Source: Anna
The Eastern Roman “Wild West” & the Epic Ballads of Roman Frontiersmen.
This was the ERE or the Byzantine Empire in 629 AD ~ The Byzantine-Sassanid wars have concluded. The Siege of Constantinople is won & Emperor Heraclius has restored the true cross to Jerusalem. These futile wars with back & forth land grabs costing immense amounts of money & manpower crippled both empires, a “trench warfare” of sorts. However, the Sassanid Empire completely collapsed to a rising tide: the Arab Muslims. The House of Sassan would flee to Tang China.
Around the same time, the Romans would be hit by the Islamic Tsunami and Syria would fall first by 639-640 AD. Thus beginning the Arab-Byzantine Wars. The Muslims were led by the great Khalid ibn al-Walid, “The Sword of Allah”, of the same Quraysh tribe as Prophet Mohammed. For a variety of reasons (too long to discuss); Emperor Heraclius & Constantine III don’t do as much and the Arabs take Egypt, Palestine and Mesopotamia. A dwindling Byzantine field army (110,000 men) now had lost its richer provinces. Constans II was an able emperor (crowned when he was just under 14) but ERE losses continued. Muawiyah (the future first Ummayad Caliph) annihilated the Roman Navy at the naval Battle of Phoenix & thus ended Roman supremacy of the Mediterranean. “Mare Nostrum” was no more.
Luckily, the First Fitna starts and the Romans get a breather. Uniquely here, the Arabs under Muawiyah pay tribute to the Romans: 365,000 nomismata an year, 365 horses an year plus same amount of slaves. This is done so the Romans stay out of the Arab Civil War. Now, Constans II reorganizes the entire empire. This would be the biggest reorganization of the Diocletian Roman system for 3 centuries to come. The “themata” (theme) system is set up. Many historians see this as the start of the end of the Roman Empire & beginning of Byzantine. Constans II also uses Greek names for the armies, instead of Latin. With the loss of all territories except Greece, Anatolia and Armenia; the empire was now almost exclusively Greek-speaking. Greek had already become the official language in the 620s.
Anyway, at the same time the Lombards are taking over most of Italy, the Slavic Invasions of Greece are starting, and the Exarchate of Africa is under conquest by the Arabs. Tumultuous times. The end of an era. Finally, we will soon come to the “wild west” I talked about.
Now, the themes were localized to geographic regions so the commander (στρατηγός) there had land grants with which he raised levies and fed his soldiers, who further had their own land grants. The civil & military admin distinction of Diocletian was gone. This system gave even infantrymen their own land, which was passed down hereditary. This reduced military payrolls by more than half and created a “feudal” ish society in the remnants of empire. The themata armies of Eastern and Central Anatolia would become the “frontiersmen”.
With the help of Greek Fire 🔥 and many other things, including a Second Fitna; the Siege of Constantinople in 718 was won, and the border between the Byzantine and the Caliphate was now the frontiers of Anatolia. This frontier was a place of constant warfare and skirmishes, endless raiding and was filled with bandits, thieves, virgin women captives, heroes and the folk tale legends built around their exploits. Roman soldiers stationed on the frontier themes were called ἀκρίτης (lit. edge-men) or frontiersmen.
Now, frontier soldiers were not new to the Roman Empire (c.f- miles limitaneus); they garrisoned fortifications, raised alarms on raids, acted as border-guards etc.. These Roman frontiersmen soon had many heroes among them, but also many thieves/raiders. Not all of them were theme soldiers with land, many were irregular militia looking to take advantage in uncertain lands & times.
Anatolia was like the “Wild West”. In this milieu, where death & loss was so common, where warfare was the norm, arose the balladic folk epics of the Acritic Songs. This was oral epic poetry, like that of Homer millenia ago, of the type of chivalric romance, based on life of a frontiersman & his heroic exploits. The epics are always heroic, and often revolve around a man of high-birth (these are aristocratic tales!) who conquers everything in life except thanatos, death.
One such epic is that of Basil Digenis Akritis, the Frontiersman of Twain-Blood. (Βασίλειος Διγενης Ακρίτης). His father was a Syriac Emir who converted to Christianity and kidnapped his mother, a high born Roman woman (εὐγενῶν ῥωμαίων), in a frontier raid. Born of this love was Basil Digenis. After their love & marriage, his father is cursed by his Syrian mother for becoming a Christian & abandoning his faith, kinsmen etc for (funnily) the sake of a pig-eater’s love (αγάπην χανζυρίσσης). An epic quest of his father continues & the triune God blesses Basil at the end! Basil then meets his future wife, the beautiful daughter of a high-born Roman general, abducts her from her father’s house, and gets married. He slays dragons, defeats bandits and fights raiders on the frontier!