In the article dedicated to the Mardaites, the Christian highlanders who maintained their autonomy between Byzantium and the Caliphate, we mentioned the Akritai (or Akritoi), a group of light infantry soldiers who guarded the eastern frontiers of the Byzantine Empire and were recruited from the peasants of the border provinces. Today, we will take a closer look at the characteristics of this military corps, which served as the vanguard against external enemies between the 9th and 11th centuries.

Although sometimes rendered as Acritas, the name derives from the Greek word akron (plural akra), meaning border. That is, it is an analogous term to Limitanei, which was the name given to the troops stationed at the Limes during the late Roman period (also popularly known as ripenses, meaning riverine, since the limes often coincided with a river course).

They were normally under the command of the duces (the dux was a type of military governor), and it is unclear who created them, whether it was Diocletian or Constantine, as the first documented reference appears later, in the year 365 AD.

Akritai byzantine warriors borders
The empire during the time of Justinian. Credit: Tataryn / Wikimedia Commons

The Limitanei served both as sentinels and customs guards, and while they were initially professionals, by the 5th century, they had become mere militias. In the following century, Justinian even deprived them of their salaries, as they had their own farms.

This meant they had limited military capability, as they led everyday lives integrated into the local society. Thus, their primary function was usually reduced to repelling minor incursions, evacuating the population, and holding off more significant enemies just long enough for the comitatenses, better-trained mobile troops, to arrive.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Limitanei survived only in the Eastern Empire. However, their name became purely descriptive, as they were replaced by the term Akritai when Greek was reinstated as the official language. In fact, the term Apelatai was also used, referring to someone distant. But their function remained the same: to protect the imperial borders from external enemies. That is why they were recruited from the region’s peasants, provided they were of Hellenic origin; Armenians were also included, as many belonged to that Christian Church.

Akritai byzantine warriors borders
The Byzantine-Muslim frontier in Anatolia, guarded by the Akritai. Credit: Cplakidas / Wikimedia Commons

These were free men who, as mentioned earlier, cultivated the farms granted to them, just like other soldiers of the thémas (provinces). An alternative view identifies them more as landowners rather than laborers, meaning they did not personally work the land but had workers for that purpose. Some even amassed large estates and could be considered forerunners of feudal lords. In this regard, it is worth noting that officers were selected from the local aristocracy.

Unlike the early Limitanei, who had units of light and heavy infantry, as well as cavalry of both types and even river fleets, the Akritai were exclusively equipped with javelins, bows, and arrows, with little individual protection. They were supplemented by the Tasinarioi or Trapizetai, a cavalry force distinct from the cataphracts because it was also light. This limited armament was due to their operational tactics, which resembled those of auxiliary troops—harassing the enemy from mountainous areas, covering the movements of the regular army, and ambushing enemy horsemen.

The most important surviving documentary source on this subject is De velitatione bellica. It is a military treatise written around the year 970 AD, whose authorship remains unknown. It is considered likely that it was written by a high-ranking officer close to the imperial family, possibly Leo Phokas (some have even suggested the emperor himself, Nikephoros Phokas). It was written in Greek (three manuscript copies survive, one of them in the Monastery of El Escorial) and is structured into twenty-five chapters, each dedicated to a different aspect of warfare: tactics, movements, espionage, logistics, sieges, night combat, etc.

Akritai byzantine warriors borders
Greek warrior, possibly an armatole, painted in 1861 by Carl Haag. Credit: Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

Since they also engaged in banditry, in the Balkans, the Akritai came to be identified with chonsaroi (thieves, in Bulgarian). Today, they are considered the predecessors of the kleftes and armatoloi, the former being mountain bandits who later became guerrilla fighters against the Ottoman invader, and the latter Christian soldiers in the sultan’s service, created in the 16th century to fight the former. In the 19th century, both groups set aside their enmity and united in the Greek War of Independence.

The Akritai experienced their greatest moment of glory, halting the advance of the Saracens and intervening in the internal political conflicts of the periphery, between the 7th and 10th centuries. From the latter, they began to decline due to Emperor Michael Palaiologos, who, in need of money to pay his regular army (a significant portion of which was mercenary), abolished those institutions that were exempt from taxes. Additionally, the Byzantine expansion eastward required a restructuring of the administrative division, with a greater number of thémas defended by professional troops, the tagmata, commanded by duces.

During the first half of the 11th century, as the eastern part of the empire experienced a period of calm, military vigilance weakened, and the Seljuk Turks took advantage of this to expand across Asia Minor. Many former akritai, now lacking motivation, became indifferent, while others, outraged by their dismissal, joined the invaders. The situation became so dangerous that, in the 12th century, Manuel Komnenos I restored the Akritai, reinstating their tax privileges and granting them land to defend the western part of Asia Minor, which he had managed to reconquer.

Akritai byzantine warriors borders
The themes of the Byzantine Empire in the 11th century. Credit: Cplakidas / Wikimedia Commons

They continued with this mission during the brief period of the Empire of Nicaea, one of the three successor states of the Byzantine Empire (along with the Empire of Trebizond and the Latin Principality of Achaea), into which the Frankish crusaders had transformed the Latin Empire. The Laskaris family ruled in Nicaea from 1204 to 1261, but after the usurper Michael VIII Palaiologos managed to restore the former empire, the Nicaeans lost theirs, and the Akritai, closely linked to the Laskarid dynasty, joined the rebellion that arose against the new emperor in 1262, after he ordered the blinding of the legitimate John IV, who was only ten years old.

Once the insurrection was suppressed, Michael VIII revoked the Akritai’s fiscal privileges and incorporated this corps into the regular army, effectively dissolving them. The Ottoman conquest relegated their memory to the so-called Acritic songs, that is, the epic poems recounting their deeds.

Of all these, the most important is Digenis Acritas, written in medieval Greek by an anonymous 12th-century author, narrating the life of one of these soldiers near the Euphrates River: Digenis, an imposing hero, son of a Syrian emir and a Roman patrician, who fights against Muslims, Amazons, and fantastic creatures. Interestingly, modern Greeks still call those who live in border regions akritai.

This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on February 24, 2025: Akritai, los soldados encargados de custodiar la frontera oriental del Imperio Bizantino

SOURCES

Georg Ostrogorsky, Historia del Estado Bizantino

Warren T. Treagold, Byzantium and Its Army, 284–1081

Mark C. Bartusis, The Late Byzantine Army: Arms and Society 1204–1453

Pat Southern y Karen R. Dixon, The Late Roman Army

Donald M. Nicol, The last centuries of Byzantium, 1261-1453

Lucas McMahon, De Velitatione Bellica and Byzantine guerrilla warfare

Wikipedia, Akritai

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