldon details primary and secondary sources by chapter, and Haldon includes many photographs of the terrain of the areas in which the battles he describes were fought. This is the main strength of his work, which seeks to help the reader to understand the impact of terrain on these armies. Another significant strength of this book that should not be ignored is the fact that Haldon writes with compactness and brevety which in no way diminishes the topic.

The strongest chapter is on the Bulgars and Arabs, because Haldon shows how the military development and changes in this period set the stage for what was to follow in later centuries. One of the areas of Byzantine history that generalists seem to know is the development of the themes. Haldon points out that in the 8th and 9th centuries, the theme system supplemented the more professional field armies. “The distribution of the field armies across Asia Minor encouraged a localization of military recruitment and identities, and there evolved in consequence a distinction between the regular elements—full-time soldiers—and the less competent or well-supplied militia-like elements of each thema.” (p. 69) The themes provided frontier forces which were significantly less professional than the regional field armies.

Another essential point Haldon makes is that while the Byzantine armies enjoyed significant successes (as well as failures) in the 9th-11th centuries through tactics, organization and discipline, the essential strength AND weakness of the army was its dependence on good leadership at the army level. “…under a good commander the imperial armies were frequently able to achieve extraordinary feats of war, whereas under poor leadership even the best-trained forces suffered a huge disadvantage.” (p. 78) The Byzantine army did not have a strong corps of NCO-type leaders, as found in the first century Roman legions, who would be able to act and lead independently of the army commander. “…upon the commander-in-chief’s attitudes depended everything from morale and discipline to effective logistical arrangements.” (p. 78) [It] “can reasonably be maintained that the dependence on the charisma and intelligence of its leaders was one of the most significant inbuilt weaknesses of the imperial military system at the tactical level.” (p. 163)

After the tenth century, the Byzantine army saw a revival of disciplined heavy infantry, the introduction of heavy cavalry which could operate with the infantry and enhanced the offensive power of the army, and the development of a tactical doctrine which emphasized mutually supporting operations for a range of different situations. Following this revival of military prowess, fiscal constraints, political indecision and intrigue and civil war contributed to a rapid decline in the military structure of the empire. The Byzantine state could ill afford to maintain a standing army, and became increasingly reliant on foreign mercenary forces, until the Byzantine army was essentially another European force that used the same tactics and equipment as its western European foes. Haldon concludes by pointing out that by the end of the eleventh century, Byzantine tactical and organizational innovations were no longer an advantage. “Without its earlier advantages, the strategically disadvantageous position occupied by the eastern Roman state began to tell. In combination with dynamic economic and technical changes [in western Europe], the eastern Roman empire, still bound by its late ancient fiscal and political assumptions, proved itself unable to compete.” (p. 204)

[R X · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent summary of the evolution of the Byzantine army. Introductions include the situation as it was in regards to the Byzantines and their enemy/ies, from economic to political, which are then followed by a description of the conflict in question and the aftermath.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Covers alot of campaigns, though in uneven detail.

[Louiz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not enjoy this, found it somewhat boring.