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Fatboy

Byzantine Military

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Of course there were core home units, but wasen't the Byzantine Empire one of the great users of mercenaries in history, almost like Carthrage? Their situation was similar; heavy on the money end light with avaliable manpower.

Yes, it think that Byzantines were little bit like the Carthaginians in than sence than they used alot of merceneries.

 

But, then again, Constantinople had very high population... :lol:

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Why did the Byzantines put so much reliance on mercenaries instead of building a larger professional army? Would it not have been cheaper and more reliable? Or were the Emperors so scared of usurpers that they deliberately tried to keep the army smaller and divided amongst many nationalities?

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I believe that may be the case. From 1042 to 1068 a succession of weak rulers ran down the army. To save money, active units on the eastern border were disbanded, while inactive units closer to Constantinople (and hence more of a threat politically) were maintained.

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