This chapter will focus on the tactical changes that took place in the imperial army in the tenth century, through the study of the major battles of the period. The most useful primary sources for identifying these changes are the military treatises of the time, which can furnish a great amount of significant details on how armies should – in theory – have been organised and deployed on the battlefield up to the period when they were compiled. I have already discussed their recommendations about the marching and battle formations, the armament and the battlefield tactics of the Byzantine army units, and I have provided a number of arguments and thoughts as to whether these changes reflect any kind of innovation or tactical adaptation to the strategic situation in the East.

In order to determine whether theory translated into practice, I will examine – albeit briefly – the most important pitched battles of this period at Hadath (954), Tarsus (965), Arkadiopolis (970), Dorystolon (971), Alexandretta (971), Orontes (994) and Apamea (998) through the accounts of contemporary lay and ecclesiastic sources, in regard to a number of questions, such as how successful the Byzantines were at adapting to the changing military threats posed by their enemies in the East; how far we can see the Byzantines responding to the tactical and strategic threats of enemies in ways not anticipated by the manuals; and what these reveal about the place of literacy in the Byzantine command structure, the training of the officer class, and the question of professionalism. The conclusions drawn by the study of these campaigns will shed some light on the fighting tactics, training, morale and esprit de corps of the – predominantly Eastern – armies that participated in these campaigns.

On the morning of 29 Jumada II 343/30 October 954, one of the most famous battles of the Byzantine–Arab wars of the period unfolded, ending in disaster for the army of Bardas Phocas, and expediting his replacement by his son Nicephorus the following year. Close to the mountain of al-Uhaydib, near the town of al-Hadath (Adata), the army of the Domestic of the Scholae, some 50,000-strong if we believe the figures supplied by Ibn Zafir, met with the expeditionary force of Sayf ad-Dawla that had arrived in the area on 17 Jumada II/18 October to restore the fortifications of the town