this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2024
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[–] YtA4QCam2A9j7EfTgHrH 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Didn’t the eastern Romans keep a professional force for a good long time?

[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

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.