ABSTRACT
The extraordinary permanence of all Byzantine institutions is well illustrated by the fact that the arms and organisation which Maurice sets forth in his Strategicon in 578 are repeated almost unchanged in the Tactica of his successor Leo the Wise, written somewhere about the yearcoo. Byzantine military pictures of a really satisfactory kind, in which the armour is not affected by the artist having copied older classical drawings, are not common. The Byzantine cavalry-soldier was a person of some substance and standing. The army was never drawn out in a single line without reserves; that order of battle was discouraged by all Byzantine writers on matters tactical. It was only used as a last resort when there was a desperate need to produce at all costs a line equal in length to the enemy's. Byzantine infantry would always be covered on the wings by cavalry, when offering battle on any ground where horsemen could be used.
