The Byzantine World War

by Nick Holmes

Most important of all was a strong military culture deeply embedded in Byzantine society, especially in Anatolia, which had been an area of intense fighting with the Arabs since the seventh century.

This Cappadocian aristocracy devoted themselves completely to the art of war. Pride in martial pursuits dominated Byzantine society just as it did any militaristic society.

Paradoxically, when Basil II died in 1025, the empire had never seemed so powerful. But this was an illusion created by the absence of dangerous new enemies.

Basil II’s legacy was a poisoned chalice in every way. Not only did he undermine the Byzantine army but he also died childless and seemed not to care about his succession.

Equestrian skills were paramount. The Seljuks rode with a short stirrup which allowed them to put the rider’s weight over the horse’s shoulder instead of squarely on its back.

Roussel’s revolt marks the beginning of a new era in Byzantine military history. Thereafter, there was no longer any pretence that a regular Byzantine army existed, capable of defending Anatolia.

The battle of Dorylaion marked a turning point. For the first time, the might of the Seljuk Turks had been stopped in its tracks. The crusaders had come of age.

The crusaders’ greatest advantage by far was that the Seljuk Empire had splintered into a host of largely independent emirates. This had occurred after Malik-Shah’s death,170 when his son Berkyaruq (1092–1105), although nominally the Sultan of Baghdad with authority over both Iran and Iraq (while his brother, Sanjar, ruled the eastern half of the empire extending to modern India), failed to impose his authority over the Syrian emirs in Damascus, Aleppo and Mosul who ruled independently. Therefore, there was no concerted effort by the Seljuk Empire to field a major force against the crusaders, such as Alp Arslan had done at Manzikert against the Byzantines. Indeed, the Seljuk emirs of Syria and Iraq were often in conflict with each other, giving the crusaders the opportunity to pick them off one by one. There is no doubt that this was the single most important reason for the First Crusade’s success.

It became clear that Bohemond wanted to take Antioch for himself. Although in Constantinople it had been agreed with Alexius that the former cities within the Byzantine Empire would be returned to Byzantine control, Bohemond proposed that, since Alexius had done nothing to help the crusade since the fall of Nicaea, whoever of the crusaders was able to breach the city walls and bring the exhausting siege to an end should be given the city as his own to rule.

More formidable were the Ghulam cavalry who formed a standard part of medieval Muslim armies, together with the Berber and Bedouin tribesmen, and an entirely new type of enemy for the crusaders in the form of Ethiopian infantry, wielding huge war flails – metal spikes on long chains – capable of bringing down both horse and rider.

For the scale of conflict between 1068 and 1099 was unparalleled for its time. Not since the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century or the rise of Islam in the sixth had such an intense conflict been fought over so wide an area. Its like would not be repeated until the Napoleonic Wars and the First World War.

The Fourth Crusade destroyed Byzantium just as the First Crusade had saved it.

Byzantium had not been completely destroyed, and indeed it would even recover Constantinople in 1261, but it was no longer an empire and no longer of much significance. It would struggle on for nearly two hundred years as a city state until the Ottoman Turks finally put it out of its misery in 1453, when their cannons breached the city’s ancient walls.

The First Crusade was a wildly unlikely success, only made possible by the fragmentation of the Seljuk Empire, the unity of purpose of the crusaders and the military genius of Bohemond. Equally, Romanus Diogenes’ epic struggle to stem the Seljuk onslaught has been largely forgotten. In particular, the Battle of Manzikert is clouded with misunderstanding caused by the diatribes of Michael Psellus.

So, why did Dorylaion end in victory and Manzikert in defeat? The answer is that the armies of the First Crusade were united while the Byzantines were divided. Romanus Diogenes was brutally betrayed on the battle-field by Andronicus Doukas in a few minutes that changed the course of history.