The Byzantine Army was a well-oiled machine. It was efficient
and effective, and was able to able to hold for a long time the areas
that were incorporated into the Eastern Roman Empire. It was the
closest that the middle ages came to producing
a superpower in any region of the world.
The book begins with a brief overview of the Empire from circa 602
(when a military manual called the Stratêgikon was written)
until the Latin Conquest of the Fourth Crusade in 1204, although, as the
author rightly points out, that was not the end of either Constantinople
or the Byzantine Empire. This covers much ground in just a few pages,
ranging from the wars with the Persian Empire to the threat from the Avars
and that posed by the advent of Islam, to the internal argument over whether
the use of religious icons in the Orthodox Church constituted idolatry,
to the battle of Manzikert in 1071 and the civil wars of the latter part
of the eleventh century. Many of the more famous events and rulers
are briefly visited, and the author includes a thorough chronological
table as well as a glossary of Greek military terms detailing aspects
of the Byzantine army.
The bulk of the book addresses most of the nuts and bolts of everyday
life as an infantryman in the Byzantine army. Every conceivable
facet of the soldier is addressed, from recruitment to appearance and
equipment, his sense of belonging, his twice-a-day training regimen and
to his encounters and experiences with the enemy and battle. It
is in sections such as 'Belief and Belonging' that Dawson is at his best. He
explains how the Eastern soldiers were in a different situation from their
brethren in the West, where the Roman Church justified such things as
holy wars and the military crusading orders. The Eastern Church
had no such concepts; homicide of any type was still considered a sin
and the people in the military were placed in an untenable situation. He
writes: "Thus, being a soldier in the Eastern Roman Empire must sometimes
have entailed being somewhat in an ideologically conflicted twilight zone,
neither fully accepted by society, nor wholly supported by the Church." (p.
44)
The narrative is helped along by a large number of photos showing mosaics
depicting the equipment in use, ancient artifacts that have been recovered,
and modern reconstructions, which are particularly helpful. In addition,
illustrator Angus McBride contributes eight color plates (which also have
commentary) that match his usual high standard.
Overall, the book serves as a good introduction to the infantry units
of the Byzantine empire of the middle ages. It is especially accessible
to the non-specialist or as a quick reference for a specialist.