Justinian's Men: Careers and Relationships of Byzantine Army Officers, 518-610

229 Pages·2017·3.24 MB·English

by  David Alan Parnell (auth.)

NEW APPROACHES TO BYZANTINE HISTORY AND CULTURE
Justinian’s Men
Careers and Relationships of Byzantine
Army Offi cers, 518-610
DAVID ALAN PARNELL
New Approaches to Byzantine History and
Culture
Series Editors
Florin   Curta
University of Florida, USA
Leonora   Neville
University of Wisconsin Madison, USA
Shaun   Tougher
Cardiff University, UK
David   Alan   Parnell
Justinian’s Men
Careers and Relationships of Byzantine Army
Offi cers, 518–610
David   Alan   Parnell
Indiana University Northwest
Gary , Indiana, USA
New Approaches to Byzantine History and Culture
ISBN 978-1-137-56203-6 ISBN 978-1-137-56204-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-56204-3
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016956194
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A
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I have accumulated many debts while writing this book. I would like fi rst
to acknowledge my institution, Indiana University Northwest, which
has supported me with summer research funding several years in a row.
Without the dedication of the administrators and faculty to the teacher-
scholar ideal, this book would have taken much longer to write. Even still,
this book matured slowly, and the research involved led to many journal
articles and conference presentations. I would like to thank all the peo-
ple that reviewed my work and offered helpful comments along the way.
There are too many of them to name and I hope that not naming them
does not seem to decrease my gratitude. I must particularly acknowledge
the publishers of Byzantinische Zeitschrift , the J ournal of Late Antiquity ,
and the J ournal of Medieval Military History for allowing me to reproduce
in this book portions of my articles that they so kindly printed. Finally, I
thank my wife Bethany for her support throughout this process. This book
is dedicated to her.
David   Alan   Parnell
v
C
ONTENTS
1 Introduction 1
2 Byzantine Army Structure 13
3 Identity in the Army: Romans and Barbarians 33
4 Offi cers and Their Emperor 77
5 The Social Networks of Offi cers 103
6 Offi cers and Their Families 1 31
7 Offi cers and Their Men 1 55
8 Public Perception of the Army 173
9 Conclusion 2 01
Bibliography 2 09
Index 2 21
vii
L F
IST OF IGURES
Fig. 1.1 J ustinian and his men in a mosaic from the church of San
Vitale, Ravenna 4
Fig. 2.1 T wo men, possibly guardsmen, spearing a tiger 1 9
Fig. 3.1 R anks of Roman military men in the database, 518–610 AD 5 6
Fig. 3.2 R anks of non-Roman military men in the database,
518–610 AD 57
Fig. 3.3 N umbers of Romans and non-Romans as generals and
commanders in the database, 518–610 AD 5 8
Fig. 5.1 T he social networks of the Byzantine army in Italy, 538–539. 1 18
Fig. 6.1 T he family of Justinian 1 34
Fig. 6.2 T he family of Phocas 136
Fig. 6.3 T he family of Silvanus 138
Fig. 6.4 T he family of Vitalian 141
ix
L T
IST OF ABLE
Table 3.1 R atio of Roman to non-Roman military men in
the database, 518–610 AD 5 4
xi
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
The Byzantine army, like most professional armies, had in theory a rigid
command hierarchy in which soldiers and offi cers were ranked and divided
into units. It would be a mistake, however, to assume that the army oper-
ated in practice the way it was drawn up on paper. The military hierar-
chy was conditioned and occasionally subverted by powerful social issues,
including the way offi cers identifi ed themselves and others, and particu-
larly by the relationships offi cers formed with each other. These social
issues within the Byzantine military are especially apparent in and around
the reign of the emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565). The army was quite
busy during this period as it fought in all corners of the Mediterranean
world, from Visigothic Spain to the Persian Empire. These wars inspired
considerable commentary from contemporaries, and these observations
shed light on the army that portrays it as a vibrant and lively social com-
munity. This book considers the Byzantine army of the sixth century as a
complex web of social relationships. In this army, the identity of an offi cer
and the people that offi cer knew and counted as friends were of just as
much importance, if not more, as the offi cer’s offi cial rank and position.
These offi cers were not simply names and ranks on a roster or protagonists
in a battle narrative, but people: Justinian’s men. Their relationships with
each other, with their subordinate soldiers, and with their emperor were
complex and subject to change. The depth of detail available on these men
and their relationships may startle some who are accustomed to Justinian’s
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 1
D.A. Parnell, Justinian’s Men,
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-56204-3_1
2 D.A. PARNELL
wars being summarized as a series of generals being appointed and battles
being fought. Two brief examples demonstrate the importance of identi-
ties and social relationships to the functioning of the army.
The most important cultural identity of the sixth century was that of
the Romans, which was usually contrasted with that of non-Roman ‘bar-
barians.’ Byzantines identifi ed themselves as Romans and in fact were
Romans, being not simply heirs in some loose sense but direct continua-
tors of the Roman Empire.1 Therefore in this book, the terms Byzantine
and Roman will be used interchangeably. These Romans served side by
side in the army with non-Romans, whom they sometimes labeled bar-
barians. Centuries of cultural contempt lay behind the term ‘barbarian’
and for many Romans using that label on a non-Roman would have been
almost second nature. Despite the weight of historical precedent, many
non-Romans in Byzantine military service seem to have escaped both
contempt in general and the label of ‘barbarian’ in particular. The sixth-
century historian Procopius described Pharas, an important non-Roman
offi cer in the Byzantine army, in this fashion:
Pharas was energetic and thoroughly serious and upright in every way,
although he was a Herul by birth. And for a Herul not to give himself over
to treachery and drunkenness, but to strive after uprightness, is no easy mat-
ter and merits abundant praise.2
The term ‘barbarian’ is conspicuous by its absence in this description.
Procopius confi rms here the weight of the general negative view of Pharas’
people, the Heruls, but admits that in his experience the Herul that he
knows is not at all as barbaric as he might have expected. In this case,
personal knowledge of an individual impacts the assessment of that indi-
vidual. Identity becomes more complex than prejudicial overarching judg-
ment when it is placed in the realm of a personal relationship.
Relationships between offi cers dramatically impacted the way the army
functioned. In the face of deep personal ties, whether affectionate or
antagonistic, the formal hierarchy of the army counted for little. The more
prominent an army offi cer, the easier it is to untangle the web of social net-
works that tied him to other offi cers in the army. For this reason it is easi-
est to chart the relationships of Belisarius and Narses the Eunuch, the two
1 For a thorough discussion of the Byzantines’ Roman identity, see Chap. 3 .
2 Procopius Wars 4.4.29–30.