Slavic warriors in Eastern Roman and Byzantine armies

[Domen]

Slavic inhabitants of the ERE played a very important and ambiguous at the same time role in Persian-Byzantine and Arab-Byzantine conflicts. The largest anti-feudal uprising in the Byzantine Empire - in year 820 - was lead by Thomas the Slav, who was an officer in Byzantine army! In general Slavic people were very numerous in Byzantine armies, and it is believed that in years 663 - 690 they organized internal revolts, supporting the Arabs.

Wikipedia article about Thomas the Slav:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_the_Slav

Thomas the Slav (this guy on horseback in the middle) negotiating with Arab invaders:

In 821 Thomas the Slav crowned himself for Byzantine Emperor in Antioch, which is why he is wearing a crown here:

Slavic soldiers in Byzantine service apparently sometimes played the role of a "5th Column", traitors, supporting Arab invaders. But before the Arabs came, it is believed that Slavic warriors in Byzantine service had an important role in Byzantine victory over Sassanid Empire.

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BTW - Thomas the Slav was born in Asia Minor, but he was born to Slavic parents, who were resettled to Asia Minor from Europe.

This shows, how far was the extent of Slavic settlement within the Byzantine Empire - there were Slavic settlers even in Asia Minor !!!

 

[Kyriakos]

I cannot read all of the words there, but directly above that rebel byzantine-slavic army is the term "υποχείριο" which means "tool" more or less, in the sense that it is someone used with trickery in an abnormal fashion Literally it has the meaning of "under one's hand".

The arabs are called Σαρακηνοί (Saracens), which is what they were called by the Empire anyway.

EDIT: I think the full phrase above his army is "Αυτός υποχείριο μα θέαθαι(?) αρχήν" which means "He (meaning Thomas the Slav) was a tool (of the Arabs) but considered himself as a ruler".

 

[Pangur Bán]

Great image.

BTW, did you know Slavs made up big parts of the armies and the rulers in Muslim Spain? E.g. the Taifa of Dénia.

 

[Domen]

BTW, did you know Slavs made up big parts of the armies and the rulers in Muslim Spain? E.g. the Taifa of Dénia.

I've got some wind of this, but not much really. So I don't know any details. Who were those guys? Mercenaries or prisoners of war / slaves?

Maybe stolen / captured children like a few centuries later in case of Janissaries in the Ottoman Empire?

 

[Domen]

BTW, did you know Slavs made up big parts of the armies and the rulers in Muslim Spain? E.g. the Taifa of Dénia.

I've just found an article about this here:

http://michalw.narod.ru/SlavicSpain.html