Adapting to New Threats on the Example of Byzantine Eastern Frontier in the Tenth Century CE

• Authors: Szymon Wierzbiński

Abstracts

EN

One of the most important challenges every country faces is the ability to respond to the changing political environment. History provides enormous material in this regard, which is eagerly used by scholars, for example, in the discourse on conflicts and wars. In this respect, the course of the Byzantine-Arab conflict in the tenth century is particularly worth mentioning. In this text, the author attempts to identify the mechanisms of reforms in the administrative and military spheres that allowed the Empire to avert a crisis on its eastern borders and, over time, go on the offensive. Due to the specificity of the field of knowledge, the dominant research method was source confrontation and discussion with the literature on the subject. This text is divided into several parts, including the introduction, the part devoted to administrative reforms, the part relating to reforms in the functioning of the army (general remarks, discipline, battle preparation, aftermath instructions, preferences regarding the selection of commanders) and the summary. It appears that the reforms implemented by the Byzantine Empire were deliberate and resulted in averting the Arab threat in the tenth century.

Keywords

EN

Byzantium; state defense; history; organization management; polemology

PL

Bizancjum; obrona państwa; historia; zarządzanie organizacją; polemologia

• Publisher: Centrum Rzeczoznawstwa Budowlanego Sp. z o.o.
• Journal: Safety & Defense
• Year: 2024
• Volume: 2
• Pages: 1-7

Dates

published

2024

Contributors

author

Szymon Wierzbiński

• Lodz University of Technology, Lodz, Poland

• https://orcid.org/0000000206840911

References

• Bonner, M. (2010). The waning of Empire, 861–945. In Ch. F. Robinson (Ed.), The New Cambridge History of Islam, Volume 1: The Formation of the Islamic World, Sixth to Eleventh Centuries (pp. 305–359). Cambridge University Press.
• Brauer, R. W. (1995). Boundaries and Frontiers in Medieval Muslim Geography. American Philosophical Society.
• Dennis, G. (1993). Religious Services in the Byzantine Army, Eulogema. Studia Anselmiana, 110, 107–17.
• Ekloga: Ecloga. Das Gesetzbuch Leons III und Konstantinos` V. (1983). Löwenklau Gesellschaft e.V.
• Ekloga1: The Ekloga (Appendix 1:17, trans. Ε. H. Freshfield, A Manual of Roman Law: The Ecloga [Cambridge, 1926].
• Ekloga2: Ecloga Leonis et Constantini, Epanagoge Basilii Leonis et Alexandri, ed. K.E. Zachariae von Lingenthal, Lipsiae 1852.
• Haldon, J. (1999). Warfare, State and Society in the Byzantine World, 565–1204. UCL Press.
• Haldon, J. (2024). Arab-Byzantine Warfare 660 CE-1040 CE. In Routledge Handbook of the Global History of Warfare (156–176). Routledge.
• Haldon, J., Eisenberg, M., Mordechai, L., Izdebski, A., & White, S. (2020). Lessons from the past, policies for the future: resilience and sustainability in past crises. Environment Systems and Decisions, 40(2), 287–297.
• Haldon, J. F. (2014). A Critical Commentary on the Taktika of Leo VI-Dumbarton Oaks Pub Service. Dumbarton Oak Papers.
• Hild, F., & Hellenkemper, H. (1990). Tabula Imperii Byzantini, Band 5: Kilikien und Isaurien. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.
• Hoiberg, D. H. (Ed.). (2010). Abbasid Dynasty. In Encyclopedia Britannica. Vol. I: A–Ak – Bayes (15th ed.). Prowess Publishing.
• Holmes, C. (2005). Basil II and the Governance of Empire (976–1025). Oxford University Press.
• Kazhdan, A. (Ed.). (1991). The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford University Press.
• Krsmanović, B. (2008). The Byzantine Province in Change: On the Threshold Between the 10th and the 11th Century. Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
• Magnusson, M., & Goring, R. (Eds.). (1990). Abbasids. Cambridge Biographical Dictionary. Cambridge University Press.
• McCormick, M. (1990). Eternal Victory: Triumphal Rulership in Late Antiquity, Byzantium and the Early Medieval West. Cambridge University Press.
• McGeer, E. (1995). Sowing the Dragon's Teeth – Byzantine Warfare in the Tenth Century. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.
• McGeer, E., Nesbitt, J., Oikonomides, N. (Eds.). (2001). Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art, Volume 4: The East. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.
• Mochov, A. S. (2000). Komandnyj sostav vizantijskoj armii v XI v.: pravlenie Romana III Argira (1028–1034). Antičnaja Drevnost’ i Srednie Veka, 31, 173–197.
• Mochov, A. S. (2004). Voennye preobrazovanija v Vizantijskoj Imperii vo vtoroj polovine X – načale XI v. Izvestiya Ural’skogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta, 31, 14–34.
• Nomos (Nomos Stratiotikos). (2017). The Laws of the Isaurian Era: The Ecloga and its Appendices. In M. Humphreys (Transl.), Texts for Byzantinists, 3 (pp. 80–88). Liverpool University Press.
• Oikonomides, N. (1972). Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles. Editions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.
• Praecepta: Praecepta Militaria. (1995). Byzantine Warfare in the Tenth Century. In E. McGeer (Ed.). Sowing the Dragon’s Teeth (pp. 12–59). Dumbarton Oaks Studies.
• Sylloge: Sylloge Tacticorum, quae olim “Inedita Leonis Tactica dicebatur.” (1938). In A. Dain (Ed.). Société d'édition “Les Belles lettres.”
• Sylloge1: A Tenth-Century Byzantine Military Manual. (2017). In G. Chatzelis, & J. Harris (Transl.). The Sylloge Tacticorum. Routledge.
• Taktika: The Taktika of Leo VI. (2010). In G. Dennis (Ed.). Dumbarton Oaks.
• Treadgold, W. (1997). A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford University Press.
• Whittow, M. (1996). The Making of Byzantium, 600–1025. University of California Press.
• Wierzbiński, S. (2018). Prospective gain or actual cost? Arab civilian and military captives in the light of Byzantine narrative sources and military manuals from the 10th century. Studia Ceranea, 8, 253–293. https://doi.org/10.18778/2084-140X.08.14
• Wierzbiński, S. (2019). U boku bazyleusa: Frankowie i Waregowie w cesarstwie bizantyńskim w XI w. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego.

Identifiers

DOI

10.37105/sd.227

Biblioteka Nauki

58906182