Maniakes, Argyros and Guiscard: The Contest for Byzantine Italy, 1038-71

O’ROURKE: BYZANTINE ITALY 1030-71

GREEKS, LOMBARDS AND NORMANS: GEORGE MANIAKES, ARGYRUS, ROBERT GUISCARD AND THE MILITARY CONTEST FOR BYZANTINE ITALY, 10301071 With brief notes on the arms, armour, dress and equipment of the Byzantine army in the 11th century by

Michael O’Rourke mjor (at) velocitynet (dot) com (dot) au Canberra Australia December 2009 INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................................. 2 THE GEOGRAPHY AND ADMINISTRATION OF BYZANTINE ITALY............................................................................... 5 THE BYZANTINE ARMY IN 1030......................................................................................................................10 LIST OF 10TH CENTURY EMPERORS.................................................................................................................. 15 THE EARLY CAREER OF GEORGE MANIAKES..................................................................................................... 16 ITALY, 1032-37............................................................................................................................................18 EVENTS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN......................................................................................................................20 LAND, LOCAL RECRUITS AND IMPORTED SOLDIERS IN BYZANTINE ITALY...............................................................21 EVENTS IN THE EAST, 1036-38.......................................................................................................................24 THE SICILIAN EXPEDITION, 1038 .................................................................................................................... 24 LANGOBARDIA, 1039..................................................................................................................................... 31 ARDUIN, THE ‘SECOND LOMBARD REVOLT’ AND THE NORMANS...........................................................................35 EMPEROR MICHAEL V ‘THE CAULKER’, 1041-42..............................................................................................43 SYNODIANOS AND MANIAKES VERSUS ARGYRUS AND THE NORMANS .................................................................... 45 THE REVOLT AND DEATH OF MANIAKES, 1042-43............................................................................................48 ROBERT ‘GUISCARD’ DE HAUTEVILLE............................................................................................................... 54 ARGYROS FAILS AGAINST THE NORMANS, 1051-53............................................................................................56 THE NORMAN CONQUEST................................................................................................................................62 THE CONTEST FOR APULIA, 1062-71...............................................................................................................67 FINAL END OF BYZANTINE RULE IN SOUTHERN ITALY.........................................................................................72 APPENDIX: EQUIPMENT AND DRESS IN MANIAKES’S ARMY....................................................74 SOURCES AND REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................77

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Introduction In the early 11th century, the greatest of the great powers west of India was the Christian Roman Empire of the Greeks, known to us as ‘Byzantium’. The rulers of a lesser power, Germany, held the suzerainty over Old Rome, and usually travelled there to be anointed with the title imperator Romanorum (“emperor of the Romans”). So the real Empire of New Rome (Ν ε α ‘Ρ ω µ η —Nëa Rhômê— Constantinople) is ocassionally called the ‘Eastern Empire’ to contrast with a more titular German Empire in the West. In this paper I have used mainly the modern adjective ‘Byzantine’ but sometimes ‘Romaic’ to remind us of the Byzantines’ self-image as the true Romans, and sometimes ‘Greek’ to underline their differences from the Latins (Lombards and Normans). The Empire of New Rome was to reach its greatest territorial expanse in the middle of the century under the Empress Zoë, d. 1050, and her several husbands, Romanos III (1028-34), Michael IV (1034-41) and Constantine IX (1042-55). A further emperor in this period was Zoë’s adopted son, the nephew of Michael IV, Michael V (1041-42). Not idly did Psellos call Zoë “… she who alone is noble of heart and alone is beautiful, she who alone of all women is free, the mistress of all the imperial family, the rightful heir to the Empire …” (Chronographia, 5.26). As we will see, Zoë’s generals briefly captured eastern Sicily – the eastern littoral including Taormina, Catania and Syracuse - in 1038-43. Armenia, part of which emperor Basil II, d. 1025, had annexed, was fully incorporated into the empire in 1045. Last of all, the Muslim principality of Edessa [modern Urfa, Sanliurfa] in Mesopotamia was fully annexed in 1052. In the West, the Greek Empire had lost most its North Italian territories to the Lombards and Franks during the 8th century, and Sicily had been lost to the Saracens (Muslims) during the 9th century. In southern Italy, however, Byzantium continued to rule today’s Calabria, Basilicata and Puglia (ancient Apulia) which collectively was called ‘Langouvardia’ or ‘Longobardia’ [Λ α γ γ ο β α ρ δ ι α : Latin Longobardia Minor]. ‘Langouvardia’ in the broad sense meant the whole catepanate (super-province) of southern Italy or in a narrow sense just the province (theme) whose capital was Bari, i.e. our Puglia nd eastern Basilicata. The narrow Strait of Messina between Calabria and Sicily—just three km at its narrowest—formed the political frontier between Christendom and Islam. Looking east the Sarakenoi could on a clear day literally see the Rum (Greeks). And looking west, the Rhomaioi (Byzantines) could see the ‘Arabi and al-Barbar (Sicilian Berbers), or at least they could see their chimney-smokes. Or probably we should say that Greeks on both sides of the Strait saw Greek chimney smoke, because the great majority of the population of east Sicily under Muslim rule were Greek-speaking Christians. A map of the Empire in AD 1045 can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/image:map_byzantine_empire_1045.svg

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Above: 11th Century costume. The right hand figure is based on a famous miniature of emperor Basil II, d. 1025, in parade armour. His boots should be imagined as red with lines of pearls; blue hose; his tunic purple woven with gold; dark blue cloak; and his armour corselet made of brightly gilded iron lamellae. From his crown dangle pendilia of pearls. Muslim North Africa and Sicily The viceroys of Ifriqiya (our Algeria and Tunisia) under the Fatimids were the Zirid dynasty, a line of Berber emirs. They ruled from Kairouan in inland northcentral Tunisia. The removal of the Fatimid fleet to Egypt (969) made the retention of Sicily impossible for the Zirids. With the sea-link loosened, the Kalbid sub-governors in Sicily soon began to rule the island without regard to their nominal overlords in Tunisia. Then Algeria broke away (1014) under the governorship of Hammad ibn Buluggin, who allied himself with the Abbasids in Baghdad. In Sicily the intra-dynastic conflict intensified under Ahmad al-Akhal b. Yusuf, who seized power in Palermo in 1019. Some factions allied themselves with Byzantium, others with the Zirids. With some support from the Fatimids, alAkhal defeated two Byzantine expeditions in 1026 and 1031. But his attempt to raise a heavy tax to pay his mercenaries—many were Sudanese and Slavs—caused a civil war. Al-Akhal now turned (1035) for support to the Byzantines, while his brother Abu Hafs, leader of the rebels, received (1036) troops from the Zirid emir of Ifriqiya, al-Muizz b. Badis. The emir’s 13 years old son Abdallah led, or

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nominally led, an expeditionary force of 6,000 men to Sicily. Abu Hafs’ and Abdallah’s men stormed Palermo and beheaded al-Akhal (1038) [chronology from Singh 2002 and Bosworth 2004]. This was the scene into which the imperial general George Maniakes brought his invasion army. The Normans in Italy 1016-47 Unlike the Norman conquest of England (1066), which took place over the course of a few brief years after one decisive battle, the conquest of Southern Italy was the product of decades and many battles, few decisive. Many territories were conquered independently. Only later were they all unified into one state. Normans first appeared in southern Italy in 1016 in the form of a band of pilgrims visiting the shrine of Michael the Archangel at Monte Gargano. There they met the Lombard rebel Melus of Bari. Along with the rebel Lombards, this band of Norman adventurers joined in an attack on Byzantine Apulia in 1017. In three battles fought that year in north Apulia, the rebels had the better of it, largely it would seem because of the incompetence of the Byzantine commanders. But the following year, the rebels, including 250 Norman cavalrymen, were totally crushed at Cannae by the troops of the new Byzantine catepan or governor-general, Basil Boioannes. This victory brought the Byzantines recognition by all the lords of the Mezzogiorno, who had previously given their allegiance to the German Emperor. Some of the surviving Normans took service with the Byzantines, while others joined the armies of the various Lombard princelings and the ruler of Naples. Early in 1030, Sergius of Naples gave his Norman commander Ranulf Drengot the county of Aversa—just north of Naples—as a fief, the first Norman principality in the region. Sergius also gave his sister in marriage to the new count. In 1037-38, the Normans were further entrenched when the German Emperor Conrad II deposed the leading Lombard ruler, Pandulf of Capua, and recognised Drengot as holding his fief directly from the emperor. Meanwhile, in about 1035, the de Hauteville brothers, William and Drogo, came from Normandy to join Ranulf. By 1038 they were in the service of Guaimar IV of Salerno, and he sent them to join the Byzantine expedition to Sicily under Maniakes. After their return to the mainland, the Hautevilles laid claim to Byzantine territory in northern Apulia, initially in the Ascoli and Venosa regions. Sent back to Italy in 1042, Maniakes put the Norman up[starts back in their box, but once he departed, the anti-Greek forces began gradually to get the upper hand. In 1047 once again, Emperor Henry III, Conrad's son, came down and, ignoring the Eastern Emperor in Constantinople and his Italian-based governor at Bari, made the Drengot and Hauteville possessions around Aversa and Melfi his direct vassals. They began to expand their rule by seizing Byzantine-ruled towns and valleys.

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The Geography and Administration of Byzantine Italy Before we go further, it may be useful for the reader to have a short introduction to the towns and regions of the Mezzogiorno. We assume that they are not as well known as those of northern Italy, even to many Europeans, let alone to Jamaicans, Trinidadians, New Zealanders, South Africans, Australians and other English-speakers. We also explain some of the military and civil institutions of the Eastern Empire. APULIA /English: “uh-pyool-ya”/: Modern Puglia /Italian and English: “poolya”/ comprises the heel and lower calf of Italy. The towns of the Byzantine period included, from north to south, the following. The largest present-day cities are underlined. 1: Lucera: inland from coastal Manfredonia (ancient Sipontum). 2: Bovino: south of Foggia. 3: Canosa: inland from Barletta and Trani. 4: Bari: about one-third down the coast of Puglia. 5: Matera, which is inland: equidistant from Bari and 6: Taranto. Technically Matera lies within the modern province of Basilicata. 7: coastal Monopoli: nearer to Bari than Brindisi. 8: Brindisi itself: about half way up the actual back-ankle. 9: inland Lecce: halfway between Brindisi and Otranto. And 10: Otranto itself, near the easternmost point of the heel. Inside the heel we have Gallipoli, Taranto and Mottola. Taranto gives its name to the great Gulf of Taranto. Tracing ‘backwards’, NW towards Rome, the ancient military highway called the Via Traiana ran from Brindisi up the Adriatic coast through Monopoli to Bari. There it veered inland to Bitonto, Canosa, Ordona and medieval Troia (ancient Aecae: near Foggia) and thence through the Apennines to Benevento in Campania, where it joined the Appian Way proper. Also tracing towards Rome from Brindisi, the Appian Way proper cut across the upper heel to Taranto and thence inland - north-west for some 200 km - via Gravina (med. Silvium), Venosa: 10 km S of the Ofanto River, Aquilonia and Mirabella Eclano (ancient Aeclanum), to Benevento. BARI: The coastal town on the calf of ‘the boot’ of Italy. In the middle period, after AD 900, Bari was the capital of Byzantine Italy. From NE to SE down the Adriatic coast, the key towns of the Italian calf and heel are: Manfredonia, Barletta, Trani, Molfetta, Bari, Monopoli, Brindisi and Otranto. As we have said, Brindisi was the terminus of the ancient highway called the Appian Way, Latin: Via Appia. But a further road ran to Otranto from Brindisi. BENEVENTO:

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An inland town in central-southern Italy, strategically located on the ancient highway that ran from Capua across the spine of the peninsula to Brindisi on the heel of Italy. The Appian Way divided at Benevento. As already noted, the upper leg or Appia Traiana went east into north Apulia (Puglia): to Canosa and then SE to the coast at Bari. Then it followed the coast down the ‘calf’ to Brindisi. The other leg, the older Via Appia proper, ran from Benevento SE through the middle of S Italy to Venosa, across the inland border of Puglia to Gravina, and on to the south coast (the Gulf of Taranto) at Taranto and thence across the heel to Brindisi and the Adriatic. CALABRIA: The three major cities today are Reggio di Calabria*, near the southern tip, across from Sicily; Catanzaro in the centre; and Cosenza in the north, at the top of the valley of the Crati River. Another important city, Crotone, lies on the east coast near Capo Colonna, Calabria’s easternmost point. (*) Founded by Greek colonists in around BC 720. Thus it celebrated its 1,750th anniversary in about AD 1030. CATEPAN: Commander in chief, regional commander, governor-general. The first text that mentions a katepâno* of Italy is a diploma dated to the the spring of 970 in favour of the church and monastery of St Peter of Taranto by the anthypatos or ‘proconsul’ and patrikios, the Catepan Michael Abidelas. Thus the office was almost certainly created in 969 or 970. Holmes 2005: 432 says the first katepano of Byzantine Italy was probably the patrikios Eugenios in 968 or 969. Others think Abidelas was the first, being raised from a mere strategos (general) to katepano in 970. (*) Greek: ho Kat’epano, “the one above (the others)”; “the over-all, foremost”, i.e. supreme regional commander. GARGANO PENINSULA: The big bump on the upper calf of Italy. ‘LANGOBARDIA’, GK: LA(N)GHOUVARDHÌA: This was the name of the Byzantine super-province or ‘catepanate’ that covered the bottom fifth of Italy, i.e. modern Calabria, Basilicata and Apulia. It was governed from Bari. This must be a guess, but if each of Calabria, Loukania (see next) and Apulia was garrisoned with 2,000 soldiers, then the ordinary military strength of

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Byzantine Italy may have been 6,000 men. There were a number of small “Lombard”*, i.e. non-Greek, principalities wedged between the German Empire - which ruled Rome - and Byzantine ‘Catepanate of Italy’. From west to east they were: Capua, Salerno and Benevento. There were also three even smaller coastal Greco-Italian city-states which in earlier centuries had recognised the suzerainty of Constantinople, but had longsince become self-determining, namely Gaeta, Naples and Amalfi. (But why be ungracious to the leading naval power if you are a maritime trader? - Although fully independent, the trader-lords of Gaeta and Amalfi were content to accept court titles from the Eastern Empire into the 1030s. —Patricia Skinner 2003, note at page 100.) (*) The name derives from the Longobards or Lombards, a Germanic people who first settled in Italy in the sixth century. They quickly became Latinised. The Lombard language died out as they adopted the local ‘proto-Italian’ dialects. The corner-point between Beneventan, Salernitan and Imperial territory lay on the upper Ofanto River west of Melfi. Modern-day Basilicata was divided between Salerno and Byzantine “Langobardia” (greater Apulia). The corner-point between the lands of Salerno, Byzantine Calabria and Byzantine Longobardia lay NW of Cassano. At the time of the Norman conquest of south Italy and Sicily there were essentially three distinct trading areas: Apulia, Campania, and Calabria. In Apulia, Byzantine coins were used more consistently than anywhere else, though their use was challenged by Lombard coins of Salerno and by silver denari of the north. By the mid-eleventh century, Lombard coinage was used in northern Apulia; a hoard from Ordona [near Foggia] contained only one histamenon of Basil II and Constantine VIII [d. 1028] as against 147 taris of either Amalfi or Salerno, the early types of which cannot be easily distinguished from each other. —Travaini, 2001. LUCANIA: The thema or theme (province) of Loukania or Lucania, between Calabria and Apulia, is first mentioned in 1042, and probably does not date to much earlier (Stephenson in Magdalino 2003: 139). Rodriquez notes that the theme of Lucania is known only from a document dated November 1042 by its strategos Eustathius Skepides, who dictated a sentence in favour of the abbot of the monastery of San Nicola in the valley of the Lao, west of Cassano allo Ionio.* The theme had probably been established in 1035 after the alliance with the Sicilian Emirate. It possibly had short life, as it is not mentioned in the decree of Duke Argyros on his arrival in Italy in 1051. (*) Cassano allo Ionio lies south of the Pollino national park; inland from the west coast of the Gulf of Taranto

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Lucania was constituted around Cassano in N Calabria in the opinion of Van Falkenhausen (2003), or headquartered at Tursi** in present-day S Basilicata if we rely on Guillou [Guillou, 'La Lucanie Byzantine: Etude de geographic historique', Byzantion, 35 (1965), 119-49]. It covered, in the opinion of the latter, the territories of Latinianon, which is the Agri valley: inland from the top of the Gulf of Taranto; Mercurion which is the Lao or Laino valley, part of today’s Pollino national park, which is transected by the modern Basilicata-Calabrian border; and Lagonegro,*** west of the Pollino park, near the N border of modern Calabria. In other words, Byzantine Lucania comprised the southern sector of modern Basilicata. (**) Tursi lies a little inland from the top (apex) of the Gulf of Taranto and to the NE of Pollino national park. (***) Lagonegro lies in the segment of Basilicata—the tongue of land between Campania and Calabria—that reaches west to the Tyrrhenian Sea.

NAPLES AND CAMPANIA: Campania is the region centred on Naples. From north to south, the key cities are: coastal Gaeta, inland Capua on the river Garigliano, Naples, Sorrento on the Bay of Naples, Amalfi and Salerno. As the crow flies, it is about 70 miles or 110

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km from Gaeta to Salerno. PATRIKIOS and PROTOSPATHARIOS: The court titles awarded by the emperor were, in descending rank: proedros (‘president’), magistros, anthypatos (‘proconsul’), patrikios, praipositos [a rank limited to eunuchs] and protospatharios (‘first sword bearer’). They were honorific titles, not functional offices; thus a magistros was not ipso facto a judge. Theme commanders (military governors of provinces) were commonly awarded the title of protospatharios, but a protospatharios need not be a military man (see details in ODB: Kazhdan 1991). As will be seen in this paper, a generalissimo (“catepan”) of Italy was commonly awarded the higher title of patrikios. Patrikios was rendered in Latin as patricius; one sees ‘the patrician’ in some English texts. SICILY, GK: SIKELÍA: The key regions and towns in this era included: (a) Maza del Vallo: on the coast near the W point, and Marsala: closer to the W point. (b) Northern coast: Palermo, the capital of Muslim Sicily: about a quarter of the way east from the island’s NW point. Cefalù: halfway on the north coast. Milazzo: on the coast just west of the NE point. (c) Enna: effectively dead-middle of the island. (d) South: Agrigento inland from the central S coast. (e) East coast: Messina is near the NE point. Taormina: a quarter-way down. Catania: halfway down. Syracuse: three-quarters of the way to the SE point. Also Noto: inland SW of Syracuse. TARANTO [ancient Tarentum] and OTRANTO [Hydrontos]: ... are different towns in SE Italy. Taranto is located on the inner or western side of the heel, at the top of the Gulf of Taranto. Otranto, medieval Hydrus or Hydrontus, is very close to the outer, easternmost point of the heel, i.e. opposite Greece. THEMES, GREEK: THEMATA The military provinces of the empire: administrative regions each with its own locally raised troops. There was a combined civil-military administration under a strategos or ‘commander-general’. Several of the Themes were naval or marine districts, supplying the imperial fleets with oarsmen and marines. Thematic troops were trained, semi-professional cavalrymen and infantry, half-farmers-half-soldiers. They engaged in farming when not called out for battle or training. As part-recompense for their military service, or that of their

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son, they owned land. They also received a salary from the state. VARANGIANS: The Varangians or Rus’ [Old Norse Vaeringjar, Greek Varangoi] were Norsemen, mainly but not only from Sweden, who travelled and settled in the eastern Baltic, present-day-day Russia and lands to the south. Engaging in trade, piracy and mercenary activities, they roamed the river systems and portages of what is now Ukraine, reaching the Caspian Sea and Constantinople. In 988 under a treaty with Vladimir I of Kiev, emperor Basil II recruited a division of 6,000 Varangian infantrymen and formed them into an elite regiment. The Varangians relied on a long axe as their main weapon, although they were often skilled swordsmen or archers as well. On their axes, see O’Rourke 2009. They fought either in the front line or were held back and sent it as a circuitbreaker if the tide of battle looked like turning in favour of the enemy. A Byzantine general who knew his Herodotus might give the order ‘Send in the Varangians!’ The term Varangian Guard, "Palatio Varangoi", is first recorded in 1034, although the unit itself dated from 988 (Treadgold 1997: 537, 680). In about 1034 the 19-years-old Norwegian prince Harald Sigurdarson or Sigurdsson - later called Harold ‘Hardrada’ or Haardraade—‘hard ruler’ or ‘the ruthless’—arrived at Constantinople with a detachment of 500 Varangian “noblemen” (Davidson 1976: 209). The Greek form of his name name was Araltes. He was the step-son of King Sigurd and half-brother of King Olaf ‘the Saint’, and had served for some years with the ‘Russian’ (Kievan) king Yaroslav before arriving in Byzantium. The extravagant word “noblemen” is Kekaumenos’s, but no doubt they were all elite warriors. The saga-writer Snorri Sturlusson said Harald ‘served on the galleys with the force that went into the Grecian Sea’, meaning the Aegean. He was employed for about nine years by three emperors, ca. 1034-ca.1043, including in Sicily (Obolensky 1971: 306). He was afterwards king of Norway, and was famously killed invading England in 1066. The geographical meaning of ‘Varangia’ as Scandinavia has been brought out most clearly in a passage in the Book of Advice which is annexed to the Strategikon of Cecaumenus. In § 246, Harold Hardrada is called the “son [stepson] of the king of Varangia”, which is to say: Norway. The Byzantine Army in 1030 To illustrate a typical battlefield deployment used by the Byzantines, we can cite the formation adopted by Emperor John I for a battle fought near the lower Danube River in 971. He drew up his army in two lines. The front line comprised most of the infantry

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(perhaps 2,500 men) in the centre with cavalry on either flank (say 1,625 left and 1,625 right). The Varangians commonly formed the centre of the front line. Then there was a second line made up of a smaller body of infantry archers and slingers (say 1,250), with two further cavalry regiments (500 left and 500 right), hidden from view, placed behind the ordinary cavalry in front. The second infantry line could fire over the heads of the first line, while the hidden reserve cavalry units could be sent against the enemy’s flanks in a surprise move. (The numbers in brackets are not from 971; rather they are the sorts of numbers to be expected in an expeditionary force serving in Italy.) At the Battle of Troina in Sicily in 1040, Maniakes formed up his army in three lines. Unfortunately we do not know where the various unit-types were placed. If we follow the 10th C Byzantine military manuals (see McGeer 1995), we might expect an expeditionary army of 10,000 to be made up as follows, at least for fighting in the East. It is not known if all of these troop-types were also used in the same proportions in Italy. 1,800 ordinary cavalry These were lancers wearing plain, one-piece low-conical iron helmets. Their body armour was a waist-length lorikion or mail corselet and/or a klivanion or klibanion, the iron lamellar corselet or ‘torso cuirass’ with platelets rivetted to a shaped shirt of hardened leather. Over this they wore an epilorikon or thick padded surcoat of cotton or coarse silk. The lances or light pikes, Greek: kontos, were used for poking, stabbing and thrusting, not for the couched charge as in later Western—and Byzantine—armies of the 12th century. The couched charge did not come into use until the period 1100-1150 (see France 1994: 71). Their secondary weapon was a slashing sword. D’Amato and also Dawson, 2007b: 19, give the length of the spathion or Romano-Greek long sword as about 85 cm [2 ft 10 in]; McGeer offers 90 cm [three feet]. They carried ‘kite-shaped’ shields: almond-shaped or like an inverted teardrop, about two feet or 60 cm wide at their widest, or 70 cm. Such shields were about 105 cm or 3 feet 5 inches high according to D’Amato. 1,200 mounted archers: 40% of the cavalry (McGeer 1995: 68, 213) The smaller cavalry bow (a ‘Hunnic’ recurve composite bow) could shoot arrows as far as 130 metres, with a killing range of perhaps 80 metres or 260 feet. The archers carried on their belt a single large rounded-box quiver with 40-50 arrows. The arrows were inserted point upwards (in contrast to the infantry quiver). As Dawson notes, Phokas’s (AD 975) Praecepta Militaria [PM] or ‘Composition on Warfare’ at III.8 says that the horse-archers should wear helms, body-armour in the form of lamellar klibania and quilted coats called kavadia which protect their legs and part of their horses. See the photograph of Dawson’s reconstruction at his Levantia website (“Archer”). There the soldier wears high

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boots folded down, a split kavadion or thick padded coat to just below the knees worn under a lamellar cuirass (torso only), and a rounded skull-tight dish helmet with a non-metallic aventail. Phokas says that horse-archers carried, or should carry, the same large onemetre shields as lancers. Up to 250 "true" cataphracts In the 960s AD Emperor Nicephorus Phokas introduced a new-style super-heavy cavalry regiment with fully armoured horses (McGeer p.217). It is not known if any were ever stationed in Italy. One would guess not. The horse-armour was a full klibadion made of hardened ox-hide platelets covering the whole horse to its knees. Their main weapon was the large mace, Greek bardoukion, ‘sledge-hammer’, used for smashing through the centre of the enemy line; but they also carried lance and sword. 150-250 light horse skirmishers (Mc Geer p.211). Dawson, citing PM II.3, explains that the prokoursatores were a medium-cavalry type whose job was to harass small groups of the enemy and pursue fugitives. They could be equipped in a simple klibanion like the horse-archer, or they could wear mail. Their standard armament was a sword, mace and round shield. We might call them ‘sword-chasers’, as they lacked the lance. Sub-total: say 3,000 cavalrymen (six parataxes of 500). In emperor Leo’s Taktika, ca. 907 AD, the thematic cavalry are formed up five deep: the first two ranks were lancers, then two ranks of archers (40%) and finally another rank of lancers (one bandon = six allaghiai = six x 10 files of five men = 300). In the later 10th Century the basic cavalry unit was the new-style bandon of just 50 men, who formed up five ranks deep. In battle formation 10 banda formed one formation or regiment (parataxis): this created a 100-horse front (500 = 100 x 5). As before, lancers were placed in the first two and also the back rows; horsearchers made up the 3rd and 4th rows, i.e. 40% were bowmen (McGeer p.284; also Toynbee 1973: 313). 3,000-5,000 basic pike infantry (“kontaratoi”) According to the Byzantine military manuals, the common infantryman wore quilt body-armour and a turban-like ‘pseudo-helmet’ of felt (McGeer pp.203-4; illustrations by McBride in Dawson 2007b). Heath (1979) notes that, although the manuals do not state that ordinary infantry wear iron helmets, the contemporary illustrations do show infantry typically with iron helmets and also lamellar iron or mail body armour - often to the waist but sometimes to the knees. Conceivably such illustrations represent elite infantry guardsmen in the capital rather then the ordinary foot-soldiers of the Themes.

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Their round shields were sometimes quite large: up 140 cm (4 ft 7 in) high, according to McGeer p.205, i.e. covering from above the shoulder to below the knee. Dawson 2007b: 23 offers the smaller figure of 95 cm (3 ft) as normal. Parani, Images p. 125 list the “great round” infantry shield as having a diameter of 82 cm [2 ft 8 in]. Their primary weapon was a very long spear or thin pike of about four metres or 13 feet, Greek kontarion, also called doru or ‘spear’ in Leo the Deacon. McGeer translates kontarion as “spear”. They also carried a “belt-hung” sword (spathion), i.e. not hung on a baldric from the shoulder as was common for cavalry (McGeer 1995: 206). Also Dawson’s Levantia website under ‘Infantry’. 2,400 foot archers About a quarter of the infantry force. No armour. They used heavier bows capable of sending an arrow over 300 metres, with a killing distance of perhaps 150-200 metres (McGeer pp.68, 207, 272). Nikephoros Phokas specifies that his archers are to have a small shield, two bows and two quivers: one of 60 arrows, the other of 40 arrows. As we noted earlier, foot archers stored their arrows point-down in their quivers. 1,200 light infantry Armed with javelins or slings. The sling is more accurate and has a greater range than a bow-fired arrow: lead pellets and stones weighing 50 grams will travel up to 400 metres. Javeliners carried two or three casting spears (akontia, ‘javelins’ or doration, ‘throwing spear’) up to “2.75” m or nine ft long. The Syllogê Taktikôn of the 10th century says that infantry javelins must be no longer than 2.35 m or 7ft 9in, which is surprisingly long; they must have been quite light in their shaft and heads (Dawson 2007b: 24). We have no information on the range of javelins but 40 metres (half the capability of today’s top 10 Olympic javeliners) can be noted for discussion. Light infantry shields were smaller than those of the pike infantry (McGeer 1995: 208). According to Parani, p.126, they were “oblong” (possibly oval) and 94 cm high [3 ft 1 in]. 600 heavy infantry pikemen called menavlatoi or menavliatoi In the East this type defended the infantry square against cavalry charges (McGeer pp.209, 268). They were armed with very thick pikes or heavy poles, used to stab the enemy horses. The pikes were possibly three to four metres or 10-12 ft in length with a long 20-inch or 50 cm blade (McGeer’s figures; Dawson 2007b: 61 says just 2.5 metres long, so ‘heavy spear’ might be the best rendering). The infantry square was symmetrical and seven deep, with spearmen in the front ranks, foot-archers behind them and the menavliatoi at the rear (Dawson 2007b: 52, 62).

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Subtotal 6-8,000 infantry in six to eight taxiarchies or battalions of 1,000 (McGeer p.51; also p.207). The standard or default deployment of a taxiarchy was in a rectangular formation seven men deep: two ranks of kontaratoi at the front, then three rows of footarchers and two further rows of kontaratoi at the back. The archers shot over the heads of the front rows (see details in McGeer pp.265-67 etc). The manuals prescribed that when entering or crossing enemy territory, the infantry, marching in three lines or columns, should be surrounded on all sides by cavalry. Further out were small numbers of cavalry outriders or flank scouts. In open country this meant that the main body comprised three lines of infantry flanked on either side by one line of cavalry. The emperor or commander rode with a second line of cavalry, behind the cavalry vanguard and immediately ahead of the infantry. The baggage train (supplies and equipment typically carried by pack-mules and/or in mule-drawn carts) was in the very middle with the infantry (Haldon, Byzantium at War p.53).

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Above: Fresco of Joshua dated to after AD 1150 at the walled monastery Hosios Loukas near the town of Distomo, in Boeotia [Voiotia], Greece. Curiously he wears no beard. Note the finely drawn corselet of lamellar armour, the baldric and the boots. The helmet looks to be shaped from a single piece of metal. * * * * * List of 10th Century Emperors In Greek the title of the emperor was Basileus, pronounced ‘vasilefs’, literally 15

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‘sovereign’. ‘Macedonian’ dynasty, so-called: 1028-34:

Romanos III Argyros: married to empress Zoe of the longestablished ‘Macedonian’ line.

1034-41:

Michael IV ‘the Paphlagonian’: married to empress Zoe. Older brother of the chief minister John ‘the Orphanotrophus’. The family was originally from the Asia Minor province of Paphlagonia.

1041-42:

Michael V ‘the Caulker’: nephew of Michael IV and John the Orphanotrophus; adopted son of Zoe.

1042-55:

Constantine IX Monomachus: married to empress Zoe.

1055-56:

empress Theodora Porphyrogenita: older sister to Zoe.

1056-57:

Michael VI Bringas. An official in his 60s who in formal terms Theodora adopted as her son when she was dying. Bringas was the candidate of the anti-military party in Constantinople. Defeated in battle by the army general Isaac Comnenus, he abdicated.

Comnenus and Ducas dynasties: 1057-59:

Isaac (Isaakios) I Komnenos. Lacking a son, as he lay dying, he abdicated in favour of an associate, Constantine Ducas.

1059-67:

Constantine X Doukas: Wife: Eudocia.

1067-78:

Michael VII Doukas: son of Constantine X and Eudocia, aged about 17 in 1067.

1067-68:

empress Eudocia, regent for Michael VII.

1068-71:

Romanos IV Diogenes, co-emperor and senior ruler: married empress Eudocia, the widow of Constantine X.

1071-78:

Michael VII Doukas, aged about 21 in 1071.

The Early Career of George Maniakes Georgios (George) Maniakes first appears, aged 33, in the historical record in 1030 in the post of strategos or military governor of Telouch (Skylitzes 381.38-

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39). Telouch or Teluch was the ancient Doliche, modern Duluk, a little to the west of the river. The town of that name lies near today’s Gaziantep, north of Aleppo, on the road from Germanicia (Marash) to Zeugma in ancient N Syria; now just inside Turkey. Maniakes’ Theme was the lowest down Theme (small province) of the several on the upper Euphrates River (Treadgold 1997: 585). Maniakes was proverbial for his size and ferocity. The scholar Michael Psellos, fl. 1047, describes him thus: nature had bestowed on him all the attributes of a man destined to command. He stood ten feet [sic! 200 cm?] high and men who saw him had to look up as if at a hill or the summit of a mountain. There was nothing soft or agreeable about the appearance of Maniaces. As a matter of fact, he was more like a fiery whirlwind, with a voice of thunder and hands strong enough to make walls totter and shake gates of brass. He had the quick movement of a lion, and the scowl on his face was terrible to behold. Everything else about the man was in harmony with these traits and just what you would expect (Psellos, Chronographia VI. 77). In 1043 at the Battle of Ostrobos he fought at the head of his troops and whoever was injured by his sword escaped “with half or more of their body maimed, for he was known to be invincible and firm, a big and broad-backed man terrible in appearance but an excellent leader” (Attaleiates: History 19.5-10 / 15.19-16.1, quoted in PBW 1043). The local Muslim powers in 1030 were the Mirdasids of western Syria, a Shi’a Arab line ruling from Aleppo, and the Marwanids of northern Mesopotamia, a Kurdish dynasty whose lands were centred on Diyarbakir, with its seat at Miyafarqin (Silvan: NE of Diyarbakir). The Mirdasids shifted allegiance back and forth between Byzantium and the other great power in the nearer East, the Fatimids of Egypt, who were another Shi’a dynasty. Likewise the Marwanids, who captured the important town of Edessa in 1026, juggled their relations with Constantinople and Cairo, and also with Ahvaz, the town in SW Persia that was the seat of the Buyid emirs, yet another Shi’a line, who ruled the further East (lower Mesopotamia and Iran). Maniakes was promoted to governor of Lower Media in 1030, with his HQ at Samosata, higher up on the Euphrates (Skylitzes 382.58; Yahya of Antioch 514). He led attacks on the Muslim emirs of Aleppo and Diyarbakir. Maniakes was wrongly told by a band of Arabs in 1030 that emperor Romanos III, then personally leading a campaign in Syria, had been captured. They ordered the strategos to surrender Telouch and he pretended to acquiesce, sending them supplies, including wine. The next day, when they had drunk and fallen asleep, his troops killed them all. They captured 280 of the Arabs' supplyladen camels and cut off the ears and noses of the dead. These he took and presented to Romanos, who had retired to Cappadocia. Romanos then appointed Maniakes strategos of the “theme of the Euphrates cities” and catepan of Lower Media with his HQ at Samosata (Zonaras 17.12.13, cited in PBW).

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The following year the new strategos of ‘the Euphratean cities’ attacked the major Muslim-ruled town of Edessa—modern Urfa in Turkish Syria—and bribed its governor Salamanes (Sulayman), who surrendered the town to him. Although under Muslim rule, the great majority of the inhabitants were Christians. Apomerbanes was the Greek rendering of Ibn Marwan [Nasr ad-Dawla ibn Marwan], the Kurdish emir of Miepherkeim [Mayyafariqin], Greek Martyropolis. Today’s Silvan. He had entrusted Edessa to the Turk Sulayman ibn al-Kurgi (Gk Salamanes). Maniakes captured much of the town, then bribed Sulayman, who surrendered all of it to Byzantium. The bribe to Sulayman was obtained by a request to Romanos III. The emperor sent via Maniakes a letter to Sulayman appointing the Turk anthypatos and patrikios, and also giving an exalted dignity to his wife. Salman received an annual pension and a patent of nobility from the Emperor. Salamanes was appointed anthypatos and patrikios and given estates in Byzantium. Maniakes found in the city the famous relics believed to be a letter of king Abgar to Christ and the autograph letter of Jesus in response. The correspondence between Christ and the king of Edessa was the palladium or holy safeguarder of the city. The strategos sent the relics to Romanos III (PBW under 1031, 1032). Ibn Marwan, Gk Apomerbanes, emir of Martyropolis, which is modern Silvan near Diyarbakir, came to rescue the situation but he failed, despite the strength of his army, to oust Maniakes from the three towers the latter held in Edessa. So Apomerbanes destroyed the Great Church and much of the town, killed its citizens and returned to Martyropolis with his camels laden with booty. In one incident at this time a soldier ‘of the Russian people’—presumably an officer of the Varangian Guard—sent by Maniakes on an errand to the Emir of Harran [SE of Edessa, today located just inside Turkey] lost his temper with the Emir and struck at him with his axe (PBW, 1031). In 1032, as we have said, Maniakes sent the famous relics, the letter of Abgar and Christ’s reponse, from Edessa to the capital, together with Sulayman ibn al-Kurgi, the Turkish governor from whom he had taken the city. Romanos III came out with the Patriarch Alexios to receive the precious letters, had them translated from Syriac to Greek and Arabic, and added them to the palace collection. In 1033 Maniakes sent to Romanos III Edessa's annual tax of 50 ‘pounds’ [litrai] of gold (3,600 standard gold coins called nomismata) (PBW citing Skylitzes 388.25-29). Italy, 1032-37 The Sicilian Arabs, who regularly raided across the Strait of Messina and further abroad, invaded Calabria in 1032. They captured Cassano and killed Pothos Argyros, the catepan of Italy, who came out against them. They then made a naval raid across the Adriatic to Corcyra, where they met defeat at the hands of imperial forces under the strategos of Nicopolis [our west-central Greece]. The

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Arab “pirates” burned Kerkyra but lost heavily in a battle and a storm (Treadgold 1997: 587; also PBW under 1031 and 1032). The new catepan in succesion to Pothos was Michael, hitherto a high offcial (protospatharios) holding the offices of household treasurer to the emperor or epi ton oikiakon and ‘krites of the velon or curtain and of the hippodrome’, which is to say: manager of imperial audiences. He arrived (1032) in Italy with troops from the Anatolikon Theme (PBE under 1032). In this period catepans commonly served brief terms of office. A new catepan Constantine (Leo) Opus was in place by the summer of 1033 (or 1034). He proceeded to Calabria with John (Ioannes) the Cubicularius [chamberlain], commander of the fleet, in order to remove the Saracens (Muslims): the conflict dragged on for years, punctuated by negotiation and truces. In the central Mediterranean the ships of the strategos of Nauplia [Nafplion in the Peloponnesus], Nicephoros Karantenos, and the fleet of the chamberlain John now began to sweep the seas and effectively eliminated the ‘pirate’ threat from Sicily and Ifriqiya. According to A L Lewis, by 1100 the fleets of Muslim Spain, Sicily and North Africa “simply disappeared, leaving only a scattering of ships that could be mustered for warlike purposes” (1988: 103). The years 1035-38 saw revolt and civil war in Muslim Sicily. The two main contending parties were led respectively by the Kalbid emir Apolaphar Mouchoumet [Abul-‘afar, i.e. al-Akhal] and his brother ‘Apochaps’ [i.e. Abu k Hafs]. The contest was coloured by ethnic tension between the Sicilian Arab elite and the Sicilian Berber peasants. In the words of the Catholic Encyclopaedia (online), discord broke out among the Kalbite or Kalbid princes of Muslim Sicily, and anarchy resulted: "every alcalde and petty captain aspired to independence". Or as Gibbon puts it, “the emir disclaimed the authority of the king of Tunis; the people rose against the emir; the cities [read: towns] were usurped by the chiefs; each meaner rebel was independent in his village or castle; and the weaker of two rival brothers implored the friendship of the Christians [i.e., Byzantium]”. Ahmed Al-Akhal, Emir of Sicily, was leader of the "African" (Arab) party. This time it is Ahmed (al-Akhal) who appeals to the Byzantines for help. Having failed to suppress a revolution of the "Sicilians" (Berbers) under his brother Abu-Hafs, he turned (1035) to Constantinople and recognised the old supremacy of the Greeks. Once the emperor saw he was dominant on the seas, he felt comfortable in negotiating with the Arabs of Sicily and their Emir al-Akhal. In August 1035 he dispatched the diplomat (and eunuch) George Probatas who signed a peace treaty in name of the Basileus that conceded the titles of Emir and magistros to alAkhal. Abu Hafs or Apochaps has the support of Oumer [Zonaras’ rendering: correctly: al-Muizz ibn Badis], the Zirid ruler in Africa, who is promised territory on the

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island. The Sicilian rebels called on the Zirid overlord Emir al-Muizz ibn Badis of Ifriqiya [present-day Tunisia]. The Zirids leap at the chance and dispatch a strong expeditionary force of 6,000 men under al-Muizz's son, Abdallah ibn al-Muizz (Norwich 1967: 46). As we have said, the eunuch George Probatas was sent by Michael IV to conclude a treaty with the emir of Sicily, Ahmad ibn Yusuf al-Akhal (Cedr. II 513). Thus alAkhal has the support of Leon or Constantine Opos, the Romaic catepan of Italy, who commands a force of Lombard mercenaries (or should we call them ‘paid volunteers’?). This Lombard force is able to best (1035 or 1036) the African mercenaries and hold them in check. The emir’s ally, the catepan Leo Opos, withdraws from Sicily with his mainly Lombard forces. Upon this departure, Apochaps’ African ally—‘Oumer’, as Zonaras calls him—is now free (1037) to despoil Sicily without opposition. The African ruler—correctly al-Muizz ibn Badis—was in fact represented by his teenage son Abdallah. With the aid of his mianly Berber troops, the Sicilian rebels captured Khalisa, the inner precinct of Palermo in 1038. (The Al-Khalisa or Kalsa contained the Emir's palace, baths, a mosque, government offices and a private prison.) There Ahmed al-Akhal (who had asked Constantinople for aid) makes his last stand. Ahmed's head is sent to the young Zirid prince Abdallah ibn Muizz. The final result was that the teenaged Abdallah dispossessed both Ahmed and AbuHafs and reigned in person in Palermo. Events in the Mediterranean One of the last west-Muslim (Sicilio-Tunisian) fleets to appear in the Aegean was defeated in 1035 (Hocker in Gardiner 2004: 93). The patrikios Constantine Chage, admiral of the Cibyrrhaeots [the fleet and marines of southern Asia Minor], and other commanders attacked and defeated Muslim Africans and Sicilians (Zirids/Kalbids) who were raiding the Cyclades and the coasts of the Thrakesion. Five hundred prisoners were sent alive to Michael IV, while many others were thrown into the sea or ‘crucified’* along the Asia Minor shore from Adramyttion to Strobilos (PBW, citing Skylitzes). Byzantine and especially Italian fleets—Venice, Genoa, Pisa—dominated the West Mediterranean after this time. Pisa would later aid the Normans in southern Italy and Sicily. As already noted, A L Lewis says by 1100 the fleets of Muslim Spain, Sicily and North Africa “simply disappeared, leaving only a scattering of ships that could be mustered for warlike purposes” (1988: 103). (*) Possibly a reference to the Byzantine style of “impaling” (Gk anskolopismos) whee the victim was tied up and exposed on a forked stake. That is, he did not have the stake inserted into or through his body (Notes to Leo the Deacon, trans. Talbot & Sullivan p. 216). Catepans of Italy, following Hofmann: (a) Leo [Constantine] Opus, AD

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1037. (b) Nicephorus, qui et Dokino [Nikiforos, also called Dokeianos], AD 1039. Land, Local Recruits and Imported Soldiers in Byzantine Italy In Calabria the population was almost all Greek-speaking. In Apulia, however, the majority were Lombards, although a large minority in the heel itself spoke Greek as their native tongue. The Lombard language was already many centuries extinct. Despite their Germanic names, the so-called Lombards spoke a variety or varieties of Romance, i.e. ‘proto-Italian’ dialects. As Rodriquez explains, the defensive system of the Empire’s Italian themes or provinces was based on the military autonomy of each region. Only at moments of crisis or in the case of major expeditions were troops called in from other regions. The pressing necessities of defence of the Italian provinces exceeded the capacity of the local military services. This meant the almost constant presence of troops brought in from other parts of the Empire. Or we might say that the progressive professionalisation of the Byzantine army from the mid 10th century (after 950) gradually reduced the importance of enlisting Italian, mainly Lombard, recruits. In the course of the 11th century we still find the locals being enrolled as light infantry militiamen. They are called kontaratoi or conterati, literally ‘spear carriers, pikemen’ in the sources (from Gk kontarion, ‘long spear, pike’). But now they are of little military value. (While Rodriquez does not say this, it seems to me that we are seeing middle-class and upper working-class men having to be replaced by the urban labouring class. Or since towns were small, we may imagine conscripts drawn from the lesser peasantry of the countryside but brigaded in the towns. In their place the battles were now fought mainly by soldiers of exotic origins: Varangian-Russians, Armenians and Vlachs as well as an ample representation from the Greeks of the Eastern (Asia Minor) themes. And it seems that more of the senior officer caste was drawn from the regiments of Constantinople. Among the officials documented in the sources for Italy we find abundant references to members of the Tagmata [metropolitan regiments] of the Scholae and Excubitores and men called Manglabites [a title held by imperial bodyguards, often Varangians*] and also, as of 1040, there are references to Pantheotai, outposted members of a unit of the palace guard of Constantinople, performing functions of a judicial character (—thus writes Rodriquez; my translation and summary, MO’R). (*) Harold Sigurdsson, for example, held the office of Manglabite. It was derived anciently from the Latin manuclavius, ‘wooden club or bludgeon’. So perhaps best rendered ‘Mace-bearer’. The economic base of the territorial army was the strateia, a military duty or service placed on certain land-owners that from end of the 10th century was progressively turned into a payment of money. In return for supplying a soldier,

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the land was held tax-free. In practice only rarely did the possessor of a military holding represent a serving soldier, although the land-owner was responsible for the cost of the acquisition and maintenance of armaments by the state treasury. This explains why so frequently we find clergymen in a ktemata (theme) in possession of stratiotika (military lands) and therefore subject to the payment of strateia. In the 11th century, the strateia became a mere tax. This allowed, or compelled, more and more use to be made of so-called ‘mercenary’ troops, i.e. paid professionals, including Normans. Any deficiency would be supplied by the creation of a territorial military service conscripted from the local population, the so-called kontaratoi or conterati, from kontarion, ‘lance or long spear’: literally ‘spear-carriers’. In the 1040s especially, the light-armed urban militia of the conterati are widely recorded in urban politics, especially their behaviour at times of crisis and revolt. They were conscript militiamen; their spear was provided by the state. There were large, medium and small landowners. In the Latin sources, the terminology used for the big landholders was maiores or nobiles: ‘the major ones’ or ‘nobles’; the mediani were middle rankers; and the minores or cunctus populus were the ‘the lesser ones’, ‘the body of the people’. These labels derived from the Lombard laws according to which the population was divided in three classes based on its economic capacity for war. According to this scheme, [1:] the maiores or ‘powerful’ were those who had, or could afford, horses plural, armour, helmets and lances and enjoyed the benefit of at least seven properties. [2:] The mediani or middle class could afford a horse, a helmet and lance, and held at least 40 jugera or ‘yokings’ of land (Rodriquez’s figure). One ‘yoking’ or jugerum = two Roman acres, and 80 Roman acres (see Note 1 below) was 10 hectares. This was about the same area as the average holding farmed by the better-off half of the peasantry in the Romaic East. Finally there were [3:] the minores, the small-holders, who were expected to arm themselves with, or pay for, just a bow and a quiver of arrows. Not that we are allowed to imagine that a composite recurve bow was cheap; only that it cost much less than a horse. Note 1: Measuring Medieval Land The Roman acre was the squared Roman ‘arpent’, 120 pedes by 120 pedes. This equals 14,400 square feet or about 0.126 hectares. One ‘yoke’ or jugerum = 0.2518 hectares, so 40 iugera = marginally more than 10 hectares. In the Byzantine East, peasant holdings may have clustered around four to five ha in the case of boidatoi, those who owned just one ox, and 8–10 ha in the case of zeugaratoi, those owning a plough-team of two oxen (Lefort in Laiou ed. 2002). For comparison, in pre-modern Western Europe, the average area worked by one horse-team was around 15-30 ha, but smaller with oxen. A holding over 100 ha was large, and one of 375 ha (925 acres) was a very large farm indeed. — Data in Grantham 2007.

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A thought-experiment is possible using the figure of 40 jugera or 10 hectares. Present-day Puglia covers 19,366 sq km or 1,936,600 hectares. Let us guess that just 25% of the whole province was being cultivated in the 11th C, i.e. 484,150 ha. That represents 48,415 mediani holdings of average size (10 ha). And if each holding supported an average of five people then we have a provincial population of 242,075 people. This is plausible, albeit on the low side, noting that in their Population Atlas, McEvedy & Jones put the whole population of Italy at about five million in AD 1,000. But of course we are just guessing. Rodriquez reports that there were 28 bishoprics in the eastern half of Byzantine ‘Longobardia’, i.e. Puglia plus eastern Basilicata. (See map above.) If each ministered to at least 10,000 souls then we have 280,000+ people in the province. Or if 15,000 per diocese: 420,000 people. We do not know how many of the holdings were stratiotika. But let us guess that one in five* was, i.e. the equivalent of 9,683 holdings. Let us suppose that as many as 50% of the stratioka are delinquent and do not supply a soldier. Then we have 4,841. On this logic, Byzantine Puglia should have been able (before the strateia became a mere tax) to afford the modest number of 5,000 farmersoldiers or 2,500 full-time professionals (“mercenaries” so-called). (*) Treadgold 1997: 178 proposes that military lands accounted for perhaps a quarter of the empire's cultivated and grazing land after 840. As a refinement, let us guess that the cultivated portion of the province was divided 1/6, 2/6 and 3/6 between large (30 ha), medium (10 ha) and small holdings (5 ha). We apply this, as before, to 484,150 ha. This yields 2,690 large holdings; 16,138 medium holdings; and 48,415 small holdings in Puglia, for a total of 67,243 farms. If just one in five was a military holding, this was enough in principle to support 13,449 soldiers. (If this result seems too large, remember that we guessed, perhaps generously, that fully 25% of the province was cultivated.) As a further guess we might imagine that large, medium and small farms supported respectively 16, 8 and four people. Implicit here is the assumption that a modest number of landless labourers and an even smaller number of slaves are all dependent on the larger estates. (There were not many slaves in this period: only the rich could afford them, and so nearly all worked in domestic service.) The results in raw figures are 43,040 + 129,104 + 193,660 people, for a provincial total population of 365,804. This is more consistent with McEvedy & Jones’ Italian estimate.(*) And even if we try to be extra-conservative and halve 67,243 farms to 33,622 farms, one in five being a military holding (stratiotika), still we get an “in principle capability figure” of 6,724 men under arms … But the strateia, if money, must be collected, or if due in the shape of a human being, the soldier must turn up when he is called out … (*) In the first pan-Italian census of 1861, Puglia had a population of 1,335,000; and Basilicata 509,000 [data at http://dawinci.istat.it/dawinci]. The region was not yet mechanised in 1861. Wheat was harvested with a sickel or scythe and hand-threshed. On the other hand, trade had increased vastly by 1861. To this

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can be added the clearing of forests, modern sanitation and medicine. So we might expect medieval Puglia to have had no more than half its 19th C figure, or up to 667,500 people. If so, then the average flock ministered to by a bishop in the 1030s could have been over 25,000. Events in the East, 1036-38 In the East, where Maniakes was still commander at Samosata, the Empire in 1036 fought off a joint attempt to retake Edessa by the Kurds (Marwanids) and the Arabs (the Numayrids of Harran). This demonstraion of Byzantine power prompted the Fatimids to strike another 10 year peace with Byzantium the same year. Then in about 1037 the Empire’s pre-eminence in Syria was recognised when the Mirdasids of Aleppo agreed to become once again an imperial protectorate, and the Numayrids formally ceded Edessa to Byzantium. Peace in northern Syria meant that the leading general there, George Maniakes, could be selected to lead an expedition to Sicily, whose grand aim was the total reconquest of the island (Treadgold 1997: 587). The Sicilian Expedition, 1038 We saw earlier that the Sicilian rebels captured Khalisa, the inner fortress of Palermo in 1038. There Ahmed al-Akhal (who had asked Constantinople for aid) makes his last stand. Ahmed's head is sent to the Zirid prince Abdallah ibn Muizz. This prompts emperor Michael to send (mid 1038) George Maniakes [aged about 40] with an army which contained a few Normans, mercenaries serving the Lombard princes in Calabria. As we have said, its grand aim to no less than to reconquer the entire island of Sicily. A new catepan Michael Spondyles [Italian: Michele Sfrondilo], lately doux of Antioch, arrived in Bari in 1038 to help lead the Sicilian expedition of George Maniakes. It is said that Spondyles set up (1038) press-gangs to conscript Latins (Lombards) as auxiliaries for the upcoming expedition to Sicily. In the Latin sources these conscript militiamen are called ‘conterati’, from the Gk kontaratoi, ‘pikemen, spear-carriers’. “Anno 1038. Descendit Michael Patricius, et Dux qui et Sfrondili vocabatur et transfretavit cum Maniachi Patricio in Siciliam”. —Lupus. – ‘Michael the patrician [patrikios] and doux [senior general, dux, duke] , who is also called Sphondyles, arrives, and he has crossed, with the patrician Maniakes, to Sicily’. In the spring of 1038, George Maniakes led a powerful East-Romanic invasion of eastern Sicily. One of the elite divisions in his army was the axe-armed infantry Varangians, 500 or more men under ‘Araltes’ or Harold. This was the Norwegian prince Harald Hardrada, whose nickname as king is perhaps best translated as 'ruthless'. Harold or Araltes had fled from Norway after being wounded at the

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battle of Stikestad, and had taken refuge in Novgorod and then finally ended up in Constantinople. Within a short time of his arrival in Constantinople, he was appointed commander of the Varangian Guard. The forces of the Norman leader Rainulf Drengot, including the Hauteville family - the brothers of Robert Guiscard - also went to Sicily in 1038. (Robert was still in Normandy.) The army of Maniakes, with Scandinavians (Varangians) under Haardraade and Italian (Norman and Lombard) mercenaries under Arduin, and the support of the Byzantine fleet, stormed Messina and defeated the Sicilian Saracens, first at Rametta or Rometta, inland from Messina, near the island’s NE corner 1038, then at inland Dragina, modern Troina (1040 or 1041). According to Ahmad 1975: 33, “15,000” Sicilian Christians took up arms to aid Maniakes’ army. Many episodes from Maniakes’ expedition are illustrated in the Skylitzes manuscript: see in V. Tsamadakas (ed. 2002), The illustrated chronicle of Ioannes Skylitzes in Madrid, Leiden. Skylitzes is the only surviving illustrated manuscript of a Greek chronicle. Its 574 images depict every aspect of Byzantine life, including warfare, boats, sieges, literary practices, dreams, ceremonies and even Siamese (“conjoint”) twins. The illustration in the Skylitzes MS of the landing in Sicily can be found here: http://www.imperiobizantino.com/italia/minia11b.jpg And the battle of Troina is here: http://www.imperiobizantino.com/italia/minia12b.jpg. The illustration highlights the maces of the Byzantines and the small round shields carried by the Muslim lancer-cavalrymen. Here for the illustration of Maniakes’ return to Constantinople: http://www.imperiobizantino.com/italia/minia14b.jpg The Troops of the Sicilian Expedition 1038 Maniakes led a composite army whose exact size is unknown, although it was evidently reasonably large. The sources are carefully cited in D’Amato’s monograph on Maniakes. Because they do not give good numbers for more than a few contingents, there is some doubt how large his expedition was. One might guess: up to 15,000 men. There were [1:] perhaps 5,000 Easterners from Anatolia in the form of detachments from the Opsikìon, Thrakesion and Anatolikòn themes; [2:] perhaps 2,000 or more italioi stratiotai, or the local Byzantine troops of Italy, made up of Lombard conscripts and ‘Italo-Greek’ regulars in the form of thematic [local] troops from Byzantine Calabria and the Catepanate (Apulia); [3:] a large detachment (say 1,000) of the best foot regiment, the Varangian Guard, composed of Russians and Scandinavians, led by the legendary Norwegian prince

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Harald “Hardrada” Sigurdsson, aged 23 in 1038; and [4:] 500 Armenian infantrymen under Cecaumenus (D’Amato’s figure, 2005: 3, citing Skylitzes). In addition there were [5:] ‘Greek’ cavalrymen to the number of 300 also under the command of Katakalon Kekaumenos, including Paulician (Thracian thematic) troops* (D’Amato’s figure again, 2005: 3, citing Skylitzes); [6:] an unknown number of Macedonians; and [7:] some semi-professional Italian (Lombard) cavalrymen. Finally [8:] the Norman mercenary horse-soldiers numbered 300-500 - 300 probably being the correct figure - led by the Lombard Ardouin and by the Norman brothers Drogo and William “Strong-arm” [bras-de-fer: ‘iron-arm’] de Hauteville - although William had not yet acquired this nickname. These men were assigned to Maniakes by the Lombard prince Guaimar V of Salerno, an ally of the Empire. (*) The Paulicians were a cultural or ethnic group distinguished by their ‘heretical’ dualist beliefs. Originating in the East, they had been settled in Thrace for centuries and no doubt made converts there. The pro-Norman Italian sources attribute the expedition’s victories largely to the Norman contingent, but we must reject this, not least because they were so few. It might be allowed that the average Norman horsemen was a little superior to the average Romaic cavalryman (none of the elite imperial Tagmata seem to have been dispatched**), while plainly the Varangians were the best of the infantry. Norwich, 1967: 54, rightly observes that the decisive factor was Maniakes’ skill as a general. (**) Besides the italioi stratiotai, Maniakes’ troops in 1038 probably included soldiers from Macedonia and the Eastern Themes. Certainly we have mention soon thereafter – in Cedrenus and the Annales Barenses under 1041 - of troops in Southern Italy from the Themes of the Opsikion, Thrakesion (“the meros*** of the Thracesians”) and Anatolikon. Skylitzes under 1041 also mentions troops of the >>tagmata of the Phoideratoi [Federates] [and] of Lycaonia and Pisidia