Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

the eastern army: men and resources 301
can be seen in Libya Pentapolis, for which Anastasius’ regulations survive:
the provincial garrison contained five units of comitatenses, but supervision
of movements across the frontier and security along the roads were
entrused to the castrensiani or garrison forces. At Palmyra, however, where
Justinian established a regiment of comitatenses alongside the garrison of limitanei,
the distinction may have become less clear, since comitatenses at a stable
posting acquired the same range of social and economic connections with
local society that limitanei naturally had. 48
The comitatenses were grouped into units known as numeri or arithmoi,
‘numbers’, sometimes loosely referred to as katalogos, ‘list’; in due course
tagmata, ‘formation’, or bandon, ‘flag’, became current. Where evidence is
available, the basic unit on active service numbered between 250 and 500
soldiers, who were grouped into larger moirai, units of 2,000–3,000 men,
which might then be brigaded into mere, contingents of 6,000–7,000 men.
Eastern Roman armies were raised from a variety of sources, which
ensured that no single group could dominate, as the tribal war-bands could
in the west. 49 The most effective Roman soldiers were drawn from the bellicose
inhabitants of various mountainous regions of the eastern empire,
notably the central Balkans, the Taurus range in southern Anatolia (Isauria
and Pisidia) and the Armenian highlands. It was the emperors’ ability to
control and exploit this manpower which permitted the survival of the
eastern army as a Roman institution. For leading Isaurians Tarasicodissa,
the future emperor Zeno, showed the way to prominent positions at court,
while their followers entered the guards units and the regular army, a development
that was unpopular with those who regarded the Isaurians as more
barbarian than the Germans or saw threats to their own power base. 50 After
Zeno’s death the Isaurians might have reverted to their lawless ways, but
Anastasius’ repression of Isaurian revolts ensured that central authority
was upheld. An analogous development can be traced in Armenia, where
the personal advance of men like Narses and Sittas was accompanied by
widespread recruitment into the armies. At the same time local administration
was reformed to increase direct Roman authority at the expense of
semi-independent princes. 51
The best elements in the eastern armies were the federates and various
other units of non-Roman peoples. In contrast to the west, where federates
eventually supplanted Romans, in the east federates came to be
recruited from Romans as well as non-Romans. Procopius alludes to this
48 CJ i.27.2.8; SEG ix.356; Malalas 426.1–5; Jones, LRE 661–2.
49 Jones, LRE 659–60; for use of terminology, see for example Maurice, Strategikon (consult index)
to the Dennis/Gamillscheg edn (1981) for the different terms.
50 Malchus fr. 22;cf.ch.17 (Whitby), p. 477 below.
51 PLRE iii s.v. Narses 1 and Sittas 1; Malalas 429.16–430.8; Justinian, Nov. 31; Jones, LRE 280–1;
Whitby (1995) sec. 7.
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