Part LXVIII: The Exarchs
We’ve seen exarchs before. Both Africa and Italy had once been exarchates, to reinforce the Roman control of the region. The exarchate of Ravenna had of course been functionally ended when the Lombards were defeated, even if the title had technically lasted a while longer. Africa’s exarch had survived longer, but was dissolved completely when its holder was on the losing side of a civil war.
Both of those are almost always forgotten however when compared to the exarchates of Manuel, which will last for most of the next two hundred years. And after they were also dissolved by Julius II his subsequent return to the diocese was on mostly the same lines as Manuel’s borders. Indeed, even to the modern day many of the internal divisions of Imperial administration rely on the exarchates of Manuel II.
The first question to address though, is why the positions were created. The first and most obvious reason was that Manuel was increasingly withdrawing from Imperial life. He will maintain strict control over the law, the military, and administration, but these will be conducted almost entirely through intermediaries for the remainder of his life. These intermediaries were the exarchs.
Beyond the need to delegate however Manuel’s long years on campaign had convinced him that the theme system was hopelessly outdated. The thematic armies had been an answer to a very specific problem, the annual Arab raids while the First Caliphate ruled Syria and the Empire had too few soldiers and too little cash to go on the offensive. The idea had been to let the enemy penetrate Roman defenses, then ambush them while they left and recapture much of the plunder. This had worked, and indeed had worked very well. But the Caliphate was gone.
The armies were too scattered and divided to present a solid front to attack, particularly against powerful foes like the Turks, and…well really just the Turks. The Pechengs were powerful, but they were no match for a concentrated Roman army. The Bulgars were strong and unified, but they are constantly distracted by endless fighting with pagans to their north, and the occasional bit of warfare on the now divided, and hence weak, Franks.
Markuria was powerful in its turn, but any war against that kingdom would have to be fought on a very specific front, and along a route easily controlled by the Romans, the Nile. The Turks though were different. They had already overrun Anatolia and Mesopotamia once, and indeed still held the latter. And that was when their Empire was newly formed, as their hold on Persia solidified Manuel could only see trouble coming from that direction, could a new and resurgent Persia once again be an unsolvable problem for the Roman East?
As we know the answer turned out to be…no not really. There will of course be periods of intense fighting along the Syrian border, but much like the Bulgars the Turks are eternally distracted by wars on their other border. In this case in India and on the steppe. But in large part credit for the general peace in the East needs to be given to the strong Imperial forces in the area, with a combined seventy-thousand men in Syria and Armenia by the time the Huns blow through the region.
The first exarchate created though was in 1059, when Manuel created the Exarchate of Italy, including all of Sicily, as well as all of southern Italy, to the end of Latium. This was mostly just an administrative post, combining the taxation efforts in the most economically prosperous areas of the peninsula. Venice was also included as the city had more in common with the southern merchant cities than the more militarized north. We’ll talk a lot more about the Italian exarchate in future of course, as the constant need to balance the interests of the Emperor, the Exarch, and the wealthy merchants will heavily inform Imperial governance after the 1240s.
He then added the Exarchate of Ravenna, named for the old military posting. But, the name is something of a misnomer. The actual capital was at Mediolanium, and Ravenna itself would eventually shift into the Exarchate of Italy as the priorities of the merchant city diverged from the heavily fortified northern command. Ravenna was run by a military officer on five-year terms. While a commander could hold more than one exarchate throughout his life he could never hold the same one more than twice, and not with less than a ten year break. Since the military staff were attached to the office, and were usually locals, rather than the person, who never was, Manuel aimed to prevent long-term loyalties forming that might incite rebellion. While he was correct and no military exarch was able to secure support for a revolt this did have the side effect of leaving the Exarchate of Ravenna heavily influenced by their southern neighbor.
When the Julius II put the shattered Empire back together, he will be leading the army of Ravenna and the fleet of Italy.
The second Exarchate was in Syria, and was granted to the Emperor’s second son Matthios. He was appointed Strategos of Syria in 1058 on the death of the childless office holder, marrying the man’s niece, who had no siblings, to quell muttering about Imperial consolidation. Matthios was little interested in administration, but he was a talented and capable officer. This was needed on the tenuous Eastern border. The office itself was created in 1062, and included more or less the entire old Diocese of the East, including Palaestina.
The third Exarchate was formed in Egypt, and was not held by one man but two. One would handle the civil affairs of the region, while the second handled Egypt’s defenses. These were primarily erected along the Nile and Egypt maintained a significant fleet that patrolled the river. As with all the temporary Exarchates Egypt will fall under the influence of one of the permanent offices, in this case the Exarch of Syria.
Fourth was the Exarchate of Africa, centered around Carthage, but extending both to the border with Egypt in the East, and to Tingi in the West. Africa was another temporary posting, and like Ravenna will fall under the influence of the Italian Exarch as time goes on.
Fifth was the Exarchate of Armenia, created initially as a temporary position the title will eventually be passed to Manuel, son of the current Emperor. In doing so the border of Armenia permanently shifted Eastward, leaving all of the old Theme of Paphlagonia to Anatolia, including the key cities of Theodosiopolis and Trapezous. Armenia would instead consist of essentially all of the Caucuses, and would control the mountain passes into the Anatolian heartland of the Empire. The headquarters would be placed at Manueliopolis, a new city founded on the Black Sea coast. The creation of the Exarchate of Armenia begins the decline in relevance of Armenia to our narrative. For centuries now the region has been home to many of the best soldiers of the Empire, but as the mass infantry armies supported by a core of powerful heavy cavalry made up of Greeks from Anatolia or Greece itself Armenians will stay at home more and more often. It will not be until the discovery of picis in the region to compete with Arabian sources that Armenia will undergo a major reemergence on the Imperial stage.
Last is of course the Exarchate of Spania, given to Manuel’s youngest child George in 1075. Spania is a topic there is little to talk about, as it was always the black sheep in Manuel’s empire, and will ultimately be held for only about two hundred years. When the Thalassans fall George’s descendants will permanently break away from Roman control, and independent Spania will emerge. For now however, Spania consists only of the Baetica, as the other regions of Spain retained their local power bases, and only some control could be exercised on them. Any hopes for a reunited Gothic kingdom arising in the future likely ended here.
To ensure loyalty two key points were used. First, the exarchs were required to spend six months of each year in the capital, with the possibility of exceptions for emergencies. These were normally the winter months, as summer was expected to be spent vigilantly watching the border and keeping the army in shape. Second, the exarch’s children, and sometimes their spouse, would remain in the capital all year round. The children were well-provided out of the Imperial treasury, and received top-rate educations from only the finest private tutors. But the underlying point was clear, the Emperor has your family, and he can do away with them if you make trouble. This was not an issue during Manuel’s reign, nor in Leo’s, but as might be imagined it will be a major source of tension in future.
To defend the exarchates the army was completely reorganized. While elements of the thematic armies were retained for garrison and fortress defense the key element of the army going forward would be the tagma, not to be confused with the Imperial Tagmata even though the names were identical. The latter also was reorganized, but we will cover that in a moment.
Each tagma was made up of twelve Soma each of five hundred men. Of these seven would be pikemen, three would be crossbowmen and two would be light cavalry. The total number of men were six thousand, in deliberate mimicry of the legions of a millennium before. In theory at least. In truth the actual organization of the tagma varied with region. In Moesia the Magyar provided twice the number of light cavalry, as well as a soma of heavy cavalry while the infantry were reduced in number. In Armenia, an additional Soma of crossbowmen replaced one Soma of light cavalry in most cases.
Organization also drifted during the two centuries the formation as in use.
Critical to understanding the tagmas however is that they were, by design, an almost purely defensive force. The soldiers were supposed to hold their ground, and let the crossbowmen inflict heavy casualties on the lightly armored steppe warriors, while the pikemen kept them safe. The block of men was extremely unwieldy, and relied heavily on their comrades staying in position. As well will see, a surrounded tagma was a doomed tagma. The tagmas were in turn often organized into full field armies, for the first time since Theodosius III.
Manuel formed four official field armies which he posted in what he deemed the most important regions of the Empire: Ravenna, Egypt, Syria, and Moesia. The armies were spread out in a number of camps in each region, close enough to the border to respond to attack, but far enough away to not fall immediately when attack came. In Egypt that meant Lower Egypt, and in particular the old fortresses around Babylon. In Syria it meant Edessa, with garrison troops holding the border fortresses of Dara and Nisibis. In Ravenna it meant Tuscany. And in Moesia it meant just north of the Hemus mountains.
Additionally, a series of beacons were build from the border to the headquarters of the field armies, and from the headquarters back to Constantinople. The system meant that if the border came under attack the Emperor would know of it within twenty-four hours, and could begin preparing a response if additional soldiers were needed.
A field army was made up of at least four tagmas, sometimes more. In Syria a full nine tagmas were in place, with three more in Armenia. Manuel was deeply concerned about the East after all, and being so far away meant the army in the East might well simply have to hold the border of weeks, or months, before the Emperor could arrive.
Ravenna had the smallest force, only four tagmas, though Italy had a fifth, and Africa had two more. Egypt had the second largest, a full seven tagmas, representing Egypt’s still overriding importance to Imperial policy. Moesia had only five tagmas, but was supplemented both by a single tagma in Dacia and another in Greece, but by the tagmata itself, still headquartered around Constantinople.
The tagmata was the crown jewel of the Imperial army. It had no light cavalry, nor crossbows or pikes. Rather the tagmata, now expanded to twenty-five thousand, was made up of twenty thousand of the heaviest cavalry in Europe. Fully armored in chain from head to toe, and riding horses that by the end of Manuel’s reign were equally well armored these Roman knights were virtually invincible on the field. Arrows, darts, bolts, and swords were useless against the Roman knight. Armed as he was with a lance, mace, sword, and shield there was no finer soldier in all of Europe. For over a hundred years this man ruled the battlefields of Europe. Where he went Turk, Pecheneg, Cuman, Rus, Nubian, and Bulgar fled.
And when his reign ended it did so in a field of fire.
The remaining five thousand men of the tagmata were the Pedinoi, heavy infantry armored just as heavily as their mounted counterpart, but armed with battleaxe, sword, dart, and shield. The main improvement of the Pedinoi during this time period however was not their increased armor, but the provision that each man have a horse. Not to fight on, but to ride to battle on. By mounting all of his soldiers Manuel planned to have the fastest responding Imperial army in history. And he succeeded. The Tagamata could race across the Empire in only a few weeks, resulting in maximum Imperial power presented at any time.
Another key point to remember about the Tagmata, is that it was quite capable of taking apart a full field army of four tagmas if needed. The heavy armor and shield of the pedinoi could withstand crossbow bolts with little significant risk to the men, and they could pin pikemen in position while the heavy cavalry routed their light coutnerparts, and then fell on the flanks and rear of the exposed tagmas. A surrounded tagma was a doomed tagma. Manuel was taking no chances.
And he would need this army, because as the centuries wore on and the Pechenegs declined in power they were rapidly being replaced by another foe from the steppe, the Cumans.
Next time we will cover the First Cuman War, and Manuel’s final years as Emperor.