The Conscript Army of Diocletian and Constantine, AD284-491
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- čas přidán 30. 11. 2019
- The Eastern Roman Army has it's origins in the Late Roman Army created by Diocletian during his 20 year reign.
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Bibliography:
The Theodosian Code, Translated by Pharr, C. (1952)
The Codex of Justinian, Translated by Blume, F. W. (2016).
Nicolle, D. McBride, A. Romano-Byzantine Armies, 4th-9th Centuries, Osprey.
Elton, H. (2018) The Roman Empire in Late Antiquity A Political and Military History, Cambridge.
Jones, A. H. M. (1964) The Later Roman Empire 284-602 2 Vol, Cambridge.
Maynard, D. (2018) How Did Diocletian Succeed Where His Predecessors Fail?, London. - unpublished dissertation
Treadgold, W. (1995) Byzantium and Its Army 284-1081, Stanford.
Williams, S. (1985) Diocletian and the Roman Recovery, London.
Music Credit:
'Balance of Power' by Steve Maitland and Ed Lima from Empire Earth by Stainless Steel Studios.
'Ambient' by Jason Graves from Rise and Fall: Civilisations at War by Stainless Steel Studios and Midway Games.
'Theme Music 1R ' by Alistair Hirst and Matt Ragan from Tom Clancy's EndWar by Ubisoft Shanghai.
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What do you think? Did Diocletian have 400000 or 600000 men. Was this near the beginning or end of his reign, which sources shall we believe? Will we ever really know?
I think the numbers might have been standing at 400,000 and raised to 600,000 in times of crisis or when facing a massive threat.
@@Historyfan476AD Yeah sounds like a good argument, 600,000 would be a huge army to maintain.
@@Armorius2199 Indeed, but i would split the difference and go in the middle 450-500 thousand troops.
Around 500k, half in the west and half in the east. Half in the borders and half mobile. Mobile forces divided into field armies of 15k to 30k each.
But hard to say exactly how many, it depends on how many sons the soldiers would produce in the baggage train.
Wouldn't be surprised if the total number of men was less than 400,000 in reality, that is the actual strength. And even then, wouldn't be surprised a good number of "troops" were of dubious quality. Just thinking of the realities of recovering from a series of disasters, civil wars, disturbances of various sorts.
Exceptional video. I have just a small disagreement. Most of the scholars rejected the hypothesis that limitanei were a part time militia. Their rank and pay were inferior to the comitatenses but as far as their professionalism and military efficiency, they were basically equal to them. The many pseudocomitatenses units attested in the Notitia Dignitatum and many other sources,clearly demonstrate that limitanei could be smoothly integrated in the mobile armies without diminishing their efficiency. Furthermore, some examples taken from the sources suggest that limitanei were high quality troops. During the siege of Amida they gallantly fought to the last.
Fair enough. I do agree that the Limitanei do get the short end of the stick despite making up most of the army and were responsible for all low level fighting (such as small raids or bandits, etc) Ammainus Marcellinus does mention that there were many small battles fought that he couldn't mention due to their shear volume.
A fantastic video as always!
Very well done sir.
Your videos deserve way more views, my friend.
The world's longest lasting empire is one of the least well-known.
specially the late period. I think it deserves more exposure
When did eastern senerters stop wearing togas if they did stop
I imagine that toga's went out of fashion with the Senatorial class themselves in the late seventh century. The mosaic of Constantine IV in Ravenna shows the emperors wearing togas so that establishes a point when we know they last had them. With the replacement of the senatorial class with the dynatoi (Anatolia military aristocracy) so too did the toga finally fall out of fashion.
Thanks
This is an excerpt from The World of Late Antiquity by Peter Brown describing the influence and transformations brought by the Late Roman army onto the imperial court and the upper classes:
"The soldiers and officers of those Danubian provinces, who had seemed so raw to the Mediterranean aristocrats of a previous age, emerged as the heroes of the imperial recovery of the late third and early fourth centuries [...]
The new upper classes brought with them reminders of their brisk military origins. All officials wore uniform; even the emperors had abandoned the toga to appear, on their statues, in battle-dress. This battle-dress was the brutally simple uniform of the Danubian frontier - a small round helmet, a cloak with a shoulder-pin of barbarian workmanship, and a heavy inlaid belt. The Latin slang of the provinces was irremovably lodged in their official vocabulary: a classical Roman should have called the new gold piece an aureus; nobody called it anything but a solidus - a 'solid bit'. Thus a new element, drawn from far beyond the traditional aristocracies of the empire, had come to stay in the governing class. Yet the social fluidity that had forced such men to the top was neither indiscriminate, nor did it embrace all of Roman society. In the East, for instance, Constantinople was an isolated whirlpool of change, whose currents only gradually affected the traditional upper-class society of the provinces. A Greek rhetor, Libanius (314-393), had to perform there, in 341/42, before Latin-speaking soldiers who attended his speeches 'as if I were doing a dumb-show', for they could not follow his classical Greek. "
The pope is a master footman.
Pontifex Maximus et Magister Peditum
are we talking about Pope Leo?
Eastern Roman Empire is fascinating. Seems society was innovative, less moribund than in the West. When Rome declined and decayed, the Constantinople renewed and thrived.
The rule of Theoderic the Great in Ravenna was a bright spot. He was an Ostrogoth ,of course ,educated in Constantinople.
Do you collect Roman coins?
Plumbata < pilum . It was a bad call to replace it
Actually Plumbata were very effective, in a video i will be producing soon about the Late Roman armies' weapons. I talk about both Pila and Plumbata in that video so keep an eye out for it.
It didn't replace it. The army continued using large Javelins. By the 4th century, it was called the Spiculum. It is unknown if this was merely a new name for the pilum, or the hybrid thrusting spear/javelin that was developed, which was superior to the older pilum. It was about 2 meters long, like the pilum. There were probably many many variants whether in the early or late empire.
Weapons will continue to become more sophisticated over time. The Roman Javelin is no exception.
Also, the Romans of the Republic used smaller Javelins called veratum.
@@histguy101 didnt know that . Thanks
@@EasternRomanHistory sure , thanks for the intel