This chapter will focus on the tactical changes that took place in the units of the Byzantine army in the tenth century. The most useful primary sources for identifying these changes are the following military treatises: the Στρατηγική Έκθϵσις Και Σύνταζις Νικηφόρου Δϵσπότου (Praecepta Militaria of the Emperor Nicephorus Phocas) (c. 969), the anonymous Sylloge Taktikorum (c. 930), a short tenth-century work entitled Σύνταζις οπƛιτών τϵτράγωνος έχουσα ϵντός καβαƛƛαρίους (better known by its Latin title: Syntaxis Armatorum Quadrata) and the c. 969 Πϵρί παραδρομής του κυρού Νικηφόρου του βασιƛέως (better known by the title bestowed on it by its 1985 editor, Dennis: On Skirmishing). These works provide crucial information on how armies should be organised and deployed on the battlefield up to the period when they were compiled.

I will discuss the recommendations of the authors of the treatises regarding the marching, battle formations, armament and battlefield tactics of the Byzantine army units and I will ask whether they reflect any kind of innovation or tactical adaptation to the strategic situation in the East. The main point that I wish to raise in this section of the study concentrates on how far we can say that ‘theory translated into practice’ on the battlefields of the period at Hadath (954), Tarsus (965), Dorystolon (971), Alexandretta (971), Orontes (994) and Apamea (998). How successful were the Byzantines at adapting to the changing military threats posed by their enemies in the East, according to the evidence we can discern from careful study of the writings of the tacticians of the period?

Tactical Changes: The Double-ribbed Hollow Infantry Square