Financing, supply, provision of the armed forces
An important component of the conduct of hostilities is the uninterrupted supply of the army with the necessary resources.
The supply of the army was carried out by means of monetary allowances for all categories of servicemen, the allocation of land allotments to personnel and border servicemen, the provision of the army with weapons and the necessary resources for conducting hostilities.
1. Annona militatis - monetary allowance that was to be paid to the soldiers included in the Catalogs (military lists). Payment was made based on the service life: the younger the call, the lower the payment. Only stratiotes fell into this category.
2. Annona foederatica - the allowance to be paid to the federates. Monetary allowance was paid depending on the length of service.
3. Donative - the amount that was paid to each soldier upon accession to the throne of the emperor, and every five years thereafter.
4. The military estate for the successful provision of service was endowed with land plots. The warriors, perhaps using their privileged state, and, perhaps, due to ethnic psychology (Germans), oppressed ordinary landowners and tenants. [Kulakovsky Y. History of Byzantium (515-601). T. II. SPb., 2003. S. 238-239.].
5. The children of the soldiers were credited to the catalog lists of the regiments by inheritance.
It can be assumed that during this period there was still a clear and well-thought-out system of supplying the army, which reflected the legacy of the Roman Empire. There were state workshops in the country for the production of weapons, equipment, uniforms and clothing for soldiers. Such workshops were located in different regions. In Egypt there were weaving workshops, in Thrace there were armories, but there were especially many of them in the capital. The equipment was stored in state arsenals. There were hospitals on the borders.
The soldier had to appear for service with small arms: wearing a toxopharethra is the same as "being under arms", "being on duty." The riders had to take care of their own equipment and weapons, while the horse's equipment was supplied by the state. The recruits were supplied with clothing, which was extremely important given the material scarcity of that period. So, Herman, reproaching the rebel soldiers of Stotsa, tells them that before the army service they wore torn clothes. Belisarius, in the army in the East, found soldiers in Mesopotamia "who were mostly naked and unarmed." The uniformity of clothing in the army was such that during the battle of Herman with the deserters Stoza in Africa, the warriors of the opposing sides did not differ in any way either in equipment or in clothing.
Meals (from one boiler), as well as accommodation (in one tent), was carried out within the framework of contubernia - a grassroots military cell.
On campaigns, the army was supplied with bread or grain, wine and other products, and horse feed. The supply of the army at the expense of the enemy, that is, by means of plunder, remained relevant. The army was accompanied by a huge wagon train, where there was all the property of the soldiers and generals. In the wagon train there were supplyants, wives of warriors and generals, merchants, getters, servants and slaves. “The Byzantine army,” as F. Cardini aptly put it, “… was a very peculiar combination of an army with a caravan and a“commercial enterprise”. [Cardini F. The origins of medieval knighthood. M., 1987. P.255.]. From the middle of the 6th century, funding for the army became sporadic. Since the "regiments" did not go on a campaign in full force, but for hire, the question of financial support for the stratiots arose. Going to the second company against the Goths in Italy, Belisarius, due to political intrigues, assumed the obligation to maintain the army at his own expense, as a result, he was inactive for five years, and compensated for his financial losses by collecting tax arrears from the population of devastated Italy … In the previous campaign, Belisarius bought equipment for shield bearers and spearmen at his own expense.
Delays in the payment of salaries were common occurrences, which caused soldier riots and usurpations. Attempts to save on defense, in modern terms, led to the fact that entire units were left without funding:
1. Under the pretext of making peace with Persia under Emperor Justinian I, the Limitans were not paid salaries for five years, which led to a sharp decrease in the number of border troops and, as a result, Arab invasions of unprotected lands.
2. Justinian I ended the Donative tradition. But this action did not provoke a reaction in the troops, possibly due to the huge rotation due to the wars.
3. During the war with Khosrov I in 540, after the surrender of the acropolis of Veroi (Halleb), the released soldiers en masse passed to the Persians, justifying this by the fact that the treasury had not paid them money for a long time.
4. In 588, the emperor of Mauritius issued a decree to reduce the annona by a quarter, which caused extreme discontent in the acting units. [Theophylact Simokatta History M., 1996. P.68.].
5. Mauritius sent parts of the Danube army to the Slavic lands in winter for "self-sufficiency" and in order to save money on the maintenance of troops in winter quarters, which caused a mutiny and his own death.
Financial problems resulted in understaffing of native military forces, forcing military administrators to produce an indiscriminate recruitment of military contingents from among the barbarian peoples and tribes. Such a policy led to such results as the capture of Italy by the Lombards, who met her during a campaign in the ranks of the army of Narses.
For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that in parallel with the supply of the army, the huge resources of the state, especially during the reign of Justinian, were spent on fortification systems: the construction and reconstruction of fortresses and city walls.
Only normal financial support made it possible to successfully conduct military operations, the same Narses, for his campaign in Italy, was provided with a large treasury, with the help of which he was able to hire a large army.
Traditionally, regular units have been deployed. In these places there were families and land plots of warriors. The family members obviously lived in their own houses. There were also barracks in these places. The troops were stationed among the population.
There were a number of officials in charge of supplying the army.
Eparch of the troops - the quartermaster of the armed forces, appointed by the emperor to the army in the field. When the master of the army, a patrician and cousin of Basileus, Herman went to Africa, Senator Symmachus was the eparch under him. First of all, Herman was forced to check the directories of secretaries: how many soldiers are actually in the ranks. In this way, in a difficult financial situation, it was always possible to find out how many soldiers were actually in the ranks, how many deserters (in this particular case, there were a lot of them in Africa), how many secretaries of the financial department steal. At the same time, the "intendants", through sophisticated tricks, cunningly profited from military supplies. So the eparch of the court, John, put rotten bread for the fleet sailing to Africa.
Logofet is an official who was in charge of: the distribution of payments to soldiers for their work, according to Catalogs and promotion, depending on the length of service. Procopius wrote that, since the logo-fetters received 12% of the unpaid amounts, they tried in every possible way to reduce the payments to the soldiers. So the logofet Alexander brutally exacted taxes from the Italians "liberated" from the Goths, at the same time he paid nothing to the soldiers, giving them a reason to desertion. [Procopius of Caesarea War with the Persians. War with the vandals. Secret history. SPb., 1998. S. 324-325.] The Goths pointed out to the Italians that during their rule Italy was not ruined by the emperor's logo. Logofetes, looking for ways to make money, deprived both veterans and active soldiers of salaries, accusing them of forging military letters, etc.
The secretary (γραμματεîς) is a rank-and-file officer of the army finance department who draws up lists of soldiers to be paid.
Option is an official who led the tagma of the federates in peacetime and was in charge of the contentment of the soldiers.
Morale of the armed forces
As for the psychological attitude of the country's armed forces, it should be noted that military affairs in this period largely turned into a trade. Enrichment in war became commonplace: generals made fantastic fortunes. The only key incentive for many warriors was primitive looting. The uncontrolled plunder of the enemy's camp after the battles, the plundering of the captured cities, became traditional, which sharply distinguishes this period from the classical traditions of Roman discipline of the times of the republic and even the empire: that is, looting of camps and cities was present, but on command and controlled by the commanders.
In such conditions, the troops became uncontrollable, and often, even such great generals as Belisarius, were afraid to lose the fruits of victory, because of the soldiers engaged in the destruction of enemy camps and cities, sometimes allied or their own cities, liberated from the enemy.
Non-observance of the law and arbitrariness, in which the great codifier of Roman law, the emperor Justinian himself, set the tone, led to arbitrariness in the war, for which, for example, Belisarius and Solomon were accused.
There was a disciplinary charter in the army, but its enforcement sharply depended on the specifics of the current moment. Naturally, discipline was supported by cruel punishments. Belisarius put the marauding Huns on a stake, the Mine put the commanders of the drunken soldiers on a stake, and scourged the privates. They burned the traitors who surrendered the city of Martiropolis to the Persians. But these reprisals were not according to the Charter, but on the fact of the problem that arose. We also meet decimation.
These measures were effective as long as the commanders managed to pay salaries to the soldiers on time, or lure them with future trophies. But since it was (especially during the wars in Africa and Italy) about the territories that the Romans were supposed to liberate, there could be no trophies. The protraction of wars, the alienation of the liberators and the liberated, the chronic underfunding of the army led to the constant robbery of the liberated territories.
The composition of the troops (soldiers and mercenaries), traditions (soldiers' "emperors" and dictators), lack of timely funding led to betrayal, desertion and soldier usurpations.
The system of material and moral incentives - dona militaria, in the 6th century. has undergone significant changes, having lost the harmony of the imperial period. In honor were precious gifts: grivnas, torques, brooches, phalers, bracelets, which played the role of signs of military glory. Agathius, describing the victory at Kasulin in 553, mentioned the seemingly long gone army awards - wreaths, which played a different role: “Singing songs and decorating themselves with wreaths, in excellent order, accompanying the commander, they returned to Rome”. Theophylact Simokatta describes the rewarding in 586: “… gold and silver jewelry was a return gift for the valor of their spirit, and the degree of dangers endured corresponded to the importance of the reward. One high rank was a reward for his courage, another - a Persian horse, beautiful in appearance, excellent in battles; one received a silver helmet and a quiver, and another received a shield, carapace, and spear. In a word, the Romans received as many rich gifts as there were people in their army. " [Theophylact Simokatta History. M., 1996. P.43.]
Military service was not prestigious among the population of the empire, although no one canceled general military duty. Despite the fact that the enemy often invaded and plundered the lands that had long been mastered by the Greeks in the Middle East, Mesopotamia, the Danube and even Greece, the attitude of the population of the empire's own metropolis to military service can be characterized by the words of Procopius of Caesarea: “They wanted to be witnessing new adventures, albeit fraught with dangers for others. " [Procopius of Caesarea War with the Persians. War with the vandals. Secret history. SPb., 1998. S. 169.]. All this was complicated by ethnic, and especially, religious differences, which literally tore apart the empire throughout the entire 6th century, and subsequently led to the conquest of Egypt, Syria and Palestine by the Arabs. The “Greeks” warriors aroused contempt; the Arian mercenaries often went over to the service of their enemies, their brothers in faith, and so on.
Traditionally, the army was stationed by the population, which aroused the latter's dissatisfaction. Here is how Jeshu the Stylist describes a similar situation in the Chronicle: “The common people murmured, shouted and said:“It is unfair that we have settled the Goths, and not with the village gentlemen, because they were helped by this cancellation [of the tax].” The Eparch ordered to fulfill their request, and when they began to carry it out, all the noble cities gathered to Roman Dux and begged him, saying to him: “Let your mercy command that each of the Goths should receive a month so that they enter the houses of the rich people, they did not rob them the way they robbed ordinary people. " He fulfilled their request and ordered [the soldiers] to receive 200 liters of oil per month, firewood, a bed and a mattress for two. The Goths, hearing this order, rushed to Roman Dux, in the courtyard of the Bars family, to kill him."
It was most profitable to keep such an army not on their own territory, but on a campaign in a foreign land. Therefore, the army of the Goths, described above, was led by the commanders to Persia.
The main body of the army consisted of professional, militarily experienced mercenaries and soldiers, with a low moral consciousness of their military duty. But it should be especially emphasized that the lingering spirit of the imperial universal tradition contributed to the unification of multi-tribal military units, self-identification with the Roman tradition. An important point, in addition to the imperial Roman spirit (it should be noted that the main language in the army in the 6th century was Latin: all commands in peacetime and wartime, in the campaign and in the camp, all weapons, all army terminology were in Latin) was more and more a growing religion - Christianity.
