Thanks for the information; I had not heard of that term before. What I'm envisioning is that the light horse archers are drawn entirely from the Turks since they're by far the largest steppe demographic in the Empire, while the armored horse archers are mainly (but not entirely) drawn from the Cumans settled in Thrace and western Anatolia by John III Ducas Vatatzes.
An Age of Miracles: The Revival of Rhomanion
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Thanks for the information; I had not heard of that term before. What I'm envisioning is that the light horse archers are drawn entirely from the Turks since they're by far the largest steppe demographic in the Empire, while the armored horse archers are mainly (but not entirely) drawn from the Cumans settled in Thrace and western Anatolia by John III Ducas Vatatzes.
Is anyone still reading this?
"I am Lord of Asia. Bow before me...or die."-Timur, in a letter addressed to the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed I "the Conqueror"
1394-1397: George Komnenos returns to Constantinople and is promptly made civilian governor of Optimates (Bithynia), a wealthy, prosperous theme far away from any potential war zone, and is shunted off to Nicaea. Very little is known about his conduct as governor, but it is known that when his sister dies in 1394, he takes full responsibility for the upbringing of his fourteen year old nephew Demetrios Komnenos (his father had died in 1383, after which George helped his sister with a small stipend. Demetrios also takes the last name of his mother, as it is more prestigious than his father’s claim as a descendant of the Emir of Kayseri.) George makes sure he receives the finest military training possible.
In 1396 Hungary and the Empire sign the historic treaty of Dyrrachium, regarding respective spheres of influences in the Balkans. Bulgaria and Serbia are to be buffer states to preserve peace between the two powerhouses of the Balkans and neither is to annex any part of those two states without the other’s permission. The Empire also promises not to contest Hungarian attacks on Vlachia, provided that the Vlachs are allowed freedom of worship with their own churches and clergy, and are allowed to emigrate freely to the Empire if they wish to do so.
Also the Empire drops its own claims and recognizes Hungarian claims to Dalmatia from Istria to Cattaro (Venice controls the territory in question). In exchange it is written in the treaty that “If, by the grace of God, the most illustrious Emperor of the Romans should conquer the city of Venice, that city, along with all associated Italian territories west of Gorz, along with all Venetian possessions unbounded by the Adriatic Sea, will be considered the rightful property of the Roman Empire, and of the Roman Empire alone.”
The Ottomans, in the course of their invasion of the Iranian Plateau, finally make contact with the mysterious warlord known as Timur. Born in 1338 in Samarkand as a member of the Suldus tribe, he spent most of his life establishing himself as leader of the Chagatai Khanate. Then in order to consolidate his rule and distract discontented elements, he embarked on a campaign of conquest.
After first humbling the rulers of Moghulistan, he crippled the Blue Horde by sacking its capital of Sarai in 1388, just as the star of Novgorod is beginning its ascent. He then turns his attention south, overwhelming the minor states of Persia that have managed thus far to avoid being annexed by the Jalayirids because of their preoccupation with the Ottomans. Once those were conquered he turned his attentions to the Jalayirids themselves.
In the summer of 1395, an Ottoman army is besieging Mazandaran when Timur’s main force arrives. He will not tolerate a rival in Persia and peremptorily demands that the Turks withdraw. When the Ottomans refuse, he annihilates their army and take Mazandaran. The next year he seizes Gilan and orders raids to commence on Ottoman possessions in Persia.
1398-1400: A crusade is launched against the Marinids, made possible by a truce in the Ninety Years War. Contingents from England, France, Germany, Italy, and even 300 men from Denmark join with the Castilian army at Toledo in 1398. Both Portugal and Aragon launch supporting offensives. The Crusade marches south, annihilating a couple of minor Marinid detachments and rejoices at the news of 4,000 Marinids killed in a failed attack on Aragonese Oran.
At Merida, the French knights in the crusading vanguard spot another small force of Marinids and immediately attack. They finish cutting the Muslims to pieces just in time to see the main Marinid army engulf them and wipe most of the French contingent out. The Marinids then attack the demoralized crusaders and score a crushing victory, moving on to besiege Toledo.
Marinid success however ends there. While the Portuguese offensive is rolled back to the Tagus, the Aragonese fleet, backed by Pisan and Papal galleys, succeeds in capturing Valencia in a surprise attack. And then there is Toledo. From its towers newly installed bombards roar down hellfire on the Marinid besiegers; wave after wave of Moorish soldiers hurl themselves futilely at the walls, clambering over the corpses of their fallen comrades. Roger de Flor, a participant and chronicler of the siege, optimistically called the Rock of Toledo “the graveyard of the Moorish people.”
Mining is of no use either. A vicious subterranean battle is fought between the Castilians and Marinids, in which the Castilians decidedly have the better of the exchange. On September 2, 1399, the Castilians detonate the first known gunpowder mine in history, wiping out five Marinid trebuchets and three hundred men. Two weeks later the siege is lifted.
In 1398 Timur takes Fars, the Jalayirid capital. Almost immediately he begins making preparations for the invasion of Mesopotamia. Cavalry raids are conducted almost daily while a Timurid army captures Hormuz. Sultan Mehmed I, called the Conqueror for his conquests in Armenia and eastern Arabia, conducts counter-raids but keeps his main force in Mesopotamia; he wishes to fight Timur on ground of his own choosing.
In 1399 Timur obliges him, invading Mesopotamia with over eighty thousand men. At Kirkuk Mehmed is defeated but retires in good order with minor casualties, although the city is lost. He gathers reinforcements, eventually commanding an army sixty five thousand strong; by that point Timur is almost at Baghdad.
In order to compensate for his numerical inferiority Mehmed decides to boost his men’s morale by fighting, as close as possible, on the same ground Bayezid I fought on during the Battle of the Gates. Thus Turkish morale is exceedingly high on November 3, when battle is joined.
It is not enough. The ferocious onslaught of the Timurid regiments break the Ottoman center as wave after wave of Mongol and Tartar horsemen hurl volleys into the Turkish flanks, overwhelming the flank guards by sheer weight of numbers. Mehmed throws in the reserves, halting the Timurid advance. Rallying his men with his presence, the Turks begin pushing the Timurids back, until a stray arrow knocks Mehmed from his horse. He is not dead, only unconscious, but the rumor of his death spreads wildly through the army. Panic begins to set in and Timur senses it, throwing in his own reserves. The Ottoman army shatters; Baghdad capitulates the next day.
Mehmed wakes up on November 5. Gathering together what he can of his army, he falls back to Basra. Timur, thinking he is no longer a threat, concentrates on capturing northern Mesopotamia; Mosul falls in February 1400. He wants the region secure as reports of Mameluke military buildups in northern Syria have him concerned.
When he is at Mosul, he is met by a delegation from Constantinople. After congratulating him on his victory over Mehmed, a treaty is made. Rhomanion will pay Timur 120,000 hyperpyra a year in exchange for not attacking the Empire. Konstantinos does this for two reasons. While George was stuck fighting in Italy, Konstantinos was freed of his influence. Since then he has made sure to remain so. Realizing that the two wars of his reign were ultimately counterproductive, he wants no more. Also he realizes that the money he gives to Timur will likely be spent on killing Mamelukes. However the view of many that Konstantinos is a weak old man is confirmed by these events.
After the treaty is signed, Timur moves with lightning speed into Mameluke Syria. He captures Homs in May, defeats a Mameluke army meant to relieve the city, and seizes Damascus in August. The main army then swings toward the coast, where most of the towns surrender immediately. Tyre foolishly tries to resist and is sacked in October.
On the other end of the Mediterranean, the Marinids fail to retake Valencia despite a four month siege due to their inability to implement an effective naval blockade. While the Marinid fleet is powerful enough to secure the Pillars and keep the Morocco-Granada line open, otherwise it is outmatched by Christian sea power.
"I am Lord of Asia. Bow before me...or die."-Timur, in a letter addressed to the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed I "the Conqueror"
1394-1397: George Komnenos returns to Constantinople and is promptly made civilian governor of Optimates (Bithynia), a wealthy, prosperous theme far away from any potential war zone, and is shunted off to Nicaea. Very little is known about his conduct as governor, but it is known that when his sister dies in 1394, he takes full responsibility for the upbringing of his fourteen year old nephew Demetrios Komnenos (his father had died in 1383, after which George helped his sister with a small stipend. Demetrios also takes the last name of his mother, as it is more prestigious than his father’s claim as a descendant of the Emir of Kayseri.) George makes sure he receives the finest military training possible.
In 1396 Hungary and the Empire sign the historic treaty of Dyrrachium, regarding respective spheres of influences in the Balkans. Bulgaria and Serbia are to be buffer states to preserve peace between the two powerhouses of the Balkans and neither is to annex any part of those two states without the other’s permission. The Empire also promises not to contest Hungarian attacks on Vlachia, provided that the Vlachs are allowed freedom of worship with their own churches and clergy, and are allowed to emigrate freely to the Empire if they wish to do so.
Also the Empire drops its own claims and recognizes Hungarian claims to Dalmatia from Istria to Cattaro (Venice controls the territory in question). In exchange it is written in the treaty that “If, by the grace of God, the most illustrious Emperor of the Romans should conquer the city of Venice, that city, along with all associated Italian territories west of Gorz, along with all Venetian possessions unbounded by the Adriatic Sea, will be considered the rightful property of the Roman Empire, and of the Roman Empire alone.”
The Ottomans, in the course of their invasion of the Iranian Plateau, finally make contact with the mysterious warlord known as Timur. Born in 1338 in Samarkand as a member of the Suldus tribe, he spent most of his life establishing himself as leader of the Chagatai Khanate. Then in order to consolidate his rule and distract discontented elements, he embarked on a campaign of conquest.
After first humbling the rulers of Moghulistan, he crippled the Blue Horde by sacking its capital of Sarai in 1388, just as the star of Novgorod is beginning its ascent. He then turns his attention south, overwhelming the minor states of Persia that have managed thus far to avoid being annexed by the Jalayirids because of their preoccupation with the Ottomans. Once those were conquered he turned his attentions to the Jalayirids themselves.
In the summer of 1395, an Ottoman army is besieging Mazandaran when Timur’s main force arrives. He will not tolerate a rival in Persia and peremptorily demands that the Turks withdraw. When the Ottomans refuse, he annihilates their army and take Mazandaran. The next year he seizes Gilan and orders raids to commence on Ottoman possessions in Persia.
1398-1400: A crusade is launched against the Marinids, made possible by a truce in the Ninety Years War. Contingents from England, France, Germany, Italy, and even 300 men from Denmark join with the Castilian army at Toledo in 1398. Both Portugal and Aragon launch supporting offensives. The Crusade marches south, annihilating a couple of minor Marinid detachments and rejoices at the news of 4,000 Marinids killed in a failed attack on Aragonese Oran.
At Merida, the French knights in the crusading vanguard spot another small force of Marinids and immediately attack. They finish cutting the Muslims to pieces just in time to see the main Marinid army engulf them and wipe most of the French contingent out. The Marinids then attack the demoralized crusaders and score a crushing victory, moving on to besiege Toledo.
Marinid success however ends there. While the Portuguese offensive is rolled back to the Tagus, the Aragonese fleet, backed by Pisan and Papal galleys, succeeds in capturing Valencia in a surprise attack. And then there is Toledo. From its towers newly installed bombards roar down hellfire on the Marinid besiegers; wave after wave of Moorish soldiers hurl themselves futilely at the walls, clambering over the corpses of their fallen comrades. Roger de Flor, a participant and chronicler of the siege, optimistically called the Rock of Toledo “the graveyard of the Moorish people.”
Mining is of no use either. A vicious subterranean battle is fought between the Castilians and Marinids, in which the Castilians decidedly have the better of the exchange. On September 2, 1399, the Castilians detonate the first known gunpowder mine in history, wiping out five Marinid trebuchets and three hundred men. Two weeks later the siege is lifted.
In 1398 Timur takes Fars, the Jalayirid capital. Almost immediately he begins making preparations for the invasion of Mesopotamia. Cavalry raids are conducted almost daily while a Timurid army captures Hormuz. Sultan Mehmed I, called the Conqueror for his conquests in Armenia and eastern Arabia, conducts counter-raids but keeps his main force in Mesopotamia; he wishes to fight Timur on ground of his own choosing.
In 1399 Timur obliges him, invading Mesopotamia with over eighty thousand men. At Kirkuk Mehmed is defeated but retires in good order with minor casualties, although the city is lost. He gathers reinforcements, eventually commanding an army sixty five thousand strong; by that point Timur is almost at Baghdad.
In order to compensate for his numerical inferiority Mehmed decides to boost his men’s morale by fighting, as close as possible, on the same ground Bayezid I fought on during the Battle of the Gates. Thus Turkish morale is exceedingly high on November 3, when battle is joined.
It is not enough. The ferocious onslaught of the Timurid regiments break the Ottoman center as wave after wave of Mongol and Tartar horsemen hurl volleys into the Turkish flanks, overwhelming the flank guards by sheer weight of numbers. Mehmed throws in the reserves, halting the Timurid advance. Rallying his men with his presence, the Turks begin pushing the Timurids back, until a stray arrow knocks Mehmed from his horse. He is not dead, only unconscious, but the rumor of his death spreads wildly through the army. Panic begins to set in and Timur senses it, throwing in his own reserves. The Ottoman army shatters; Baghdad capitulates the next day.
Mehmed wakes up on November 5. Gathering together what he can of his army, he falls back to Basra. Timur, thinking he is no longer a threat, concentrates on capturing northern Mesopotamia; Mosul falls in February 1400. He wants the region secure as reports of Mameluke military buildups in northern Syria have him concerned.
When he is at Mosul, he is met by a delegation from Constantinople. After congratulating him on his victory over Mehmed, a treaty is made. Rhomanion will pay Timur 120,000 hyperpyra a year in exchange for not attacking the Empire. Konstantinos does this for two reasons. While George was stuck fighting in Italy, Konstantinos was freed of his influence. Since then he has made sure to remain so. Realizing that the two wars of his reign were ultimately counterproductive, he wants no more. Also he realizes that the money he gives to Timur will likely be spent on killing Mamelukes. However the view of many that Konstantinos is a weak old man is confirmed by these events.
After the treaty is signed, Timur moves with lightning speed into Mameluke Syria. He captures Homs in May, defeats a Mameluke army meant to relieve the city, and seizes Damascus in August. The main army then swings toward the coast, where most of the towns surrender immediately. Tyre foolishly tries to resist and is sacked in October.
On the other end of the Mediterranean, the Marinids fail to retake Valencia despite a four month siege due to their inability to implement an effective naval blockade. While the Marinid fleet is powerful enough to secure the Pillars and keep the Morocco-Granada line open, otherwise it is outmatched by Christian sea power.
Great story so far!! It seems that the Ottoman rise is at its end, unless Timur dies in the middle of sacking Jerusalem
Ther Romans OTOH seem to be getting ready for a new round of internal civil war between rulers.....again
Thank you very much. But I wouldn't count Osman's heirs out just yet. They survived OTL Timur after all.
And the continued propensity toward civil wars seems to be the greatest weakness of the Byzantine Empire in my opinion. Neither Manzikert nor Myriocephalon were very damaging by themselves, but they were both followed by periods of weak leadership and civil wars, so there was no one to act as damage control.
The next update will be posted sometime this evening, but it will be shorter than usual as it only covers two and a half years.
"At this time, when the sun was traversing the spring zodiacal sign of Gemini, a sign from the heavens appeared in the western regions as a portent of evils to come."-John Pachymeres, Roman historian, on the eve of the campaign of 1403. (1)
1401-1402: The Timurid advance is temporarily halted by the defeat of a Timurid detachment at Nazareth. In response, Timur marches on Jerusalem, swinging south briefly to flatten a Mameluke force 30,000 strong at Hebron. Terrified at the prospect of Timur gaining access to Egypt, the Mamelukes offer Timur a generous deal. In exchange for withdrawing from all his conquests south of Damascus, the Mamelukes will cede Damascus and territories north of it and pay him a lump sum equivalent to 2 million hyperpyra and an annual tribute thereafter of 240,000 hyperpyra. Such an offer places the Mamelukes in danger of bankruptcy but it buys them time. Considering that Timur turned sixty three a week after the treaty was signed, they might not have to pay tribute for long.
Timur welcomes the deal. Ottoman Armenia has been cut off from Mehmed in Basra since the fall of Mosul, and he wants to annex it before the Romans do. The rest of 1401 is spent doing so.
On August 9, 1401, Konstantinos XI Laskaris dies at the age of fifty five after a three year bout with colon cancer. George Komnenos returns to Constantinople after an absence of seven years for the funeral where he quickly earns the trust and respect of the new emperor, Theodoros III Laskaris, who is twenty three. In January 1402 twenty two year old Demetrios Komnenos, George’s nephew, is married to Theodoros’ eighteen year old sister Zoe.
Theodoros is one of those who thought his father was old and weak and is particularly disgusted by the treaty with Timur. George, who at age fifty eight still desires an opportunity for war and further riches, has to do very little to convince the emperor to repudiate the treaty.
Enraged, Timur immediately invades eastern Anatolia, seizing Theodosiopolis in September. Roman army units skirmish with his forces with Demetrios Komnenos participating in the fight. George and Theodoros’ strategy is to draw Timur into Anatolia, whittling his strength down with skirmishes and supply deprivation and then annihilate him somewhere in the Anatolian interior where he can’t possibly escape. In preparation for the campaign, George convinces Theodoros to appoint Demetrios strategos (general) of the Thracesian tagma, ten thousand strong.
1403: Timur’s army marches for the Halys river valley. In May he takes Sebastea after a twenty six day siege, slaughtering the inhabitants; he cannot afford to be slowed down by a large train of prisoners. Marching west, his foragers are repeatedly harassed by Roman cavalry, mostly Turkish and Cuman horse archers. Demetrios Komnenos is very successful at this, using his light cavalry to draw enemy squadrons into ambushes and then hammering them with his kataphraktoi.
Still Timur is merely slowed by this, but that is what Theodoros and George want as it gives them time to assemble the largest army Rhomanion has seen in four hundred years, if not more. East of Cappadocian Caesarea the forward scouts of both armies meet in early July. The Roman host numbers seventy two thousand strong, Timur’s eighty five thousand.
1) In OTL, this is an excerpt from the Roman historian Doukas, on the eve of Timur's invasion of Anatolia in 1402.
1401-1402: The Timurid advance is temporarily halted by the defeat of a Timurid detachment at Nazareth. In response, Timur marches on Jerusalem, swinging south briefly to flatten a Mameluke force 30,000 strong at Hebron. Terrified at the prospect of Timur gaining access to Egypt, the Mamelukes offer Timur a generous deal. In exchange for withdrawing from all his conquests south of Damascus, the Mamelukes will cede Damascus and territories north of it and pay him a lump sum equivalent to 2 million hyperpyra and an annual tribute thereafter of 240,000 hyperpyra. Such an offer places the Mamelukes in danger of bankruptcy but it buys them time. Considering that Timur turned sixty three a week after the treaty was signed, they might not have to pay tribute for long.
Timur welcomes the deal. Ottoman Armenia has been cut off from Mehmed in Basra since the fall of Mosul, and he wants to annex it before the Romans do. The rest of 1401 is spent doing so.
On August 9, 1401, Konstantinos XI Laskaris dies at the age of fifty five after a three year bout with colon cancer. George Komnenos returns to Constantinople after an absence of seven years for the funeral where he quickly earns the trust and respect of the new emperor, Theodoros III Laskaris, who is twenty three. In January 1402 twenty two year old Demetrios Komnenos, George’s nephew, is married to Theodoros’ eighteen year old sister Zoe.
Theodoros is one of those who thought his father was old and weak and is particularly disgusted by the treaty with Timur. George, who at age fifty eight still desires an opportunity for war and further riches, has to do very little to convince the emperor to repudiate the treaty.
Enraged, Timur immediately invades eastern Anatolia, seizing Theodosiopolis in September. Roman army units skirmish with his forces with Demetrios Komnenos participating in the fight. George and Theodoros’ strategy is to draw Timur into Anatolia, whittling his strength down with skirmishes and supply deprivation and then annihilate him somewhere in the Anatolian interior where he can’t possibly escape. In preparation for the campaign, George convinces Theodoros to appoint Demetrios strategos (general) of the Thracesian tagma, ten thousand strong.
1403: Timur’s army marches for the Halys river valley. In May he takes Sebastea after a twenty six day siege, slaughtering the inhabitants; he cannot afford to be slowed down by a large train of prisoners. Marching west, his foragers are repeatedly harassed by Roman cavalry, mostly Turkish and Cuman horse archers. Demetrios Komnenos is very successful at this, using his light cavalry to draw enemy squadrons into ambushes and then hammering them with his kataphraktoi.
Still Timur is merely slowed by this, but that is what Theodoros and George want as it gives them time to assemble the largest army Rhomanion has seen in four hundred years, if not more. East of Cappadocian Caesarea the forward scouts of both armies meet in early July. The Roman host numbers seventy two thousand strong, Timur’s eighty five thousand.
1) In OTL, this is an excerpt from the Roman historian Doukas, on the eve of Timur's invasion of Anatolia in 1402.
I didn't see the Nov. 13 update until earlier today.
Something tells me the coming uber-battle is not going to go well based on the quote you've chosen. And the fact the Romans were actually harrying him fairly successfully too...
Something tells me the coming uber-battle is not going to go well based on the quote you've chosen. And the fact the Romans were actually harrying him fairly successfully too...
http://accordingtoquinn.blogspot.com/2011/11/two-interesting-alternate-history.html
I posted a link to your scenario on my blog.
I posted a link to your scenario on my blog.
Hmmm....this is a huge gambit.
If the Romans lose, they will be shattered by the loss of so many soldiers and easy pickings for the western powers. If they win but lose much of their army, the result will be the same. Only a stunning victory with few losses may save the Empire from oblivion
If the Romans lose, they will be shattered by the loss of so many soldiers and easy pickings for the western powers. If they win but lose much of their army, the result will be the same. Only a stunning victory with few losses may save the Empire from oblivion
Merry Prankster: If you're interested in this time period, I would really recommend reading Doukas (for some reason my copy doesn't give his first name). For a medieval historian he is really good at writing action scenes and I took the opening quote directly from him.
And thank you for the link. I am truly honored.
luis3007: George and Theodoros' strategy is a gambit. If it works, instead of having a slugging match with Timur's massive empire, they can cut off the head of the snake in Anatolia and watch the body wither away. If it fails though...
And thank you for the link. I am truly honored.
luis3007: George and Theodoros' strategy is a gambit. If it works, instead of having a slugging match with Timur's massive empire, they can cut off the head of the snake in Anatolia and watch the body wither away. If it fails though...
Shouldn't be too bad even if it goes wrong...
...well, depending on your definition of "too bad", but unless Timur crushes the Romans, they should survive.
Interesting times ahead, if so, but not doom.
And good updates!
Weren't the ottomans crushed at Ankara in the real timeline? and they recovered good enough.
dunklerwald: Thank you, and I intend to.
Elfwine: Your post reminds me of that old Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times." And thank you to you too.
Mathalamus: The Ottomans were flattened at Ankara and did eventually recover, but they had to endure over a decade of civil war and sign some fairly humiliating treaties with the Balkan Christians to cover their backs while they got their house in order again. Still, they were going on the offensive again after less than 20 years.
The next update will be posted sometime tomorrow. It is an interlude of sorts, and will be about the nature of the Laskarid army as it stands on the eve of Timur's invasion. A lot of the information was showing up in drafts of later updates and I decided it would be easier to combine it all, expand on it, and make one big update out of it. After that will be the Battle of Cappadocian Caesarea.
Elfwine: Your post reminds me of that old Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times." And thank you to you too.
Mathalamus: The Ottomans were flattened at Ankara and did eventually recover, but they had to endure over a decade of civil war and sign some fairly humiliating treaties with the Balkan Christians to cover their backs while they got their house in order again. Still, they were going on the offensive again after less than 20 years.
The next update will be posted sometime tomorrow. It is an interlude of sorts, and will be about the nature of the Laskarid army as it stands on the eve of Timur's invasion. A lot of the information was showing up in drafts of later updates and I decided it would be easier to combine it all, expand on it, and make one big update out of it. After that will be the Battle of Cappadocian Caesarea.
Exactly. Very "interesting" times.As Byzantine alt-history should be. The Empire might have had a half century of boredom in all the eleven hundred years from Constantine I to Constantine XI.
As Byzantine alt-history should be. The Empire might have had a half century of boredom in all the eleven hundred years from Constantine I to Constantine XI.
That would be an interesting project, trying to figure out exactly when those boring years were.
And here is the update. To make up for the last short update, this one is significantly larger than usual. It is written in the style of an article written sometime in the future, hence the use of the past tense.
The Roman Laskarid Army in 1400
The Laskarid army at the time of Timur’s invasion was one of the most formidable forces in the known world. In a hundred and fifty years it never lost a war and more than doubled the size of the empire, to a height unseen since the Macedonian dynasty. Most modern historians follow the lead of Roman historians in attributing the design solely to Theodoros the Great, with the following Laskarid rulers merely expanding the system. However recent scholarship is beginning to challenge this view.
The Laskarid army was an organic growth of the late Komnenid army with Mongol influences. The army ranks were often identical to older army titles, but the forces commanded rarely were equivalent.
The primary organizational unit was the tagma, a division of ten thousand soldiers commanded by a strategos. The Empire in 1400 had nine tagmata, two in Europe and seven in Asia. Every one of these tagma was divided in ten tourma, each one comprised of a thousand soldiers and commanded by a tourmarches. In each tagma the tourmai (plural of tourma) were numbered from one to ten, with the first tourmarches being the most senior and second in command of the tagmata after the strategos.
The Laskarid tagmata (plural of tagma) combined aspects of the old Roman tagmata and thematic armies. Like the thematic armies, Roman soldiers were given lands as payment, the grants varying in size according to the type of soldier. Since the Laskarids had access to large estates confiscated after the Nobles’ rebellion and lands conquered in Greece and Anatolia, having enough land grants was never an issue.
Soldiers were allowed to improve their estates but could not move up pay grades by doing so. If a heavy infantryman improved his estate so that it yielded the same income as a medium cavalryman’s estate, he would be allowed to keep the revenue but would not be promoted to a medium cavalryman with its higher salary.
Grants were hereditary, provided the soldier secured his tourmarches’ approval and the inheritor agreed to accept all the obligations of the estate. However estates could not be divided without the approval of the strategos of the tagma. This was rarely done as a typical soldier could not improve his estate to maintain two soldiers of his troop type. A heavy infantryman might be able to improve his estate to where it could equip two light infantrymen or archers, but due to the emphasis on combined arms tactics and maintaining the balance between troop types, which will be discussed below, this was usually unacceptable.
However soldiers paid solely in land had little incentive not to rebel against the central government. Thus the soldiers were also paid cash salaries as well, equal to the annual income of their estates. For instance, an infantryman assigned an estate that yielded an average annual income of 10 hyperpyra would receive a cash payment of 10 hyperpyra every year. Thus any soldier revolting against the central government would effectively cut their pay in half.
Actually any rebels would lose more than half their salary. Every two years soldiers received a bonus designed to pay for equipment, which had to be purchased at state warehouses. The bonus matched the cost of a full set of arms, armor, and field equipment required of the soldier, which varied according to his military function. However since conscientious care of equipment usually allowed it to last much longer than two years, this represented an actual bonus for soldiers. Troops were also allowed to upgrade their equipment beyond the standard required of their troop type, and those upgrades could be acquired outside the state warehouse system, although the warehouses also provided the more popular upgrades, such as lamellar armor for heavy infantry.
Troops on active duty also received a pay bonus equivalent to one quarter of their annual salary, calculated to the time on active duty. This was done to compensate the soldiers for revenues lost while not attending their lands, although most soldiers above the lowest pay grades had family members or hired workers to replace them in the fields.
Sometimes there were minor equipment variations between tagmata based on the wealth of their host themes. For example, heavy infantry of the Thracesian, Opsician, and Optimates tagma usually had maces or war hammers as secondary weapons and some lamellar armor, compared to the short swords and mail armor used by the heavy infantry stationed in poorer themes where land improvement was less of an option.
Soldiers received their annual pay and biannual equipment bonuses at the first of the two tagma reviews held each year, held at the capital of the theme. Failure to attend either review with any excuse other than physical inability resulted either in the loss of that year’s pay if it was the first review that was missed or the next year’s pay if it was the second. Soldiers had to attend the reviews with all of the required equipment at a certain level of quality; failure resulted in pay reductions. Also at the exercises at the beginning of the review, the soldiers had to already be at a certain level of proficiency or risk other pay deductions.
Soldiers also had to attend eight reviews and training sessions with their tourma during the year. Failure to attend was also punished by pay deductions, and the troops were also required to keep their equipment and training up to a certain standard at these events.
Anna I’s popularity with the common soldiery largely rested in her use of the tagma reviews. Every year she attended two, gradually rotating through each tagma. There she would watch the drills and competitions and the best performing soldiers of each troop type would be given cash rewards, personally handed to them by the empress herself or later by her son Nikephoros.
At this time it would be helpful for the reader to discuss the various troop types in the Laskarid army. The focus was on combined arms tactics between the various troop types; the main purpose of the reviews was to make sure that the various troop formations could work effectively together. The troop types shall be discussed in order of pay grade, from the lowest to the highest.
The lowest pay grade was that of the toxotai, the foot archer. Typically they were armored in leather or cloth and armed with a composite bow and small sword or ax. Approximately ten to fifteen percent of archers were equipped with crossbows and were overwhelmingly stationed in Europe. Both composite and crossbowmen were usually accompanied in battle by a pavise carrier to protect them while reloading who outside of battle doubled as the handlers of the baggage train. Toxotai were mainly used to defend ground and support heavy infantry advances.
Next were the akritoi, the light infantry. These were skirmishers and flank guards, used to screen the main body. Equipped with a clutch of four javelins and typically a sword and armored in leather, they were trained to skirmish with the foe and then close to melee in support of the heavy infantry if necessary. The akritoi in eastern Anatolia were largely Vlach immigrants, who favored a cleaver as their secondary weapon. Timurid scouts soon learned to fear them as a cleaver armed Vlach could hack the head off a destrier.
The heavy infantry, the skutatoi, were the backbone of the Roman army and the most numerous troop type. Armored in mail and in some cases lamellar, they were equipped with a long spear called a kontos or sometimes a polearm. Due to the large kite shaped shields they carried to protect against Ottoman and Mameluke horse archers, the long spathion of the Macedonian period was abandoned in favor of a new sword type, named the spatha after a sword type from the Justinian period, approximately halfway in size between a spathion and a gladius. Many wealthier skutatoi used maces or war hammers. The heavy infantry were used for many purposes, often to hold ground and provide a support base for cavalry attacks, although George Komnenos used them as an offensive force to great effect in his Bulgarian campaign.
The cheapest cavalry units in the Laskarid army were the light horse archers called Turkopouloi, who were, not surprisingly, almost entirely Turks. Used as scouts and screeners, together with the akritoi they made sure that enemy forces had a difficult time gaining accurate intelligence on Roman troop movements. Swirling around enemy ranks, they pelted the enemy with a continuous barrage of missiles. Often unarmored and armed with a composite bow, unlike the akritoi they were never used in melee unless the situation was desperate.
Next on the scale were the koursores, the medium cavalry. There were actually two types of this unit, light and heavy. Light koursores were armored in leather and the mount in cloth, and armed with a kontos and a sword along with a shield. The heavy version had mail armor for the rider and cloth for the horse, and was equipped with a kontos, a mace, a sword and a shield. The category was evenly split in strength between the two subcategories. The koursores were often used in complement with Turkopouloi who would whittle down the foe and break up his formations, allowing the koursores to charge and shatter the lines, riding them down in the ensuing melee.
Skythikoi were armored versions of the Turks, with both the horse and rider being clad in mail. Usually they were drawn from the Cuman populations of Anatolia, but there were sizeable minorities of Greeks and Armenians in their ranks. Armed with a composite bow, they were trained to loose concentrated missile volleys on their foes and then fight in melee with their maces and swords in support of the elite of the Roman army, the kataphraktoi. Together the two made up the heavy cavalry portion of the Roman army.
The kataphraktoi were the best trained and equipped soldiers in the Laskarid army, with absolute obedience demanded in exchange for their high salaries. Both horse and rider were armored at least in lamellar and mail, with the richer ones often in plate. Equipped with a kontos, two maces, and two swords, they existed for the charge, which they undertake at the gallop in Latin fashion, as opposed to the flying wedge formation of Nikephoros Phokas, performed at a fast trot at best. Rare was the force that could withstand their onslaught. More disciplined than Latin knights, they were always supported by skythikoi.
Each tagma also possessed its own artillery train of ‘great crossbows’, used as field artillery, which were divided amongst the tourmai. The frontier tagmata also possessed counterweight trebuchets for siege artillery, with the Anatolian tagmata possessing twice as many trebuchets. Also each tourma had its own medical personnel, paid in the same fashion as soldiers, with one doctor for every twenty soldiers. There was also a quartermaster corps, responsible for distributing supplies while on campaign, and which included the cooks. During battle, the quartermasters were also to make sure that the soldiers would be supplied food and drink if possible.
Each of the tagma were designed to be self-sufficient armies, capable of operating on the combined arms principle by itself. A tagma at full strength had 500 kataphraktoi, 500 skythikoi, 1000 koursores, 1000 Turkopouloi, 4000 skutatoi, 1000 akritoi, and 2000 toxotai. The tourmai had one tenth of each troop type. As best as possible, tagma organization was based on the decimal system, where multiples of ten served as the full strength size of most units.
After the tourma, the next smallest army unit was the droungos commanded by a droungarios. These were not combined arms forces, but consisted of only one troop type. They were one hundred strong, except for the droungos of the kataphraktoi and heavy horse archers, which were fifty men strong. The droungoi though were all of the same rank and pay grade, with the droungarios of the kataphraktoi second in command of the tourma.
The kontoubernionwere squads of ten men each commanded by a dekarchos. The heavy cavalry droungoi had five kontoubernion; the remainder had ten. This was the smallest Laskarid army organizational unit.
There were several army units outside of the tagma system. In Constantinople, Antioch, and Bari, units were stationed called archontates. They were equal in strength to tourmai, but had a higher number of infantry. They were designed to provide a permanent defense to a critical area of the Empire and were full-time professional troops. Bari’s elevation to an archontate is due more to Laskarid pride at its possession rather than its value as a seaport or its strategic location. There is no known incident where these troops were used outside of their home province.
Also barracked in Constantinople were the Athanatoi, the Immortals. This was a personal unit attached to the Emperor, although Konstantinos XI Laskaris did loan it to George Komnenos in his Bulgarian and Italian campaigns. The two thousand troops were full time soldiers, organized in troop types in the same ratio as tagma troops. Its internal organization was also identical to a tourma, but with double the number of smaller military units and officers.
Less important cities in the frontier themes were given permanent, full time garrisons as well called allagion that varied in size from 300 to 50, with most being only a hundred at most. These were entirely infantry formations (the archontates had some cavalry), existing to provide a professional core for a citizen army in case the city is attacked.
The frontier themes also had units called bandon which were commanded by a count. These were formations two hundred strong, who were paid and reviewed in the same manner as tagma troops. However these units were either entirely turkopouloi or half turkopouloi and half mounted akritoi. The akritoi would ride while on the march and fight dismounted. The continued Laskarid preference for Anatolia is shown in their positioning. There were eight stationed on the Anatolian frontier. Europe had three, two for the Bulgarian border and one for the Serbian. However the extreme disparity was also caused by the reluctance of Turkish troops to settle in Europe, which was one of the main reasons for the series of Turkish revolts that broke out in the later years of John IV's reign.
This was the Roman army system in place in 1400. Under competent leadership it was deadly and under a genius it was unstoppable. Its main weakness was that its focus on discipline, training and combined arms tactics meant that under poor leaders, the army often ‘tripped over its own feet’. This system would face its greatest challenge in the person of Timur, whose invasion was the greatest threat to the Empire since the Fourth Crusade. As the Anatolian tagmata assembled in the spring of 1403, only time would tell how it would fare.
I apologize for the poor quality; my paint skills aren't exactly the best.
This map is actually from 1390, but the distribution scheme of Laskarid army units has not changed in the past decade.
Red=one tagma, although the troops are settled throughout their assigned theme
Purple=Archontate, there is also one in Bari (off map)
Green=Athanatoi, unique formation attached to the Emperor
Brown=Bandon, each frontier theme has one bandon that is half Turkopouloi and half mounted akritoi. The remainder are pure Turkopouloi.
The Kibyrrhaeots and the various Roman islands are kept outside of the regular tagma-theme system, as they are responsible for the upkeep of the Imperial fleet.
And here is a short bit about some of the peripheral regions on the map.
The Crimea/Ukraine: Most of the territory in question is under the control of the Blue Horde, the western and more powerful half of the Golden Horde, formed during the Mongol conquests. Theoretically the Blue Horde and the eastern White Horde are part of one larger state, but they function as two independent entities. In the past two decades relations between them have deteriorated dramatically, as the Blue Horde seeks to absorb the White Horde and create a Golden Horde that exists on more than paper. This is done to help compensate for losses in the west caused by Lithuania and Hungary.
The Principality of Theodoro is a Greek splinter state, left over from the Fourth Crusade. It does pay an annual tribute to Sarai, the Blue Horde capital, as protection money but is an independent state. For its size it is fairly wealthy, as it is perfectly located to play a major role in the Black Sea grain trade. In the principality itself, Greek merchants dominate the market.
Both the Venetians and Genoese have colonies in the region. Venice controls Soldaia and Kaffa, while Genoa controls Vosporo and Tana (both off map). Both Italian states are required to pay protection money to Sarai in order to keep their colonies. The Genoese colonies are slightly richer, but they are situated closer to Sarai and Genoese relations with the Blue Horde are poorer. Venice meanwhile has an ongoing border dispute with Theodoro, which claims that both Soldaia and Kaffa belong to the Principality.
Vlachia: Vlachia is not a state, but a geographical region named after its predominant ethnic group. It was under the control of the Blue Horde from the 1240s to the 1350s, but Sarai’s authority there was nominal after 1310. Divided into dozens of minor Vlach states, it is Hungary that claims suzerainty over the region. However Buda’s authority is also fairly weak and inconsistent. It is largely secured by periodic raids designed to enforce tribute payments and keep the Vlachs disunited and unorganized, as well as missionary efforts to convert the Vlachs to Catholicism.
The continual unrest in the region after the pullout of the Blue Horde is the reason that so many Vlachs have emigrated to the Roman Empire, being settled in eastern Anatolia as akritoi, a role in which they excel. The reason that Hungary has not attempted to annex the region outright is that concerns in the Holy Roman Empire and Dalmatia are more pressing. Also the Hungarian kings seek to “culturally conquer” the Vlachs through the Catholic missions, which if successful would require significantly less military expenses than an outright invasion and would secure a much more loyal population.
you know, with Byzantium in such a good shape, im actually having trouble remembering if the 4th crusade actually conquered Constantinople, and broke it. nice job describing the army, its much better than mine.
Good update.
Thing is, wouldn't absolute obedience be demanded of ALL soldiers, not just the cataphracts who are paid better?
Isn't that the whole point of military discipline?
Thing is, wouldn't absolute obedience be demanded of ALL soldiers, not just the cataphracts who are paid better?
Isn't that the whole point of military discipline?
wormyguy
Banned
I think that's referencing that, as knight-equivalents, they'd be drawn from the ranks of the nobility.
Elfwine: Thank you. I was trying to create an army that could credibly pose a very serious threat to Timur, like the OTL Ottoman army. And I really like your last line.
Mathalamus: The Empire has recovered rather nicely, but it has been two hundred years since the Fourth Crusade and a hundred since Anatolia was reconquered. So I think it is reasonable that Rhomanion is doing so well, especially since the OTL Ottomans were capable of being the terror of Europe on a comparable resource base. And thank you for the compliment; I had a lot of nerdy fun writing this update.
MerryPrankster: That was a bad choice of words on my part. I was trying to convey that the standard of discipline for the kataphracts is even higher then the standard for the other troops, as they are the most expensive and prestigious arm.
wormyguy: The kataphracts would definitely attract most, if not all of the young noblemen in the army. So the kataphract drill sergeants would also have more problems with making sure that none of their hotheaded trainees decide to break formation during a charge then say, a skutatoi drill sergeant.
Mathalamus: The Empire has recovered rather nicely, but it has been two hundred years since the Fourth Crusade and a hundred since Anatolia was reconquered. So I think it is reasonable that Rhomanion is doing so well, especially since the OTL Ottomans were capable of being the terror of Europe on a comparable resource base. And thank you for the compliment; I had a lot of nerdy fun writing this update.
MerryPrankster: That was a bad choice of words on my part. I was trying to convey that the standard of discipline for the kataphracts is even higher then the standard for the other troops, as they are the most expensive and prestigious arm.
wormyguy: The kataphracts would definitely attract most, if not all of the young noblemen in the army. So the kataphract drill sergeants would also have more problems with making sure that none of their hotheaded trainees decide to break formation during a charge then say, a skutatoi drill sergeant.
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