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Subject:
RE:Most overrated/underrated Armies - Norway
wjr
3/18/2005 6:19:29 PM
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Boris said:
I think the most underrated army would be that of the Eastern Empire after Manzikert, 1071. It only lost a relatively small number of troops (but, unfortunately, the all important baggage train) and while the morale/leadership penalty meant it wasn't very capable of offensive action until the reign of Alexius Comnenus, it was still a mainly professional fighting force, well trained and well equipped, and probably still the single most capable army in Europe/Asia Minor.
wjr says:
You are smoking dope, Boris. Far and away the most effective military system was the Eastern Empire?s up to shortly before Manzikert. But the utter incompetence of Constantinople in the decade before Manzikert led to the destruction of the Theme system and the loss of the Issurians and most of the Anatolians as military recruiting fodder.
What was left were, for the most part, Greeks and Slavs. The Slavs had plans of their own and the Greeks of the period made lousy soldiers. With Manzikert the last effective infantry was lost to the West until the rise of the Swiss pikemen finally put paid to the armored dumbos on horses.
After Manzikert the Empire was neither able to recruit enough citizen soldiers nor able to recruit in such a way as to rebuild the balanced force that, for instance, Basil used to earn the name ?Bulgaroslayer?. The Imperial Army consisted of effete Greeks, mercenaries and the continuously diminishing supply of the hearty Anatolians.
Leadership recovered ? Alexis and the Paleologi were cleaver people ? but there simply was neither the strength nor the resources to make the strength.
This is the consensus of nearly every ancient and current historian (in English and Greek) that I have read ? including Anna Comneni.
Manzikert was and is a Greek shame that forever deprived the West of a critical part of its? history and culture.
Best,
wjr
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