晚期拜占庭帝国雇佣兵控制权的丧失及其影响

The Foreign Mercenary in the Late Period of the Byzantine Empire

晚期拜占庭军事衰败的重要转折点发生在12世纪,帝国中央政府逐渐丧失了对雇佣兵的控制权。最先失控的是雇佣兵的征募权,导致多渠道雇佣外籍士兵越来越频繁,随着雇佣兵人数越来越多,其作用越来越重要,原本作为辅助性武装力量的雇佣兵变为主力军;雇佣兵成分的多样性和复杂性加剧拜占庭国家丧失了对雇佣兵作战的指挥权,战场结果的不确定性促使军事行动很难体现帝国战略的要求,也增加了雇佣兵对战争的主导权;对雇佣兵控制权的丧失促使雇佣兵随心所欲地自由行动,战后撤离拜占庭领土的惯例变为常驻帝国境内,从而为其追逐超出雇佣军饷之外的政治经济利益创造了机会,他们不再是按照拜占庭人意志作战的武装团体。拜占庭人丧失自主军队建设意识,过度依赖雇佣兵,甚至自废武功,解散军队,凿沉战舰,最终将保卫帝国的指挥权交给雇佣兵,是其灭亡的直接原因。

It is a turning point happening in the 12th century when the military forces of the Byzantine Empire declined.The Byzantine central administration gradually lost its control of the foreign mercenary.Firstly,the Byzantines lost the imperial sole right to recruit the foreign mercenary,and increasingly more great aristocrats began to recruit foreign troops for the Byzantine civil wars and the resistance to aggression.The disorder of the recruitment led to a chaos of foreign mercenary troops and diverse military forces,which had a greater impact on the battlefields than the Byzantine native troops.Secondly,the Byzantines lost the command authority of the foreign mercenary troops,increasing the defeats of the Byzantine military and causing the damage of the Byzantine troops,especially the destruction of the Byzantine mercenary regulation.The Byzantine Empire did not play a leading role in wars anymore.Thirdly,the Byzantines lost the administrative power to disband or send away the foreign mercenary outside the imperial border after fighting.Foreign mercenary troops,breaking away the Byzantine military control,became the bandits committing crimes in the Byzantium,and the Byzantine Empire was doomed to fail.