Strateia
Strateia is greek for military service. In particular it was used in connection to the duty of certain "stratiotic" families, to provide military service in excange for tenure of "military land", also called "strateia". Strateia is not to be confused with Pronoia, a similar but distinct term. The strateioumenoi farmed their own land while pronoiarii merely recived the proceeds from their grants to maintain themself. Pronoiarii were also of somewhat higher social status.
Origin
The origin of this system is not entirely clear, but it likely stems from the Byzantine Empires loss of land and revenu following the Islamic conquest of Egypt and Syria. After these losses the Byzantine Empire likely began to expect its soldiers to supply, atleast some of, their own equipment. To compensate the soldiers they were given small grants of land to support themselves and their families. The strateia system is closly linked with the theme system which evolved at the same time, and most of the thematic soldiers would have been strateioumenoi.
Terms of service
Strateia was hereditary and was passed along within the family. It seems that, as far as possible, efforts were made to keep a particular strateia within the same extended family, but if no member of the family were able to meet the obligations, the strateia could be reasigned. Resettlement were sometimes used to repopulate areas with vacant strateia, the resettlement of armenians in Cilicia being an excample of this policy.
The provincial commander was responsible for keeping muster rolls of the men available for service, he was also responsible for ensuring that said men were fit, and had sufficient equipment, likely this envolved periodic mustering and drilling of the stratiotic troops.
Decline
The strateia system seems to have declined during the 11th century, along with the thematic system in general. A growing trend seems to have been for strateia, often being been split up due to inheritance, to pay a proportional burden, paid to the local military administration to support an outsider recruited for the campaign in question, rather than actually supplying a soldier of their own. This worked fine so long as the money supplied actually went to the military, but this appears to have become increasingly rare.
Sources
- Ghazarian, Jacob G: The Armenian Kingdom in Cilicia during the Crusades: The Integration of Cilician Armenians with the Latins (1080-1393); RoutledgeCurzon (Taylor & Francis Group), 2000, Abingdon; ISBN 0-7007-1418-9
- Economic Expansion in the Byzantine Empire, 900-1200 by Alan Harvey; Cambridge University Press; 1989; ISBN 0521521904
- Byzantine Infantrymanc. 900-1204 by Timothy Dawson; Osprey Publishing Ltd; 2007; ISBN 978 1 84603 105 2