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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Luiz d'Artayn" data-source="post: 170245" data-attributes="member: 3238">I've skipped over the last coupla pages ...... but I didn't see this point mentioned about Byzantium.Part of their system of payments for military service wasn't hard cash, but guaranteeing and extending the rights of ownership over smallish parcels of land for the "peasant/commoner/farmer" who were called up in times of conflict and formed by far the bulk of the troops.Part of the reason for the decline of the Byzantine Empire (amongst many, many other things) was the gradual decline in the number and morale of these common soldiers ... because over a long period of time various new policies eroded these land rights, and land ownership ended up in the hands of fewer and fewer, richer, figures, and not the common man. So the "carrot"/breeding-ground, whatever you like to call it, for the bulk of the armed forces diminished, and the Empire was increasingly forced to use expensive and unloyal mercenary armies.The decline of Byzantium is one of the true tragi-comedies of history (much more so than the Roman Empire IMVHO) ... if you are at all interested in the story of the Byzantines, John Julius Norwich's three books on the subject are informative and entertaining reading (particularly because of his ability to really get inside the differing *character* of each of the major leading figures in Byzantium's history).</blockquote>