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Anno Domini, 832-February-25
''It seems everything is in order'' I said while inspecting the training of the new military forces that had already been recruited.
''Yes, everything seems to be going according to your expectations, magister ton Scholon. We have worked tirelessly to give you good troops for your future campaign, and we have succeeded. We have had some small problems with the conscripts from the cities, since they are not very… suited for such demanding training, but we have advanced quite a lot. Now they obey and follow the training regimen established by you'' said one of the kentarchos who directed one of the training camps spread throughout the province.
''Let us hope this is more effective than the themata. It is already difficult enough to convince the basileus rhomaion that this system will be better than the old themata forces, especially because it costs almost twice as much. We are exchanging four themata soldiers spread over four years for a single professional soldier who must serve five years… besides having to pay for his equipment'' I said, watching the soldiers in training.
The men were marching around the camp with mail coats on, shields on their arms and spears in hand.
''We must also add the food, but we are seeing good results. I remember that some themata soldiers arrived in poor physical condition and barely knew how to respond properly to orders. Now we are solving all that from the beginning. Surely the basileus rhomaion will see the wisdom in paying a little more for a well-trained soldier, rather than saving money on a cheap one whom no one knows how he will behave in battle. A themata soldier can be very bad or very good, depending on his preparation'' said the kentarchos, making the helmet he held under his arm ring slightly.
''Yes, yes. Everything is solved with gold, if the empire had enough of it and did not lose so much along the paths of imperial bureaucracy. For the moment, the system works because it sustains itself'' I said, watching the men. ''Have they carried out mock battles?''
''Yes, a couple of times. If you wish, I can…'' he said, pointing to his men.
''Do not take them out of training. I am only interested in the regimen established for this being carried out'' I said, nodding, quite satisfied with what I had seen.
''I would like to point something out before you must withdraw, magister ton Scholon. We have had quite a few problems with the local aristocracy because of the random selection system. Among my recruits there are four aristocrats, and their fathers have tried to come and bribe me several times to remove them from service. According to them, if their sons are going to serve in the army, they should do so in a tagma, not… here'' said the kentarchos, opening his hands to indicate the camp.
''If you have their names, give them to the governor. It is convenient to remind those aristocrats that bribes are illegal, even if they present them as gifts. That was established in the new anti-corruption law of the provinces'' I said in a more severe tone.
''I will keep that in mind. I suppose the governor should also know about the other problem. Some sons of aristocrats refused to serve and were taken to prison. But here there was a more serious case. A father tried to take his son out of the camp using his private guards. I had to drive that group away with the help of my subordinates, but it is a serious problem that must be resolved'' said the kentarchos, licking his lips after saying it.
''That is rebellion and treason in every sense. We are part of the imperial army. We are not minor bureaucrats they can push aside whenever they please. Who was it?'' I asked, annoyed by the news.
''I do not know. I do not know the local aristocracy, nor where he lives. But we have his son'' he said, pointing to one of the recruits running with the rest.
''I will inform the governor of this so he can come speak with him. Unfortunately, I do not have time to personally direct the investigation, but there will be justice. This province was quite corrupt from what I have seen. The rural aristocracy has nothing to envy the aristocracy of the capital'' I said, quite irritated.
''Thank you, magister ton Scholon. I will wait patiently for the group in charge of investigating and putting an end to this affront against the authority of the basileus rhomaion and against you'' said the kentarchos.
''Good, I withdraw. Continue with your work. Leave them well trained, because soon I will take a group of them to Italy'' I said, turning and beginning to walk toward the exit of the camp.
My hird did not take long to fall in, covering me on all sides. Before I could leave, I heard the shouting that reached even where I stood. The kentarchos was roaring at his soldiers, urging them to keep training without stopping.
I had far too much work on my hands. If before I complained about having to take care of small matters like governing Crete or dealing with the foederati, this now made everything before seem insignificant, because the work of reorganizing an entire system was a titanic task, worthy of being one of the labors of Heracles.
I no longer only had to collect overdue taxes, something almost all aristocrats had to some degree. Some owed one year, where they probably lacked the means or had suffered some problem. Others, on the other hand, had spent years systematically avoiding payment. But it was not simple, for the simple reason that rats get frightened, and rats usually protect one another. As soon as they learned of the new tax payment system, many aristocrats cried out to the heavens about how the emperor was abusing his power and blah, blah.
What mattered now was creating an important line of taxes for the imperial throne. In theory, these rich provinces, both because of their cities and merchant ports and because of their productive fields, were what was needed to begin filling the coffers, not only with income from merchants, since apparently they were among the few who mostly paid their taxes.
For the moment, properties valued at millions of gold coins had been expropriated, which had already brought enormous economic benefits to the imperial coffers, collecting a great amount of overdue taxes. I did not even want to imagine what was happening in provinces with less loyal or less efficient strategos. The debts that could easily accumulate could pay for everything I was asking for, but from the general total, I only received small parts.
But there was light at the end of it all, since from one moment to the next, the province's tax revenues had increased by almost eighty percent. And it was not even the expropriations, but now, when everyone began to see what happened to those who owed the throne, payment agreements immediately began to arrive and everyone started paying what was owed.
So that administrative area was resolved. But if only that were my only work. As magister ton Scholon, I had to make sure that the entire army was prepared for the invasion.
And that led me to establish rules for the army suppliers. I set the specific weights that the armor had to have so they would not try to alter the weight in order to save material. I also demanded certain quality standards so they would not buy the cheapest material and try to cut costs in the final result. All of that required a group of smiths to constantly inspect the shipments and issue the necessary fines and punishments if my orders were not followed.
Besides that, I had to organize the smiths who served the State into larger and more manageable groups, since across all the cities, the empire could have twenty or thirty different suppliers per city, all of whom I had to control at the same time. That made everything difficult, so I had to organize the smithing industry and make them form larger groups so the work would be faster and more standardized, creating work cooperatives of smiths and dividing the profits among the former master smiths.
With that, the armories of the intervened provinces were already beginning to produce standard and quality equipment to defend the new troops.
And that brought us to what seemed to be the hardest work of all: organizing the troops. In an attempt to have a universal recruitment system that did not depend on wealth or preexisting contracts, we had resorted to conscription by lottery. That had given us many recruits, since I set the goals based on the census provided by the local strategos, and that had given me two percent of the total population. Although, if we took that to the numbers of the target age, it came close to ten percent of the male population of working age.
The idea was to take half of them with me to Italy and leave the other half in defensive duties in the province, serving as support for the guards. But that was already generating problems with the themata. Although many of the volunteers were themata soldiers who had no problem becoming full-time troops, others did not like having their extra income of one silver coin a month taken away.
Besides, the contract would no longer be renewed, so when the last beneficiaries of those contracts died of old age, they would not be inheritable, giving their families time to accumulate the wealth produced by the land so they could buy the lands or parts of them.
But of course, that caused discontent. More than once, I found myself facing rather unfriendly protests from armed men, demanding that the State lands that had been temporarily granted to them become their permanent property.
And that had me running from one side to another without rest, trying to put out the fires of the administrative reform. But everything I was doing, although it greatly increased my control over these three provinces and strengthened imperial authority, was also creating an enormous number of enemies for me.
Whether it was the aristocracy that had lost large parts of its properties because of land confiscations, so they could be auctioned off or used to hand them over to the poor for them to work, or the other aristocrats and patricians who were terrified that the reform would reach their provinces, since it had enormously reduced the power of the aristocrats in favor of imperial authority, now that there were officers who were not corrupt or who were not afraid of the aristocracy and its power.
And although Theophilos was ecstatic with all the results, the reduction of corruption, the increase in taxes and the apparent strengthening of his authority in the province through the army, I felt that I was being left isolated and alone in everything.
Although I had the emperor's full support in all my actions, and the faction around me was growing stronger, occupying important bureaucratic posts that allowed me to prevent many of the abuses committed when trying to protect the empire, I was running out of people I trusted at my side.
All my competent officers occupied posts as trainers or officers of the new provincial forces, training the troops. All the bureaucrats who had come out of the university I built were spread throughout the bureaucracies of the empire. Almost the entire group I had formed during my mercenary days was now scattered across the empire, helping me carry out the changes.
But that had now left me surrounded by people I did not trust, by incompetents and bootlickers who sought to win my favor in order to obtain some post.
There were so few men I had under my command in the Italian campaign that I had many doubts about whether everything would go well, since I only had my trusted Varangians and Slavs with me. Everything else was made up of Greeks, Copts, Pontics and Armenians whom I did not know and whom I distrusted.
Unfortunately, no matter how much I wanted to bring my men back with me, I could not do it, because rebuilding the foundations of imperial authority was more important. It was a long-term investment, where slowly, Theophilos's power should become absolute throughout the entire empire, and it would be a long process.
And I did not know where to get trustworthy people from while I had to keep bleeding myself like this to keep the institutions under my control and relatively clean.
''Basil, the ship is ready for the journey to Constantinople and the message has already been sent for a group of ships to be prepared to go to Italy'' said one of my hird, approaching while I reviewed some books.
''Good… we have to keep working'' I said after sighing heavily.
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If there are spelling mistakes, please let me know.
Leave a comment; support is always appreciated.
I remind you to leave your ideas or what you would like to see.
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