ABSTRACT
The fact that the main aim of Byzantine strategy was to protect the empire rather than to attack its enemies accounts for its main limitations. A trick too well known in later as well as in Byzantine times is that of sending parlementaires to the enemy on some trivial excuse, without any real object except that of spying out the numbers and intentions of the hostile forces. Byzantine statesmen had long given up any idea of attempting the re-conquest of Italy; they aimed at nothing more than retaining their hold on the "Calabrian" and "Langobardic" themes. The Byzantines made on the whole a very successful fight against the horse-archers who overwhelmed so many Western armies. By the end of the tenth century the Byzantines were habitually taking the offensive against the Saracens, and, instead of seeing Cappadocia or Phrygia ravaged, were themselves pushing their incursions almost to the gates of Damascus and Bagdad.
