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De Re Militari | Book Reviews

John F. Haldon

The Byzantine Wars :
Battles and Campaign of the Byzantine Era

(Stroud: Tempus 2001) 160pp, £16.99, ISBN 0 7524 1795 9.

In this book John Haldon attempts to cover the military history of the Byzantines from the times of Justinian through to the twelfth century in only 160 (large format) pages. He does this by focusing on various key battles and the associated campaigns. Brevity is achieved through the use of lots of maps, both of the physical geography of the campaigning areas and of the battles. A number of photographs, mostly of the campaign terrain, are also included.

The book appears to be aimed at a more popular market. There are no footnotes, but a bibliography for each chapter and discussion of sources, which is informative, but not so useful for checking the source of a particular assertion in the text.

The first chapter discusses the military geography of the Balkans and Anatolia, the primary campaign areas of the empire and shows how the rugged nature of these areas limited the number of campaigning routes and explains the problems and opportunities thereby created. The maps repay study and would be very useful for designing wargames.

The next chapter moves on to Justinian’s wars. A discussion of the progression of tactical systems from late Roman to early Byzantine (primarily the downgrading of infantry and move to horse archer tactics) is followed by three battle accounts: Dara (Belisarius vs. Persians), Tadinae (Narses vs. Goths) and Casilinus (Narses vs. Franks). The battle descriptions include a short summary of the background and lead up to the battle. Order of battle information is fairly sparse, reflecting the sources. More discussion on the troops at the battle would be welcome. The description of the course of engagement is accompanied by two or three maps showing the major phases of each battle.

Battle Map - Solachon, 586Maps are excellent means of distilling a great deal of information into a coherent whole. They make clear the topography of a battlefield and the relation of units to each other. In order to draw a map the author needs to have a clear interpretation of what happened from his sources and a good map will make it easier for the reader to understand what went on. Haldon has visited most of the battle sites and this first hand experience feeds into the maps and battle accounts. (Click on the image for a full-size map of the Battle of Solachon [586] from the book - ed.)

Chapter Three covers the late sixth and seventh centuries and the rise of Islam. An extensive discussion of siege warfare over the whole period of the book begins the chapter covering the stratagems, tactics and technology used by the Byzantines and their enemies.

The battle of Solachon against the Persians in 586 is described as an illustration of what a well led Byzantine army could do against the odds when they beat a larger Persian army in around half an hour. Haldon then proceeds straight to the key battle of Yarmuk (636), which broke the Byzantine hold on Syria. There is no discussion on the rise of Islam and why the war happened. This is a minor quibble, however, as the title of the book is The Byzantine Wars, not an all encompassing history of Byzantium. The description of Yarmuk is concise and accompanied by more maps. The skill of the Muslim commanders and their use of terrain and ambush is highlighted. The poor standard of the Byzantine army is also commented upon.

The Byzantine empire shrank back into its Anatolian and Balkan heartlands after the defeat at Yarmuk. The next two centuries saw the empire fighting the Bulgars and the Arabs. The army was reformed and reorganized around the ‘themes’ and new strategies adopted. Mounted troops came to dominate the army with the infantry relegated to a secondary role of garrisons and siege work.

The wars with the Bulgars are described, focusing on the disastrous battles of Pliska (811) and Versinikia (813). I have to say that this period of Byzantine history was new to me and I found this section very interesting. Haldon observes that the Byzantine strategy later changed from engaging raiders head on, to cutting them off when they were returning, laden with booty.

Haldon then moves on to the revival of the empire in the tenth century. He describes the reorganization of the army with the increased importance of infantry and the development of the Klibanaphoroi, extremely heavily armour ed cavalry. He describes a number of battles in the Byzantine reconquest of the Balkans and against the Rus. The improvement in the quality and professionalism of the army is recognized, but Haldon identifies a weakness in that it depended heavily on the quality of the generals in charge. This was due to the lack of a professional officer and NCO class. The Byzantine army was not like earlier Roman armies where career politicians could do a reasonable job of leading an army due to its highly professional structure.

The final chapter deals with the collapse and recovery of the empire in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Haldon argues that Manzikert was not so much a military disaster in that casualties were quite light. The main factor was the capture of the Emperor Romanas, which had significant political effects both within the Empire, and with its neighbors, who now perceived its vulnerability.

The book concludes with the recovery under the Komnenans and closes with the disaster at Myriokephalon. Again Haldon argues that the military losses were slight, but that the political and economic ramifications outweighed these.
This is an excellent overview of Byzantine military practice over most of the empire's existence. I highly recommend it as a starting point for people who are interested in the development of military practice and some lesser known periods of history. My main complaint is that it is too short! It does pack in an enormous amount of information into its compact length.

Richard Cornwell

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Page Added: November 2003