Byzantium survived for eight centuries, yet the dominions and power of the beleaguered Byzantine empire fluctuated dramatically during that time. This book provides a detailed analysis of the military organization of this thousand-year empire, its strategies and battle tactics, diplomacy and geo-politics, military equipment and siege warfare, coupled with an explanation of military theory and its application on the battlefield. Georgios Theotokis draws on the latest in academic debate and examines afresh the varied aspects of warfare in the eastern Mediterranean. “In a concise volume, and with supreme clarity, Georgios Theotokis has brought together a large and complex body of material and made it accessible to a modern, English language audience.” Matthew Bennett, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society

The Battle of Manzikert on August 26, 1071 is widely regarded as one of the most significant turning points in medieval history, frequently presented as the culmination of a Turco-Islamic assault upon the Byzantine bulwark of a Christian world struggling for survival. Emperor Romanus IV’s campaigns between 1068 and 1071 do, in many ways, represent the empire’s fightback against an enemy that for decades had penetrated deep into Asia Minor, its heartland and strategic bulwark. Yet Manzikert was not a disaster. This book examines the geopolitical background and the origins of the campaign that led to the battle, the main protagonists, and their strategies and battle tactics. It also evaluates the primary sources and the enduring legacy of the battle, for both the Greek and Turkish historiography of the twentieth century.