Cities in the Warfares and Military Organization of Late Byzantium

Introduction. The rise to power of the Palaiologos dynasty necessitated a new approach to the organization of the armed forces, which were to become the primary instrument for restoring the greatness of the Byzantine Empire. Generalization of the military practice during the first years of Michael VIII’s reign allows us to assume that the recapture of the capital and the conquest of lands, in the Balkans and the Peloponnese, as well as the islands, from a military-strategies view, were aimed at restoring of resource and material base of the defensive system and were ensuring control over sea and land possessions. The purpose of the study is to determine the importance of cities and fortified villages in the warfare and military organization of late Byzantium during the restoration of the empire and the formation of a governance system adequate to current factors. Methods. The traditional forms of the empire’s border maintenance security included fortification. However, its elements, organizational mechanisms, and operational priorities were not unchangeable and depended on a variety of conditions. It should be noted that the subject of our research was limited to the institutional organizational aspects of the topic and focused on the military-historical reconstruction of the warfare. The priority of narrative sources is dictated by the chosen subject area. Analysis and results. To achieve the research objective, an analysis of warfare was carried out. The results suggest that the main purpose of the military operations that were organized in the early Paleologian period in all theaters was the conquest of fortresses, cities, and fortified villages. The defense capability of the empire was ensured by strengthening the network of garrisons. In the context of increasing trends in the decentralization of the military organization’s management system, which was created on the basis of elements of the theme system, cities and fortified villages became centers of recruitment and material support for military contingents and garrisons. The narrative sources were written by contemporaries of the events and allowed us to characterize the main measures aimed at strengthening the defense capability of the fortification lines and the network of garrisons.