Βουƛή μὲν ἄρχϵι, χϵίρ δ᾽ἐπϵζϵργάζϵται.

In an important book on elite Middle Byzantine army units, an eminent scholar noted that:

This excerpt outlines a central tension present in the study of professional armies; namely their existence in a tight but also potentially antagonistic relationship with the society that engendered them. Armies reflect society and at the same time exist apart from it by virtue of the institutional, fiscal, cultural and other arrangements that constitute them. In laying out this tension, John Haldon also helps set up a central question that underpins this chapter. If the army was indeed a society apart, born nevertheless of Byzantium, were some of the general's qualities as a leader of men rooted in society itself as a whole? Was the portrait of the commander in fact one of a man who straddled civilian life and army camp? Furthermore, if, as seen in tactical manuals, orations and histories alike, skills in oratory and persuasiveness were desirable qualities for a general, what can we say not only about the nature of the marching civitas that was the Byzantine army, but also about the interpenetration of civilian and military life?

The Mirage of the Heroic General and the Trope of the Cautious Commander

What, then, would be the qualities expected of a Byzantine general? How are we to approach our sources and the portraits they paint of medieval Roman commanders? Is there a consistent set of attributes expected of leaders of martial men or do we see variation? We will see here that the answer to these questions is not straightforward. In some texts, to be sure, the heroic commander reigns supreme. Take for example this eleventh-century account: