this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2024
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Didn’t the eastern Romans keep a professional force for a good long time?
Kind of. Both the Eastern and Western Empire maintained smaller forces of Comitataneses and Palatini/Scholae (Field armies and something akin to Guards formations) troops which were still full-time professionals. But the majority of troops in both by the 5th century AD were limitanei, border troops of the sort described. The Eastern Empire went through a number of different systems of varying professionalism in the next 1000 years it survived.