Historical Overview Section
Constantine IX Monomachos reigned as Byzantine emperor from June 1042 to January 1055. Empress Zoë Porphyrogenita chose him as a husband and co-emperor in 1042, although he had been exiled for conspiring against her previous husband, Emperor Michael IV the Paphlagonian. The couple shared the throne with Zoë's sister Theodora Porphyrogenita. Zoë died in 1050, and Constantine continued his collaboration with Theodora until his own death five years later.
Constantine waged wars against the Kievan Rus', the Pechenegs and, in the East, the rising Seljuq Turks. Despite the varying success of these campaigns the Byzantine Empire largely retained the borders established after the conquests of Basil II, even expanding eastwards when Constantine annexed the wealthy Armenian kingdom of Ani. Constantine accordingly may be considered the last effective emperor of Byzantium’s apogee.
Constantine seems to have taken recourse to the pronoia system, a sort of Byzantine feudal contract in which tracts of land (or the tax revenue from it) were granted to particular individuals in exchange for contributing to and maintaining military forces
In the year before his death in 1054 the Great Schism between the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches took place, culminating in Pope Leo IX excommunicating the Patriarch Michael Keroularios. Constantine was aware of the political and religious consequences of such a disunion, but his attempts to prevent it had been futile.
Using the army in ADLG
- hint 1
- hint 2
Useful Links
User-contributed links about this army. Add links in this format:
- name of link description of link
as an example
- Kinstantinian Byzantine Army usage statistics from the ADLG ranking site
Army Lists
Sample army lists for this army
Lisbon 2023
1 Ps Bow
2 Skoutatoi
2 MF Spear
1 LH Bow
1 Med Cv
1 HCv
1 HCv Elite (all are mixed)
Brilliant General
==
1 HCv Elite INcluded Ordinary General Mixed
1 LH Bow
1 MCv Mixed
1 HCv Mixed
==
5 Med Knights Impetuous (3 elite)
3 LF Bow
1 Mixed Mediocre MCv
Winner Britcon 2022 (V4)
1061
Brilliant
2 Medium knight impetuous Elite
4 Medium knight impetuous
2 Javelinmen
2 Light infantry bow
==
Competent Included
1 Heavy cavalry impact/½ bow Elite
1 Heavy cavalry impact/½ bow
2 Medium cavalry impact/½ bow
2 Light cavalry bow
==
Competent Included
1 Heavy cavalry impact/½ bow Elite
1 Heavy cavalry impact/½ bow
2 Medium cavalry impact/½ bow
2 Light cavalry bow
Britcon 2022 (V4)
1051
Ordinary Included Unreliable
1 Tagmatic cavalry Heavy cavalry impact/½ bow Elite
2 Thematic cavalry Heavy cavalry impact/½ bow
1 Alans Cumans or Pechenegs Light cavalry bow
==
Brilliant
4 Thematic cavalry Heavy cavalry impact/½ bow
2 Light infantry javelin
1 Light infantry bow
2 Skoutatoi ½ Heavy spearmen ½ Bowmen
1 Skoutatoi Heavy spearmen support
==
Brilliant
1 Tagmatic cavalry Heavy cavalry impact/½ bow Elite
2 Thematic cavalry Heavy cavalry impact/½ bow
1 Turkish mercenaries Light cavalry bow Elite
1 Alans Cumans or Pechenegs Light cavalry bow
2 Skoutatoi ½ Heavy spearmen ½ Bowmen