The Roman army of this period was divided into four parts
The Roman army of this period was divided into four parts:
A small but well trained central army based at Constantinople and under the emperor (known variably as the Tagmata, Taxeis or Vasilikon Allagia), composed of a mixture of mercenary and Imperial guard units; various provincial garrisons which could support the central army on campaign; foreign mercenaries, and lastly allied contingents. Many of these soldiers were maintained with land grants called Pronoiai, especially from the central army.
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The army was divided up into many units and sub units. Units called Bandon or Moira, of about 300 and 1,000 men respectively, were still utilized as before, but increasingly so the Allagion became more common. This unit was comprised of around 300 men, sometimes 500, and was probably divided into subunits of 100 men, then divided into two units of 50, and then five of 10. In battle, Allagia were grouped, usually in threes, into bodies variously called Taxeis, Syntaxeis, Lochoi or Tagmata. As can be seen here, the Romans even reused certain terms to describe different units.
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Roman heavy infantry wore either light padded armor, chainmail, scale or lamellar armor, as well as a metal helmet or even a padded turban. In this period, the most common Roman shield was kite shaped. For weapons they carried a spear as their primary weapon, but swords were also used as secondary arms, which consisted of straight swords generally called "Spathion" or scimitar like blades, effective as slashing. The army also consisted of lightly equipped troops with ranged weapons, especially archers.
One unique infantry unit were the Varangians, an Imperial bodyguard famed for their use of the Danish two handed axe. Cavalry also consisted of light (especially horse archers) and heavy troops, with the armoured lance-bearing shock cavalry called Katafraktoi being most famous.
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