title: Gary Bettman

text: The 2012–13 NHL lockout lasted from September 15, 2012, to January 19, 2013, after the owners and players failed to agree on a new collective bargaining agreement. The owners' original offer retained the framework established following the 2004–05 NHL lockout but made numerous changes to player salary and movement rights, including reducing the players' share of hockey-related revenues from 57 percent to 46 percent, introducing term limits on contracts, eliminating salary arbitration, and changing free agency rules. As the deadline for a work stoppage approached, the union unsuccessfully challenged the league's ability to lock out players of the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers (appealing to the Alberta Labour Relations Board), and the Montreal Canadiens (appealing to the Quebec Labour Relations Board).


title: Gary Bettman

text: After unsuccessful negotiations, the NHL and NHLPA agreed to mediation under the auspices of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service on November 26. The sides met with mediators on November 28 and 29, but the mediators quit after that point, determining they could not make any progress reconciling the two parties' demands, and thus both sides were on their own again. After talks broke down again in December, rumors leaked that the NHLPA planned on filing a "disclaimer of interest" (a quicker, less formal way to dissolve the player's union, compared with decertification)


title: Gary Bettman

text: and, with collective bargaining no longer in effect, pursuing an antitrust lawsuit against the NHL. The NHL responded on December 14 by filing a class action suit with the U.S. District Court in New York seeking to establish that its lockout was legal. Included in the lawsuit was a request for all existing player contracts to be "void and unenforceable", should the NHLPA be dissolved, resulting in all NHL players becoming free agents. The league also filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board, stating that the union had been negotiating in bad faith and that its threat to disclaim interest was a negotiating ploy that violated the collective bargaining process. In a vote conducted from December 17 to 21, the players authorized the union's executive board to file a disclaimer of interest until January 2, 2013, though it did not proceed with the filing.


title: Gary Bettman

text: On January 6, 2013, a tentative deal was reached on a new collective bargaining agreement to end the lockout. The terms included a limit of eight years on contract extensions and seven years on new contracts, a salary floor of US$44 million and a salary cap of US$60 million (a two-year transition period allowed teams to spend up to US$70.2 million in the deal's first season, prorated for the season length, and up to a salary cap of US$64.3 million in the second season), a maximum 50-percent variance in the salaries over the course of a contract, mandatory acceptance of arbitration awards under US$3.5 million, no realignment, and an amnesty period to buy out contracts that did not fit under the salary cap. After the union ratified the deal, the lockout ended.


title: Gary Bettman

text: A 48-game regular season schedule was then played, starting on January 19, 2013, and ending on April 28, 2013, with no inter-conference games. Despite the lockout, the average attendance for the season was 17,768, up 2.6 percent from the previous year, while TV ratings in both Canada and the United States also increased.


title: Gary Bettman

text: Bettman quickly accomplished one of his stated goals, signing a five-year, $155 million deal with the Fox Broadcasting Company to broadcast NHL games nationally in the U.S. beginning in the 1994–95 season. The deal was significant, as a network television contract in the United States was long thought unattainable during the presidency of John Ziegler. The Fox deal is perhaps best remembered for the FoxTrax puck, which while generally popular according to Fox Sports, generated a great deal of controversy from longtime fans of the game.


title: Gary Bettman

text: Canadians were also upset as the league gave preference to Fox ahead of CBC for scheduling of playoff games, as Pat Hickey of the "Montreal Gazette" wrote that the schedule was "just another example of how the N.H.L. snubs its nose at the country that invented hockey and its fans." The controversy repeated itself in 2007, as CBC was once again given second billing to Versus's coverage of the playoffs.


title: Gary Bettman

text: Despite falling ratings, Bettman negotiated a five-year, $600 million deal with ABC and ESPN in 1998. It was the largest television contract the NHL ever signed. The $120 million per year that ABC and ESPN paid for rights dwarfed the $5.5 million that the NHL received from American national broadcasts in 1991–92.


title: Gary Bettman

text: The NHL's television fortunes faded after the ABC/ESPN deal. In 2004, the league could manage a revenue sharing deal with only NBC, with no money paid up front by the network. Also, coming out of the lockout, ESPN declined its $60 million option for the NHL's cable rights in 2005–06. While wishing to retain the NHL, it stated the cost was overvalued. However, Bettman was able to negotiate a deal with Comcast to air the NHL on the Outdoor Life Network channel, which was later renamed Versus in 2006. The three-year deal was worth $207.5 million. Bettman was heavily criticized for the move to Versus, as detractors argued that the league lost a great deal of exposure since moving to the much smaller network. The TV deal with Versus was later extended through the 2010–11 season.


title: Gary Bettman

text: In January 2011, Comcast acquired NBC Universal, and then in April of that year Bettman negotiated a new 10-year deal with the merged media company, worth nearly $2 billion. Comcast/NBC also announced that both Versus and NBC would increase their number of games. In signing this new TV deal, Bettman rejected offers from ESPN and others. Reaction to this new TV deal was mixed, noting that the NHL still lacked the exposure that ESPN could provide, while at the same time acknowledging that ESPN might not devote as much attention and promotion as Comcast/NBC would since the former was committed to various other sports properties. Comcast/NBC then renamed Versus as the NBC Sports Network on January 2, 2012.


title: Gary Bettman

text: On November 26, 2013, Bettman announced that the NHL had sold twelve seasons' worth of exclusive Canadian national broadcast rights to Rogers Media, who would broadcast games across its numerous platforms, including Sportsnet, Sportsnet One, and City, at a price of CAD$5.2 billion. "Hockey Night in Canada" would continue on the CBC for the next four seasons, but under a sub-licensing deal the public broadcaster would give Rogers free airtime to air the broadcasts. CBC would be allotted time during the broadcasts to promote its other programming. These moves left Bell Media and its TSN networks shut out of NHL broadcasts except for its regional properties.


title: Gary Bettman

text: Bettman hosts an hour-long weekly radio show on NHL Home Ice (XM 204). The show provides fans with an opportunity to speak directly with the commissioner and voice any questions, comments, or concerns related to ice hockey.


title: Gary Bettman

text: The NHL first participated in ice hockey at the Olympic Games in the 1998 tournament in Nagano. The hockey tournament has since become one of the biggest and most profitable events at the Olympics. Bettman spoke at the World Hockey Summit in 2010, and stated that being in the Olympics was a "mixed bag" for the NHL, and its experiences outside of North America tended not to be positive. He gave a list of issues that he wanted to see resolved in consultation with the National Hockey League Players' Association, which included more control over marketing and promotion, timing of games being televised in North America, the hiatus in the NHL regular season schedule, ability for NHL team executives to access their players, travel concerns, and risk of injuries.


title: Gary Bettman

text: For the lockout-shortened 2012–13 season, Bettman received $8.8 million in total compensation by the NHL. By 2013–14, his salary had increased to $9.5 million, according to the NHL's filings with the Internal Revenue Service.


title: Gary Bettman

text: For the 2008–09 season, Bettman was paid $7.23 million, of which $5,529,490 was his base salary. It was $3.77 million prior to the 2004–05 lockout.


title: Gary Bettman

text: Bettman's controversial decisions, as well as presiding over three labor stoppages, have made him unpopular among many NHL fans. He is regularly booed in various arenas around the league, ranging from his appearances at the yearly NHL Entry Draft to his annual presentation of the Stanley Cup to the league champions at the end of the playoffs. When asked if the booing ever bothers him, Bettman said, "Not doing this job, no. You're always going to have critics. What I've always told people: If I take the ice and it's completely silent, then I'll know I'm in trouble."


title: Gary Bettman

text: In another interview, he replied that he says to himself, "You know what, [the fans] got an opinion. We may not agree on everything, but they care, and I'll take that." Still, writers such as Adam Proteau of "The Hockey News" and James O'Brien of NBC Sports' "Pro Hockey Talk" have advocated that someone else should hand out the Cup instead of Bettman so that the incessant booing does not spoil the ceremony. In 2013, the sports blog "Grantland" stated that Bettman's Cup presentations have "evolved into one of the most awkward traditions in all of sports".


title: Gary Bettman

text: Playing upon those perceptions, 2006 Canadian movie "Bon Cop, Bad Cop" cast Rick Howland as "Harry Buttman", a Gary Bettman parody, a hockey league commissioner who wants to move Montreal's hockey team to Houston.


title: Gary Bettman

text: In April 2017, Bettman announced that the NHL would not be taking part in the 2018 Winter Olympics, a decision that was confirmed in November 2017 and was widely unpopular among players.


title: Gary Bettman

text: On May 21, 2014, Bettman was named "Sports Executive of the Year" by the SportsBusiness Journal and SportsBusiness Daily at the publications' annual Sports Business Awards event in New York. At the same ceremony, the NHL was named "Sports League of the Year", the second time in four years the NHL had been so honored. The 2014 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic was named "Sports Event of the Year." Bettman said, "It's almost an out-of-body experience. This time of year, I’m normally presenting a trophy and getting booed. To receive one and get applause is really quite novel."


title: Gary Bettman

text: CBS Sports hockey writer Chris Peters said, "There's no question the game has grown throughout the United States with participation in the sport at an all-time high, in addition to rising revenues for the NHL itself. The game is also reaching its best exposure through its TV deal with NBC Sports. That could be one of Bettman's crowning achievements. The remarkable thing about the NHL is that it remains incredibly strong, if not stronger coming out of two lockouts in the last decade. Gary Bettman…may not be perfect…but (he) is a good leader for the NHL and probably deserves some recognition for it."


title: Omar Sharif Jr.

text: Omar Sharif Jr. (born 28 November 1983) is a Canadian actor, model, author and gay activist who currently lives in the United States.


title: Omar Sharif Jr.

text: Sharif is the son of a Jewish Canadian mother, Debbie, and an Egyptian father, Tarek Sharif. His paternal grandparents were Omar Sharif and Faten Hamama, both Egyptian actors; his maternal grandparents were Jewish Holocaust survivors. During his childhood, Sharif was shuttled back and forth among Montreal, Paris, and Cairo. He has a B.A. from Queen's University, a Master's in Comparative Politics from the London School of Economics and a degree in Performing Arts from The Lee Strasberg Institute.


title: Omar Sharif Jr.

text: Sharif has worked as an actor, appearing in the 2000 Egyptian miniseries "Wagh el qamar", the 2005-6 French-language Canadian series "Virginie", the 2008 Egyptian film "Hassan wa Morcus" and the 2016 Irish film "The Secret Scripture". When he became an actor, his grandfather said to him: “I gave you my name, I gave you my looks. I'm not going to give you anything else. You have to do it entirely on your own.”


title: Omar Sharif Jr.

text: He appeared in the 2017 short film "11th Hour", which was selected for screening at the TriBeCa Film Festival.


title: Omar Sharif Jr.

text: He has also worked as a model: He was “the face of Coca-Cola for the Arabic world and appeared in a major Calvin Klein print campaign in Egypt.”


title: Omar Sharif Jr.

text: He was a presenter at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards in 2011, during which he performed a memorable comedic sketch with Kirk Douglas.


title: Omar Sharif Jr.

text: In 2012, Sharif came out as gay in "The Advocate", a gay newsmagazine. Noting that the recent parliamentary elections in Egypt had “dealt secularists a particularly devastating blow,” he stated that the vision of “a freer, more equal Egypt — a vision that many young patriots gave their lives to see realized in Tahrir Square — has been hijacked.” He is said to be “the first public personality to ever come out as openly gay in the Arab World.” His announcement led to widespread criticism and threats of violence.


title: Omar Sharif Jr.

text: From 2013 to 2015, he was the National Spokesperson for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). In May 2015, he was hired to handle community affairs by New York developer Ian Reisner.


title: Omar Sharif Jr.

text: In an August 2015 interview, Sharif said that his recently deceased grandfather, Omar Sharif, had been aware of his homosexuality and had never had a problem with it, though his mother did; she told him "Don't tell your grandmother, this would kill her." He responded, "She survived Auschwitz but this would kill her?"


title: Omar Sharif Jr.

text: He also said he hoped to change Egyptian attitudes toward gay people. “I’m a son, I’m a brother, I’m a coworker, I’m a friend,” he said. “I’m not a fact, or a figure, or a statistic. I’m not a moral or an ethical debate.”


title: Omar Sharif Jr.

text: Sharif gave a speech at the 2016 Oslo Freedom Forum discussing his coming out story during Arab Spring and admitting to suicidal thoughts.


title: Omar Sharif Jr.

text: After the Sultan of Brunei passed a law to stone homosexual people in April 2019, Sharif Jr. challenged him a few days later. If the Sultan would execute his own homosexual son, Sharif Jr. would execute himself as well.


title: Omar Sharif Jr.

text: As of 2012 he was living in Cairo, however shortly thereafter, uneasy about the “new Egypt,” he left the country. He now resides in Los Angeles.


title: Omar Sharif Jr.

text: He was honored as one of the “Out 100” in 2012,” The Advocate's "40 Under 40" in 2014 and 2015, and won Attitude Magazine's 'Inspiration Award' in 2016.


title: Israeli mafia

text: The Israeli mafia (, or , , "organized crime in Israel") are the organized crime groups operating in Israel or consisting of Israeli members. There are 16 crime families operating in Israel, five major groups active on the national level and 11 smaller organizations. There are six Jewish crime families active and three Arab crime families. Many heads and members of the crime groups have either been killed or are in prison.


title: Israeli mafia

text: The major crime groups are the Abergils, the Abutbuls, the Alperons, the Dumranis, the Shirazis, the Amir Molnar and the Zeev Rosenstein syndicates. The illegal activities they are engaged in include operating casinos and other forms of gambling inside and outside Israel, car theft, prostitution, human trafficking, money laundering, murder, protection and extortion rackets, loan sharking and drug dealing.


title: Israeli mafia

text: According to Israel's former Police Commissioner David Cohen, Israeli crime organizations had penetrated the formal economic sector and local governments, and "equipped themselves with large quantities of combat means explosives and arms." In a mob war starting in the early 2000s between the crime families, several crime bosses were killed. It also cost the lives of innocent bystanders.


title: Israeli mafia

text: In 2010, it was reported by Wikileaks that the United States Embassy in Israel expressed grave concern that Inbal Gavrieli, the niece of one of Israel's most powerful mob bosses, had been elected to the Knesset as an MK for the Likud party. Inbal Gavrieli's subsequent attempt to use her parliamentary immunity to prevent her father's house from being searched by the Israel Police during an investigation into illegal gambling and tax evasion further compounded the concerns raised by the United States Ambassador to Israel regarding the influence of organized crime in the Likud central committee. Her father, Ezra "Shuni" Gavrieli, is suspected of being a ranking member of the crime family as he had previously been convicted of racketeering related offenses, as had her brother; in 2009 her cousin was murdered in what is suspected to have been a gangland slaying.


title: Israeli mafia

text: The immigration of Egyptian and Moroccan Jews to Israel and their settlement in the more impoverished neighborhoods led to the creation of crime families among Maghrebi Jews. This is evident in the fact that a large number of Israeli organized criminals have fled to Morocco in recent years. Israeli crime families of Moroccan Jewish descent expanded their operations to Europe and the US, especially with their involvement in drug trafficking. Some of Israel's more well-known crime families are of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish descent: the Abergil crime family as well as the Abutbul and Domrani clans are originally from Morocco, the Alperon clan came from Egypt, and the Shirazi clan from Iran.


title: Israeli mafia

text: Israeli-Arab organized crime groups were formed in Israel. Some Arab-majority cities and towns are home to local crime families. Clans like Tayibe based Abdel-Kader family are involved in extortion, drug and weapon trafficking, fraud as well as money laundering, often in cooperation with their Jewish counterparts. One Arab crime family, the Jarushi family from Ramla, is one of the most powerful crime families in Israel. The Qarajah crime family, also originated from Ramla, was used to have a long time blood feud with the Jarushis, resulting in the death of 24 people in the 1990. The feud ended when the Qarajahs were forced by the government to have a cease fire agreement whereby they will leave Ramla to settle in any other Arab settlement. After no other settlement agreed to house them, the government eventually settled them in the Jewish town Harish.


title: Israeli mafia

text: Another example was the criminal gang around Moussa Aliyan in New York City whose main business was the importation of heroin.


title: Israeli mafia

text: The Russian mafia in Israel began with the mass immigration of Russian Jews to Israel in 1989. Jewish Russian crime bosses such as Semion Mogilevich acquired Israeli citizenship and laundered money through Israel.


title: Israeli mafia

text: The Russian mafia saw Israel as an ideal place to launder money, as Israel's banking system was designed to encourage aliyah, the immigration of Jews, and the accompanying capital. Following the trend of global financial deregulation, Israel had also implemented legislation aimed at easing the movement of capital. Combined with the lack of anti-money laundering legislation, Russian organised crime found it an easy place to transfer ill-gotten gains. In 2005, police estimated that Russian organised crime had laundered between $5 and 10 billion in the fifteen years since the end of the Soviet Union. Non-Jewish criminals such as Sergei Mikhailov sought to get Israeli passports, using fake Jewish documentation.


title: Israeli mafia

text: Russian and Ukrainian Jewish criminals have also been able to set up networks in the United States, following the large migration of Russian Jews to New York City and Miami, but also in European cities such as Berlin and Antwerp. Russian-Jewish mobsters include Marat Balagula, Evsei Agron and their respective criminal gangs in the United States. Soviet-Jewish criminal groups in the United States are involved in racketeering, prostitution, drug trafficking, extortion, and gasoline tax fraud as well as murder.


title: Israeli mafia

text: Family-based organized crime groups were formed among Georgian Jewish immigrants to Israel as well. Georgian-Jewish crime families have been able to expand their operations to Western European cities such as Antwerp. They are involved in counterfeiting, fraud, money laundering, drug trafficking, weapon trafficking, prostitution and armed robbery. Such was the case with the Georgian-Jewish Melikhov clan in Antwerp.


title: Israeli mafia

text: In the 1980s Israelis set up a crime syndicate headed by Johnny Attias in New York, dubbed the "Israeli mafia". It pulled off the biggest gold heist in the history of Manhattan's jewelry district, getting away with over $4 million in gold jewelry. Attias was murdered in January 1990, and New York's Israeli mafia fell apart soon after. Several members, among them Ron Gonen, had turned informant and the authorities arrested the rest of the gang in September of that year.


title: Israeli mafia

text: Israeli crime organizations such as the Abergil crime family and Zeev Rosenstein were heavily involved in ecstasy trafficking in the United States. In a statement before Congress in 2000, officials with the U.S. Customs Service noted that "Israeli organized-crime elements appear to be in control" of the multibillion-dollar U.S. ecstasy trade, "from production through the international smuggling phase". The main drug supplier of former Gambino crime family underboss Sammy Gravano in his Arizona drug ring allegedly was New York based Israeli mobster Ilan Zarger, who allegedly distributed more than one million ecstasy pills from May 1999 to May 2000 with a wholesale value of $7 million. He pleaded guilty to charges of running a drug gang that flooded Arizona and New York with almost four million ecstasy pills over three years. Another Israeli, Oded Tuito, said to head one of the largest ecstasy-smuggling organization, which imported millions of ecstasy pills from Paris, Brussels and Frankfurt into New York, Miami and Los Angeles, was arrested in May 2001.


title: Israeli mafia

text: In 2006 Zeev Rosenstein was extradited to the U.S., after being arrested in Israel. He pleaded guilty before a federal court in Florida to charges that he distributed ecstasy pills and was sentenced to 12 years in prison which he serves in Israel. In January 2011, Itzik Abergil and Meir Abergil and three other suspects were extradited to the U.S.


title: Israeli mafia

text: They faced a 77-page, 32-count federal indictment that alleged murder, massive embezzlement, money laundering, racketeering and running a large Los Angeles-based ecstasy ring.


title: Israeli mafia

text: The Israeli mafia killed Israeli citizens in broad daylight at a restaurant in a shopping mall in Mexico City on July 24, 2019. A 33-year-old woman, who was reportedly paid MXN$5,000 (US$260), was arrested. Her alleged accomplice was arrested in Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico, on July 26.


title: Byzantine army

text: The Byzantine army was the primary military body of the Byzantine armed forces, serving alongside the Byzantine navy. A direct continuation of the Eastern Roman army, shaping and developing itself on the legacy of the late Hellenistic armies, it maintained a similar level of discipline, strategic prowess and organization. It was among the most effective armies of western Eurasia for much of the Middle Ages. Over time the cavalry arm became more prominent in the Byzantine army as the legion system disappeared in the early 7th century. Later reforms reflected some Germanic and Asian influences – rival forces frequently became sources of mercenary units e.g.; Huns, Cumans, Alans and (following the Battle of Manzikert) Turks, meeting the Empire's demand for light cavalry mercenaries. Since much of the Byzantine military focused on the strategy and skill of generals utilizing militia troops, heavy infantry were recruited from Frankish and later Varangian mercenaries.


title: Byzantine army

text: From the 7th to the 12th centuries, the Byzantine army was among the most powerful and effective military forces in the world – neither Middle Ages Europe nor (following its early successes) the fracturing Caliphate could match the strategies and the efficiency of the Byzantine army. Restricted to a largely defensive role in the 7th to mid-9th centuries, the Byzantines developed the theme-system to counter the more powerful Caliphate. From the mid-9th century, however, they gradually went on the offensive, culminating in the great conquests of the 10th century under a series of soldier-emperors such as Nikephoros II Phokas, John Tzimiskes and Basil II. The army they led was less reliant on the militia of the themes; it was by now a largely professional force, with a strong and well-drilled infantry at its core and augmented by a revived heavy cavalry arm. With one of the most powerful economies in the world at the time, the Empire had the resources to put to the field a powerful host when needed, in order to reclaim its long-lost territories.


title: Byzantine army

text: After the collapse of the theme-system in the 11th century, the Byzantines grew increasingly reliant on professional Tagmata troops, including ever-increasing numbers of foreign mercenaries. The Komnenian emperors made great efforts to re-establish a native army, instituting the "pronoia" system of land grants in exchange for military service. Nevertheless, mercenaries remained a staple feature of late Byzantine armies since the loss of Asia Minor reduced the Empire's recruiting-ground, while the abuse of the "pronoia" grants led to a progressive feudalism in the Empire. The Komnenian successes were undone by the subsequent Angeloi dynasty, leading to the dissolution of the Empire at the hands of the Fourth Crusade in 1204.


title: Byzantine army

text: The Emperors of Nicaea managed to form a small but effective force using the same structure of light and heavily armed troops, both natives and foreigners. It proved effective in defending what remained of Byzantine Anatolia and reclaiming much of the Balkans and even Constantinople itself in 1261. Another period of neglect of the military followed in the reign of Andronikos II Palaiologos, which allowed Anatolia to fall prey to an emerging power, the Ottoman emirate. Successive civil wars in the 14th century further sapped the Empire's strength and destroyed any remaining chance of recovery, while the weakening of central authority and the devolution of power to provincial leaders meant that the Byzantine army was now composed of a collection of militias, personal entourages and mercenary detachments.


title: Byzantine army

text: Just as what many today label the Byzantine Empire was in reality and to contemporaries a continuation of the Roman Empire, so the Byzantine army was an outgrowth of the Late Roman structure, which largely survived until the mid-7th century. The official language of the army for centuries continued to be Latin but this would eventually give way to Greek as in the rest of the Empire, though Latin military terminology would still be used throughout its history.


title: Byzantine army

text: In the period after the Muslim conquests, which saw the loss of Syria and Egypt, the remnants of the provincial armies were withdrawn and settled in Asia Minor, initiating the thematic system. Despite this unprecedented disaster, the internal structures of the army remained much the same, and there is a remarkable continuity in tactics and doctrine between the 6th and 11th centuries. The Battle of Manzikert in 1071 and the subsequent Seljuk invasions, together with the arrival of the Crusades and the incursions of the Normans, would severely weaken the Byzantine state and its military, which increasingly had to rely on foreign mercenaries.


title: Byzantine army

text: The Eastern Empire dates from the creation of the Tetrarchy ("Quadrumvirate") by the Emperor Diocletian in 293. His plans for succession did not outlive his lifetime, but his reorganization of the army did by centuries. Rather than maintain the traditional infantry-heavy legions, Diocletian reformed it into "limitanei" ("border") and "comitatenses" ("field") units.


title: Byzantine army

text: There was an expansion of the importance of the cavalry, though the infantry still remained the major component of the Roman armies, in contrast to common belief. In preparation for Justinian's African campaign of 533-534 AD, the army assembled amounted to 10,000-foot soldiers and 5,000 mounted archers and federate lancers.


title: Byzantine army

text: The "limitanei" and "ripenses" were to occupy the "limes", the Roman border fortifications. The field units, by contrast, were to stay well behind the border and move quickly where they were needed, whether for offensive or defensive roles, as well as forming an army against usurpers. The field units were held to high standards and took precedence over Limitanei in pay and provisions.


title: Byzantine army

text: Cavalry formed about one-third of the units, but as a result of smaller units, about one-quarter of the Roman armies consisted of cavalry. About half the cavalry consisted of heavy cavalry (including the "stablesiani"). They were armed with spear or lance and sword and armored in mail. Some had bows, but they were meant for supporting the charge instead of independent skirmishing.


title: Byzantine army

text: In the field armies there was a component of some 15% of cataphractarii or clibanarii, heavily armoured cavalry who used shock tactics. The light cavalry (including the "scutarii" and "promoti") featured high amongst the limitanei, being very useful troops on patrol. They included horse archers ("Equites Sagittarii"). The infantry of the "comitatenses" was organized in regiments (variously named "legiones", "auxilia" or just "numeri") of about 500–1,200 men. They were still the heavy infantry of old, with a spear or sword, shield, body armour and a helmet. But now each regiment was supported by a detachment of light infantry skirmishers.


title: Byzantine army

text: If needed, the infantry could take off (some of) their armour to act in a more flexible way as Modares did (according to Zosimus) during the Gothic War of the 370s. The regiments were commanded by a "tribunus" ("tribune") and brigaded in pairs (cavalry units did, too) under a "comes". These brigades probably were tactical and strategic units only, as no traces survive of brigade staff corps.


title: Byzantine army

text: On the other hand, little is known of the limitanei. The old legions, cohorts and cavalry alae survived there, and newer units were created (the new legions, or "auxilia" and "vexillationes", amongst the cavalry. The limitanei infantry may have been lighter-equipped than the comitatenses infantry, but there is no evidence whatsoever. They were paid less than the field troops and recruited locally. Consequently, they were of inferior quality. However, they were in the line of fire. They countered most incursions and raids. Thus, it can be assumed they had superior field experience (except in periods of long campaigning for the comitatenses), though that experience did not extend to large battles and sieges.


title: Byzantine army

text: The "Scholae Palatinae" units, which were more properly known as the "Schola Protectores Domestici" and the "Protective Association of the Royal Escort" (also called the "Obsequium"), were the personal guard of the Emperor, and were created to replace the Praetorian Guard disbanded by Constantine I.


title: Byzantine army

text: Following a major reorganisation of the Roman army during the Emperor Diocletian's reign (284-305 AD) the legions in the third and fourth century bore little resemblance to those of the Republic or earlier Roman empire. Reduced in numbers to about 1,000 men per legion, these units became static garrison troops, sometimes serving on a part-time militia basis as hereditary "limitanei". As such they were separate from the new mobile field army.


title: Byzantine army

text: The army of Justinian I was the result of fifth-century reorganizations to meet growing threats to the empire, the most serious from the expanding Persian empire. Gone were the familiar legions, cohorts and alae of old Rome, and in their place were small Greek infantry battalions or horse regiments called an arithmos, tagma or numerus. A numerus had between 300 and 400 men and was commanded by a Stratarches. Two or more "numeri" formed a brigade, or moira; two or more brigades a division, or meros.


title: Byzantine army

text: The size of Justinian's army is unclear. Bury, writing in the 1920s, accepted the estimate of 150,000 troops of all classes in 559 given by Agathia of Myrina in his History. Modern scholars estimate the total strength of the imperial army under Justinian to be between 300,000 and 350,000 soldiers. Field armies generally had 15,000 to 25,000 soldiers and were formed mainly of comitatenses and foederati, reinforced by the commanders' retinues and barbarian allies. The expeditionary force of Belisarius during his reconquest of Carthage from the Vandals in 533 is illustrative.


title: Byzantine army

text: This army had 10,000 comitatenses and foederati infantry, with 3,000 similarly composed cavalry. There were 600 Huns and 400 Herules, all mounted archers, and 1,400 or 1,500 mounted bucellarii of Belisarius' retinue. The small force of less than 16,000 men voyaged from the Bospherus to North Africa on 500 ships protected by 92 dromons, or war-ships.


title: Byzantine army

text: Tactics, organization and equipment had been largely modified to deal with the Persians. The Byzantines adopted elaborate defensive armor from Persia, coats of mail, cuirasses, casques and greaves of steel for tagma of elite heavy cavalrymen called cataphracts, who were armed with bow and arrows as well as sword and lance.


title: Byzantine army

text: Large numbers of light infantry were equipped with the bow, to support the heavy infantry known as scutatii (Meaning ″shield men″) or skutatoi. These wore a steel helmet and a coat of mail, and carried a spear, axe and dagger. They generally held the centre of a Greek line of battle. Infantry armed with javelins were used for operations in mountain regions.


title: Byzantine army

text: Notable military events during the reign of Justinian included the battle of Dara in 530, when Belisarius, with a force of 25,000, defeated the Persian emperor's army of 40,000. In addition to his reconquest of Carthage, noted above, Belisarius also recaptured Sicily, Naples, Rome and the rest of Italy from the Goths in a war lasting from 535 to 554. Another famous commander of the time was the imperial eunuch Narses, who defeated a Gothic army at Busta Gallorum on the eastern coast of Italy in 552.


title: Byzantine army

text: Towards the end of the sixth century, the Emperor Maurice, or senior officers writing for him, described in great detail the Byzantine army of the period in The Strategikon, a manual for commanders. Maurice, who reigned from 582 to 602, certainly had extensive military experience. In 592, he forced the Persians to sign a treaty that regained extensive Armenian territory for the empire that had been lost in earlier wars. Maurice then turned to the western frontier in the Balkans. In a war that lasted the rest of his life, he defeated the Avars and Slavs in battle, but could not gain a decisive victory.


title: Byzantine army

text: The Strategikon's author gives us a fair picture of the Byzantine army and its troops, including the equipment borrowed from the Herules, Goths, Slavs and especially the Avars, once barbarian enemies all. Cavalrymen should have "hooded coats of mail reaching to their ankles which may be drawn up by thongs and rings, along with carying cases." Helmets were to have small plumes on top and bows were to be suited to the strength of each man, their cases broad enough that strung bows can fit in them, and spare bow strings kept the men's saddle bags. The men's quivers should have covers and hold 30 or 40 arrows and they should carry small files and awls in their baldrics. The cavalry lances should be "of the Avar type with leather thongs in the middle of the shaft and with pennons." The men were also to have "swords and round neck pieces of the Avar type with linen fringes outside and wool inside." Young foreigners unskilled with the bow should have lances and shields and bucellary troops ought to have iron gauntlets and small tassles hanging from the back straps and neck straps of their horses, as well as small pennons hanging from their own shoulders over their coats of mail, "for the more handsome the soldier is, in his armament, the more confidence he gains in himself and the more fear he inspires in the enemy." Lances were apparently expected to be thrown, for the troops should have "two lances so as to have a spare in case the first one misses. Unskilled men should use lighter bows."


title: Byzantine army

text: The manual then describes horse gear and the trooper's clothing. "The horses, especially those of the officers and the other special troops, in particular those in the front ranks of the battle line, should have protective pieces of iron armor about their heads and breast plates of iron or felt, or else breast and neck coverings such as the Avars use. The saddles should have large and thick cloths; the bridles should be of good quality; attached to the saddles should be two iron stirrups, a lasso with thong, hobble, a sadle bag large enough to hold three or four days' rations when needed. There should be four tassels on the back strap, one on top of the head, and one under the chin."


title: Byzantine army

text: "The men's clothing," the Strategikon continues, "especially their tunics, whether made of linen, goat's hair or rough wool, should be broad and full, cut according to the Avar pattern, so they can be fastened to cover the knees while riding and give a neat appearance. They should also be provided with an extra-large cloak or hooded mantle of felt with broad sleeves to wear, large enough to wear over their armament, including the coat of mail and the bow."


title: Byzantine army

text: "Each squad should have a tent, as well as sickles and axes to meet any contingency. It is well to have tents of the Avar type, which combine practicality with good appearance."


title: Byzantine army

text: "The men," according to The Strategikon, "should certainly be required to provide servants for themselves, slave or free ... Should they neglect this and find themselves without servants, then in time of battle it will be necessary to detail some of the soldiers themselves to the baggage train, and there will be fewer men fighting in the ranks. But if, as can easily happen, some of the men are unable to afford servants, then it will be necessary to require that three or four soldiers join in maintaining one servant. A similar arrangement should be made with the pack animals, which may be needed to carry the coats of mail and the tents."


title: Byzantine army

text: The manual then describes a system of unit identification that sounds like a fore-runner of medieval heraldry. The flags of a meros or division, should be the same color. The streamers of its immediate sub-units, the several moiras or brigades, should also have their own color. Thus, the manual states, "each individual tagma, (battalion or squadron) may easily recognize its own standard. Other distinctive devices known to the soldiers should be imposed on the fields of the flags, so that they may easily be recognized according to meros, moira and tagma. The standards of the merarchs (meros commander) should be particularly distinctive and conspicuous, so they may be recognized by their troops at a great distance."


title: Byzantine army

text: The Strategikon deals more briefly with the infantry. They are to wear Gothic tunics "coming down to their knees or short ones split up the sides and Gothic shoes with thick soles, broad toes and plain stitching, fastened with no more than two clasps the soles studded with a few nails for greater durability." Boots or greaves are discouraged, "for they are unsuitable for marching and, if worn, slow one down. Their mantles should be simple, not like Bulgarian cloaks. Their hair should be cut short, and it is better if it is not allowed to grow long."


title: Byzantine army

text: The descriptions of the armament of the "heavy-armed infantrymen" are equally terse. "The men of each arithmos or tagma," the Strategikon tells us, "should have shields of the same color, Herulian swords, lances, helmets with small plumes and tassels on top and on the cheek plates - at least the first men in the file should have these - slings, and lead-pointed darts. The picked men of the files should have mail coats, all of them if it can be done, but in any case the first two in the file. They should also have iron or wooden greaves, at least the first and second in each file."


title: Byzantine army

text: The light-armed infantryman, still quoting the Strategikon, "should carry bows on their shoulders with large quivers holding about 30 or 40 arrows. They should have small shields, as well as crossbows with short arrows in small quivers. These can be fired a great distance with the bows and cause harm to the enemy. For men who might not have bows or are not experienced archers, small javelins or Slavic spears should be provided. They should also carry lead-pointed darts in leather cases, and slings."


title: Byzantine army

text: The strength of the Byzantine army and navy in 565 is estimated by Teadgold to have been 379,300 men, with a field army and part of the guards totaling 150,300, and the frontier troops, part of the guards and the oarsmen totaling 229,000. These numbers probably held through the reign of Maurice. However, the largest field army mentioned in the Strategikon is a force of 34,384 (16,384 heavy infantry, 8,000 light-armed troops and 10,000 cavalry) which is given as an example of "the past, when the legions were composed of large numbers of men." Writing of his own time, Maurice stipulates that an army of more than 24,000 men should be divided into four components and an army of less than 24,000 into three. In another section, Maurice describes the formation of cavalry tagmas of 300 to 400 men into morias of 2,000 to 3,000 and the morias into meros of 6,000 to 7,000.


title: Byzantine army

text: The "themata" (Gr. θέματα) were administrative divisions of the empire in which a general (Gr. στρατηγός, "strategos") exercised both civilian and military jurisdiction and a Judge (Κριτής του Θέματος, "Krites tou thematos") held the judicial power. The name is peculiar; Treadgold's closest guess is that thema was being used to denote "emplacements". Modern historians agree that the designations of the first themes came from the field armies that were stationed in Asia Minor.


title: Byzantine army

text: The themata were organized as a response to the enormous military and territorial losses suffered during the conquests of the Muslim Rashidun Caliphate - Syria in 637, Armenia and Egypt in 639, North Africa in 652 and Cyprus in 654. Treadgold cites estimates that indicate the empire's population dropped from 19.5 million in 560 to 10.5 million in 641. At the same time the size of armed forces plunged from 379,300 men to 129,000.


title: Byzantine army

text: By 662, the empire had lost more than half its territory in 30 years, and the first mentions occur in surviving records of themata under the command of generals, or strategi, that are the remnants of the former mobile armies now stationed in set districts. At some later time, when payment in cash had become difficult, the soldiers were given land grants within their districts for their support.


title: Byzantine army

text: The dates of this process are uncertain, but Treadgold points to 659-662 as the most likely time-frame, as this is the period when the Emperor Constans II made a truce with the Arabs that gave the army time to regroup, the government ran out of money to pay the troops, and the empire's enormous losses of territory stopped. The themata so formed provided a bulwark against Arab invasions and raids that lasted until the late 11th century. Themata were also formed in the west, as a response to the Serb and Bulgar incursions that drove the empire's frontier from the Danube River south to Thrace and the Peloponnese.


title: Byzantine army

text: The five original themata were all in Asia Minor and originated from the earlier mobile field armies. They were:


title: Byzantine army

text: Within each theme, eligible men were given grants of land to support their families and to equip themselves. Following revolts strengthened by the large size of these divisions, Leo III the Isaurian, Theophilus, and Leo VI the Wise all responded by breaking the themes up into smaller areas and dividing control over the armies within each theme into various "tourmai". The large early themes were progressively split up in the 8th–9th centuries to reduce their governors' power, while in the 10th century, new and much smaller themes, called "Armenian themes" because many were settled by Armenians, were created in the East in conquered territories. While in ca. 842 the "Taktikon Uspensky" lists 18 "strategoi" of themes, the "De Thematibus" of ca. 940 lists 28, and the "Escorial Taktikon", written ca. 971–975, lists almost 90 "strategoi" of themes and other military commands.


title: Byzantine army

text: Sicily had been completely lost to the expanding Emirate of Sicily at the beginning of Constantine VII's reign in 905 and Cyprus was a condominium jointly administered with the Abbasid Caliphate until its reconquest by Nikephoros II Phokas in 965. Constantinople itself was under an Eparch and protected by the numerous "tagmata" and police forces.


title: Byzantine army

text: The empire is estimated by Treadgold to have had a population of 7 million in 774, with an army and navy that totaled 118,400. This included 62,000 thematic troops in 10 themes (including 4,000 marines in the naval themes of Hellas and Cibyrrhaeot), 18,000 in six tagmas, and 38,400 oarsmen divided between the Imperial fleet and the naval themes. By 840, the population had grown by a million, while the army had expanded to a total strength of 154,600. There were 96,000 soldiers and marines in 20 themes and 24,000 in the tagmas, while the number of Imperial and thematic oarsmen declined to 34,200.


title: Byzantine army

text: Under the direction of the thematic "strategoi", "tourmarchai" commanded from two up to four divisions of soldiers and territory, called "tourmai". Under them, the "droungarioi" headed subdivisions called "droungoi", each with a thousand soldiers. In the field, these units would be further divided into "banda" with a nominal strength of 300 men, although at times reduced to little more than 50. Again, the fear of empowering effective revolts was largely behind these subdivisions.


title: Byzantine army

text: The following table illustrates the thematic structure as found in the Thracesian Theme, circa 902–936.


title: Byzantine army

text: The "tagmata" (τάγματα, "regiments") were the professional standing army of the Empire, formed by Emperor Constantine V after the suppression of a major revolt in the Opsician Theme in 741–743. Anxious to safeguard his throne from the frequent revolts of the thematic armies, Constantine reformed the old guard units of Constantinople into the new "tagmata" regiments, which were meant to provide the emperor with a core of professional and loyal troops. They were typically headquartered in or around Constantinople, although in later ages they sent detachments to the provinces. The "tagmata" were exclusively heavy cavalry units and formed the core of the imperial army on campaign, augmented by the provincial levies of thematic troops who were more concerned with local defense.


title: Byzantine army

text: There were also auxiliary "tagmata", such as the "Noumeroi" (Gr. Νούμεροι), a garrison unit for Constantinople, which probably included the regiment "of the Walls" (Gr. τῶν Τειχέων, "tōn Teicheōn"), manning the Walls of Constantinople., and the "Optimatoi" (Gr. , "the Best"), a support unit responsible for the mules of the army's baggage train (the τοῦλδον, "touldon").


title: Byzantine army

text: Treadgold estimates that between 773 and 899, the strength of the Schools, Excubitors, Watch and Hicanati was 16,000 cavalrymen, that of the Numera and Walls 4,000 infantry. The Optimates had 2,000 support troops until sometime after 840, when their strength was raised to 4,000. In circa 870, the Imperial Fleet Marines were founded, adding another 4,000, for a total active force of 28,000.


title: Byzantine army

text: There was also the "Hetaireia" (Gr. , "Companions"), which comprised the various mercenary corps in Imperial service, subdivided in Greater, Middle and Lesser, each commanded by a "Hetaireiarchēs" recalling the royal Macedonian company of old.


title: Byzantine army

text: In addition to these more or less stable units, any number of shorter-lived tagmata were formed as favoured units of various emperors. Michael II raised the "Tessarakontarioi", a special marine unit, and John I Tzimiskes created a corps called the "Athanatoi" (Gr. Ἀθάνατοι, the "Immortals") after the old Persian unit.


title: Byzantine army

text: At the beginning of the Komnenian period in 1081, the Byzantine Empire had been reduced to the smallest territorial extent in its history. Surrounded by enemies, and financially ruined by a long period of civil war, the empire's prospects had looked grim. Yet, through a combination of skill, determination and years of campaigning, Alexios I Komnenos, John II Komnenos and Manuel I Komnenos managed to restore the power of the Byzantine Empire by constructing a new army from the ground up.


title: Byzantine army

text: The new force is known as the Komnenian army. It was both professional and disciplined. It contained formidable guards units such as the Varangian Guard and the Immortals (a unit of heavy cavalry) stationed in Constantinople, and also levies from the provinces. These levies included cataphract cavalry from Macedonia, Thessaly and Thrace, and various other provincial forces from regions such as the Black Sea coast of Asia Minor.


title: Byzantine army

text: Under John II, a Macedonian division was maintained, and new native Byzantine troops were recruited from the provinces. As Byzantine Asia Minor began to prosper under John and Manuel, more soldiers were raised from the Asiatic provinces of Neokastra, Paphlagonia and even Seleucia (in the south east). Soldiers were also drawn from defeated peoples, such as the Pechenegs (cavalry archers), and the Serbs, who were used as settlers stationed at Nicomedia.


title: Byzantine army

text: Native troops were organised into regular units and stationed in both the Asian and European provinces. Komnenian armies were also often reinforced by allied contingents from the Principality of Antioch, Serbia and Hungary, yet even so they generally consisted of about two-thirds Byzantine troops to one-third foreigners. Units of archers, infantry and cavalry were grouped together so as to provide combined arms support to each other.


title: Byzantine army

text: This Komnenian army was a highly effective, well-trained and well-equipped force, capable of campaigning in Egypt, Hungary, Italy and Palestine. However, like many aspects of the Byzantine state under the Komnenoi, its biggest weakness was that it relied on a powerful and competent ruler to direct and maintain its operations. While Alexios, John and Manuel ruled ("c." 1081–"c." 1180), the Komnenian army provided the empire with a period of security that enabled Byzantine civilization to flourish. Yet, at the end of the twelfth century the competent leadership upon which the effectiveness of the Komnenian army depended largely disappeared. The consequences of this breakdown in command were to prove disastrous for the Byzantine Empire.


title: Byzantine army

text: In the year 1185, the emperor Andronikos I Komnenos was killed. With him died the Komnenos dynasty, which had provided a series of militarily competent emperors for over a century. They were replaced by the Angeloi, who have the reputation of being the most unsuccessful dynasty ever to occupy the Byzantine throne.


title: Byzantine army

text: The army of the Byzantine empire at this point was highly centralised. It was dominated by a system in which the emperor gathered together his forces and personally led them against hostile armies and strongholds. Generals were closely controlled, and all arms of the state looked to Constantinople for instruction and reward.


title: Byzantine army

text: However, the inaction and ineptitude of the Angeloi quickly lead to a collapse in Byzantine military power, both at sea and on land. Surrounded by a crowd of slaves, mistresses and flatterers, they permitted the empire to be administered by unworthy favourites, while they squandered the money wrung from the provinces on costly buildings and expensive gifts to the churches of the metropolis. They scattered money so lavishly as to empty the treasury, and allowed such licence to the officers of the army as to leave the Empire practically defenceless. Together, they consummated the financial ruin of the state.


title: Byzantine army

text: The empire's enemies lost no time in taking advantage of this new situation. In the east the Turks invaded the empire, gradually eroding Byzantine control in Asia Minor. Meanwhile, in the west, the Serbs and Hungarians broke away from the empire for good, and in Bulgaria the oppressiveness of Angeloi taxation resulted in the Vlach-Bulgarian Rebellion late in 1185. The rebellion led to the establishment of the Second Bulgarian Empire on territory which had been vital to the empire's security in the Balkans.


title: Byzantine army

text: Kaloyan of Bulgaria annexed several important cities, while the Angeloi squandered the public treasure on palaces and gardens and attempted to deal with the crisis through diplomatic means. Byzantine authority was severely weakened, and the growing power vacuum at the centre of the empire encouraged fragmentation, as the provinces began to look to local strongmen rather than the government in Constantinople for protection. This further reduced the resources available to the empire and its military system, as large regions passed outside central control.


title: Byzantine army

text: It was in this situation that the disintegration of the military 'theme' system, which had been the foundation of the empire's remarkable success from the eighth to eleventh centuries, revealed itself as a real catastrophe for the Byzantine state.


title: Byzantine army

text: The first advantage of the theme system had been its numerical strength. It is thought that the Byzantine field army under Manuel I Komnenos (r. 1143–1180) had numbered some 40,000 men. However, there is evidence that the thematic armies of earlier centuries had provided the empire with a numerically superior force. The army of the theme of Thrakesion alone had provided about 9,600 men in the period 902–936, for example. Furthermore, the thematic armies had been stationed in the provinces, and their greater independence from central command meant that they were able to deal with threats quickly at a local level. This, combined with their greater numbers, allowed them to provide greater defense in depth.


title: Byzantine army

text: The other key advantage of the theme system was that it had offered the Byzantine state good value for money. It provided a means of cheaply mobilising large numbers of men. The demise of the system meant that armies became more expensive in the long run, which reduced the numbers of troops that the emperors could afford to employ. The considerable wealth and diplomatic skill of the Komnenian emperors, their constant attention to military matters, and their frequent energetic campaigning, had largely countered this change. But the luck of the empire in having the talented Komnenoi to provide capable leadership was not a long-term solution to a structural problem in the Byzantine state itself.


title: Byzantine army

text: After the death of Manuel I Komnenos in 1180, the Angeloi had not lavished the same care on the military as the Komneni had done, and the result was that these structural weakness began to manifest themselves in military decline. From 1185 on, Byzantine emperors found it increasingly difficult to muster and pay for sufficient military forces, while their incompetence exposed the limitations of the entire Byzantine military system, dependent as it was on competent personal direction from the emperor. The culmination of the empire's military disintegration under the Angeloi was reached on 13 April 1204, when the armies of the Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople.


title: Byzantine army

text: Thus, the problem was not so much that the Komnenian army was any less effective in battle (the thematic army's success rate was just as varied as that of its Komnenian counterpart); it is more the case that, because it was a smaller, more centralised force, the twelfth century army required a greater degree of competent direction from the emperor in order to be effective. Although formidable under an energetic leader, the Komnenian army did not work so well under incompetent or uninterested emperors. The greater independence and resilience of the thematic army had provided the early empire with a structural advantage that was now lost.


title: Byzantine army

text: For all of the reasons above, it is possible to argue that the demise of the theme system was a great loss to the Byzantine empire. Although it took centuries to become fully apparent, one of the main institutional strengths of the Byzantine state was now gone. Thus it was not the army itself that was to blame for the decline of the empire, but rather the system that supported it. Without strong underlying institutions that could endure beyond the reign of each emperor, the state was extremely vulnerable in times of crisis. Byzantium had come to rely too much on individual emperors, and its continued survival was now no longer certain.


title: Byzantine army

text: While the theme system's demise did play a major role in the empire's military decline, other factors were important as well. These include:


title: Byzantine army

text: After 1204 the emperors of Nicaea continued some aspects of the system established by the Komneni. However, despite the restoration of the empire in 1261, the Byzantines never again possessed the same levels of wealth, territory and manpower that had been available to the Komnenian emperors and their predecessors. As a result, the military was constantly short of funds. After the death of Michael VIII Palaiologos in 1282, unreliable mercenaries such as the grand Catalan Company came to form an ever larger proportion of the remaining forces.


title: Byzantine army

text: At the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Byzantine army totaled about 7,000 men, 2,000 of whom were foreign mercenaries. Against the 80,000 Ottoman troops besieging the city, the odds were hopeless. The Byzantines resisted the third attack by the Sultan's elite Janissaries and according to some accounts on both sides were on the brink of repelling them, but a Genoan general in charge of a section of the defense, Giovanni Giustiniani, was grievously wounded during the attack, and his evacuation from the ramparts caused a panic in the ranks of the defenders. Many of the Italians, who were paid by Giustiniani himself, fled the battle.


title: Byzantine army

text: Some historians suggest that the Kerkoporta gate in the Blachernae section had been left unlocked, and the Ottomans soon discovered this mistake – although accounts indicate that this gain for the Ottomans was in fact contained by defenders and pushed back. The Ottomans rushed in. Emperor Constantine XI himself led the last defense of the city by himself. Throwing aside his purple regalia, he stood in front of the oncoming Ottoman Turks with sword and shield in hand.


title: Byzantine army

text: The emperor was struck twice by the Turk troops, the mortal blow being a knife to his back. There, on the walls of Constantinople, alone and abandoned by his remaining troops, the emperor died. The fall of the Byzantine capital meant the end of the Roman empire. The Byzantine army, the last surviving direct descendant of the Roman legions, was finished.


title: Byzantine army

text: The exact size and composition of the Byzantine army and its units is a matter of considerable debate, due to the scantness and ambiguous nature of the primary sources. The following table contains approximate estimates. All estimates excludes the number of oarsmen, for those estimates see Byzantine navy.


title: Byzantine army

text: According to Mark Whittow the military resources of the Byzantine Empire were broadly comparable to those of other early medieval European states. As such Byzantium may not have been wealthier or more powerful than other European states, but it was more centralized and more united, and this was a vital factor in its survival. By using various Byzantine sources he estimates the entire cavalry forces of the empire, between the 8th and 10th centuries, were somewhere just over 10,000 and the number of infantry 20,000, and argues that the numbers of soldiers in Byzantine units should be numbered in the hundreds and not thousands, and the army in thousands and not tens of thousands. This however is argued by Warren Treadgold to be a result of incorrect reading of sources, such as confusing detachments of legions for the entire legions. The empire had demonstrable continuity of government and administration from antiquity until 1204, and had demonstrated a high degree of organization and standardization. Treadgold's analysis of sources finds that they support a Byzantine army that was "large and tightly organized" until its dissolution in the crisis of the 11th century. As such, the Middle Byzantine army was estimated to be significantly larger and was in no way comparable to contemporary Western European armies.


title: Byzantine army

text: Alexandru Madgearu cites an estimate of an army of 250,000 in 1025. Treadgold cites contemporary estimates of 80,000 in 773 and 120,000 in 840.


title: Byzantine army

text: In response to the Persians fielding heavy cavalry that proved unmatched in head-to-head combat, the Byzantines attempted to replicate these elite units, calling them "cataphracts". The word cataphract (from the Greek κατάφρακτος, "kataphraktos", with a literal meaning of 'completely armored' in English) was what Greek- and later Latin-speaking peoples used to describe heavy cavalry. Historically, the cataphract was a heavily armed and armoured cavalryman who saw action from the earliest days of Antiquity up through the High Middle Ages. Originally, the term cataphract referred to a type of armour worn to cover the whole body and that of the horse. Eventually the term described the cavalryman himself. The cataphracts were both fearsome and disciplined. Similar to the Persian units on which they were based, both man and horse were heavily armoured, the riders equipped with lances, bows and maces. These troops were slow compared to other cavalry, but their effect on the battlefield, particularly under the Emperor Nikephoros II, was devastating. More heavily armoured types of cataphract were called "clibanarii" ("klibanophoroi"). Over time these stopped being a distinctive unit and were subsumed by the cataphracts.


title: Byzantine army

text: The Byzantine cavalry were ideally suited to combat on the plains of Anatolia and northern Syria, which, from the seventh century onwards, constituted the principal battleground in the struggle against the forces of Islam. They were heavily armed using lance, mace and sword as well as strong composite bows which allowed them to achieve success against lighter, faster enemies, being particularly effective against both the Arabs and Turks in the east, and the Hungarians and Pechenegs in the west.


title: Byzantine army

text: By the mid-Byzantine period (c900-1200) the regular mounted arm was broadly divided into "katafraktoi" (heavily armored and intended for shock action), "koursorses" (medium weight equipped with mail or scale armor) and lightly armed horse archers.


title: Byzantine army

text: The Byzantine Empire's military tradition originated in the late Roman period, taking as leading models the late Hellenistic armies and treatises of war, and its armies always included professional infantry soldiers. That being said, in the middle period especially infantry took a backseat to the cavalry, now the main offensive arm of the army. Equipment varied significantly, among the theme infantry most especially, but an average infantryman of the middle period would resemble earlier Hellenistic soldiers of old being equipped with a large spear, sword or axe, plumbata (lead-weighted darts), large oval, circular or kite shield, metal helmet or thick felt cap, and quilted or leather armour. Wealthier soldiers might be able to afford iron lamellar or even chain mail, but these were generally the preserve of the cavalry and officers; many military manuals of the 10th and 11th centuries do not even mention infantry wearing these being a possibility. Byzantine infantry were relatively lightly armored compared to their earlier Greco-Roman predecessors, their strength coming from their exceptional organization and discipline, not being clad in iron.


title: Byzantine army

text: Pronoiar troops began to appear during the twelfth century, particularly during the reign of the emperor Manuel I Komnenos (1143–1180). These were soldiers paid in land instead of money, but they did not operate under the old theme system of the middle Byzantine period. Pronoiai developed into essentially a license to tax the citizens who lived within the boundaries of the grant (the paroikoi). Pronoiars (those who had been granted a pronoia) became something like tax collectors, who were allowed to keep some of the revenue they collected.


title: Byzantine army

text: These men are therefore generally considered to have been the Byzantine equivalent of western knights: part soldiers, part local rulers. However, it is important to note that the emperor was still the legal owner of the Pronoiars' land. Usually cavalry, pronoiars would have been equipped with mail armour, lances, and horse barding. Manuel re-equipped his heavy cavalry in western style at some point during his reign; it is likely that many of these troops would have been pronoiars. These troops became particularly common after 1204, in the service of the Empire of Nicaea in western Asia Minor.


title: Byzantine army

text: "Akrites" (plural "Akritoi" or "Akritai") were defenders of the Anatolian borders of the Empire. They appeared after either the Arab conquests, or much later when Turkish tribes raided Anatolia from the east. The Akritoi units were formed from native Greeks living near the eastern borders. Whether such men were really soldier-farmers or lived on rents from smallholdings while concentrating on their military duties is still a matter of debate. The Akritoi were probably mostly light troops, armed with bows and javelins.


title: Byzantine army

text: They were most adept at defensive warfare, often against raiding Turkish light horsemen in the Anatolian mountains, but could also cover the advance of the regular Byzantine army. Their tactics probably consisted of skirmishing and ambushes in order to catch the fast-moving Turkish horse-archers. Greek folklore and traditional songs of the Byzantine era to the 19th century heavily feature Akrites and their (always exaggerated) deeds (see acritic songs).


title: Byzantine army

text: The Byzantine army frequently employed foreign mercenary troops from many different regions. These troops often supplemented or assisted the empire's regular forces; at times, they even formed the bulk of the Byzantine army. But for most of the Byzantine army's long history, foreign and military soldiers reflected the wealth and might of the Byzantine empire, for the emperor who was able to gather together armies from all corners of the known world was formidable.


title: Byzantine army

text: Foreign troops during the late Roman period were known as the "foederati" ("allies") in Latin, and during the Byzantine period were known as the "Phoideratoi" (Gr. Φοιδεράτοι) in Greek. From this point, foreign troops (mainly mercenaries) were known as the Hetairoi (Gr. Ἑταιρείαι, "Companionships") and most frequently employed in the Imperial Guard. This force was in turn divided into the Great Companionships (Μεγάλη Εταιρεία), the Middle Companionships (Μέση Εταιρεία), and the Minor Companionships (Μικρά Εταιρεία), commanded by their respective "Hetaireiarches" – "Companionship lords". These may have been divided upon a religious basis separating the Christian subjects, Christian foreigners, and non-Christians, respectively.


title: Byzantine army

text: During the beginning of the 6th century, several barbarian tribes who eventually destroyed the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century eventually were recruited in the armies of the Eastern Roman Empire. Among them were the Heruli, who had deposed the last Western Roman Emperor Romulus Augustulus under their leader Odoacer in 476. Other barbarians included the Huns, who had invaded the divided Roman Empire during the second quarter of the 5th century under Attila, and the Gepids, who had settled in the Romanian territories north of the Danube River.


title: Byzantine army

text: It was these same barbarian mercenaries that Emperor Justinian had used to help his army reclaim the lost Roman territories of the West, which including Italy, North Africa, Sicily, and Gaul. The Byzantine general Belisarius used Hunnic archers and Heruli mercenaries in his army to reclaim North Africa and the Balearic Islands from the Vandals, and in 535–537, he recruited Heruli infantry and Hunnic horsemen to help him secure Sicily and all of southern Italy, as well as defend the city of Rome from the Ostrogoths.


title: Byzantine army

text: In 552, the Armenian general Narses defeated the Ostrogoths with an army that contained a large number of Germanic soldiers, including 3,000 Heruli and 400 Gepids. Two years later, Narses crushed a combined army of invading Franks and Alemanni with a Roman army that including a contingent of Heruli mercenary troops.


title: Byzantine army

text: Additionally, during the Komnenian period, the mercenary units would simply be divided by ethnicity and called after their native lands: the Inglinoi (Englishmen), the Phragkoi (Franks), the Skythikoi (Scythians), the Latinikoi (Latins), and so on. Even Ethiopians served during the reign of Theophilos. These mercenary units, especially the Skythikoi, were also often used as a police force in Constantinople.


title: Byzantine army

text: The most famous of all Byzantine regiments was the legendary Varangian Guard. This unit traced its roots to the 6,000 Rus sent to Emperor Basil II by Vladimir of Kiev in 988. The tremendous fighting abilities of these axe-wielding, barbarian Northerners and their intense loyalty (bought with much gold) established them as an elite body, which soon rose to become the Emperors' personal bodyguard. This is further exemplified by the title of their commander, "Akolouthos" (Ακόλουθος, "Acolyte/follower" to the Emperor).


title: Byzantine army

text: Initially the Varangians were mostly of Scandinavian origin, but later the guard came to include many Anglo-Saxons (after the Norman Conquest) as well. The Varangian Guard fought at the Battle of Beroia in 1122 with great distinction, and were present at the Battle of Sirmium in 1167, in which the Byzantine army smashed the forces of the Kingdom of Hungary. The Varangian Guard is thought to have been disbanded after the sack of Constantinople by the forces of the Fourth Crusade in 1204; nearly all contemporary accounts agreed that they were the most important Byzantine unit present and were instrumental in driving off the first Crusader assaults.


title: Byzantine army

text: The Byzantines originally used weapons developed from their Late Roman origins; the Romano-Germanic migration era longsword ("spatha"), lance ("contus"), javelins ("spiculum", "verutum", and "lancea"), the lead-weighted dart ("plumbata"), sling and staff-sling ("fundum" and "fustibalus"), and the Qum Darya-type ("Hunnic") recurve composite bow ("arcus"). However, as military technology changed, the Byzantines changed along with it, adopting new innovations in bow construction from the incoming Avars, Magyars, and Seljuk Turks, and adapting their infantry tactics and equipment to the changing reality of warfare as time progressed.


title: Byzantine army

text: There were many sword ("spathion") types; straight, curved, one- and two-handed, which are depicted in illustrations. According to Vegetius, by the 5th century the short Roman "gladius" had been abandoned in favor of a long two-edged sword, the "spatha", used by both the infantry and cavalry. The tenth century "Sylloge Tacticorum" gives the length of this kind of sword as the equivalent of 94cm and mentions a new saber-like sword of the same length, the "paramerion", a curved one-edged slashing weapon for cavalrymen. Both weapons could be carried on a belt or a shoulder strap. A myriad of swords of Byzantine manufacture have been found dating to the 9th-11th centuries in the Balkans and Pontic region, namely consisting of the types "Garabonc", "Pliska", and "Galovo" after their findspots. These sword styles evolved separately from their western European counterparts, coming out of late antique Asiatic-type "spathae" introduced by the Alans and Huns, with fittings for the hilts and scabbards deriving from Persian styles, which were then given their own Byzantine fashion. They also have a relationship to the evolution of the sabre, a weapon that evolved out of the late antique Hunnic narrow langseax, which the Byzantines called a "paramerion". Although dozens of sabers have been found from Bulgaria dating from the 8th-15th centuries, none can as of this moment be definitively identified as Byzantine examples. By the late 12th century, western arming swords had superseded most native Byzantine styles, such as the Oakeshott Type-10a found at Pernik.


title: Byzantine army

text: Pikes and lances (') in the tenth century were approximately 4 meters long with an iron point (', '). One type of infantry spear, the "menaulion", is described in detail; it was as thick as can fit in a man's palm, taken whole from young oak, cornel saplings, "or the so-called "artzekidion"" saplings. It was 1.9 to 3.1 meters in length with a 23-39cm head, for use by medium infantrymen (called ' after their weapon) against enemy "" – an excellent example of a weapon and a type of specialized soldier developed for a specific tactical role. Both light infantry and cavalry carried javelins ("akontia" or "riptaria") no longer than two meters. Multiple spearheads have been found from 11th century Byzantine sites, namely the Drastar battlefield of 1081 AD, the Serce Limani shipwrecks, and the 12th-13th century Great Palace destruction layer.


title: Byzantine army

text: Maces (called a "rabdion", "vardoukion", or "matzouka") and axes (called a "pelekion", "axina", or "tzikourion") served as shock weapons. The tenth century ' were instructed to carry heavy iron maces (') – six-, four- or three-cornered – to bludgeon enemy soldiers through their armor. Double-headed symmetric and asymmetric battle axes, as well as single headed axes, are mentioned in the primary sources. Michael Psellos and Anna Komnene both mention the use of Dane axes by the Varangian Guard. A myriad of axeheads have been found from sites such as the Drastar battlefield, primarily single-bladed, but one highly decorated example from the Novi Pazar region of Bulgaria possesses a war pick opposite the head, corroborating the descriptions in the military manuals.


title: Byzantine army

text: The sling or possibly the staff sling ("sphendobolos"), javelin ("akontion" or "riptarion") and the bow (') were the weapons used by the middle ranks of infantry, skirmishers, and cavalry skirmishers and archers. The Byzantine bow, like the Imperial and Late Roman bow, was the composite, recurve type featuring a grip reinforced with lathes with asymmetric arms with horn siyahs which settled in reverse of the bow's natural flex when unstrung. Recurve composite bows of this period typically stood between 1.2 and 1.6 meters in length, like the 9th century examples from Moshchevaja Balka in the Caucasus, changing in form from Qum Darya-type (Hunnic), to Avar, to Magyar, to Seljuk as technology and cross-cultural contact progressed. The "solenarion" was a hollow tube through which an archer could launch several small darts ("myas", i.e., "flies") rapidly using a thumb draw; Anna Komnene remarked that the Crusader's Western-type crossbow, which she called a ', was unknown to Byzantium before the 12th century. Dawson's experimentation showed an estimated distance of 500 meters is possible with a recurve composite bow and the dart from a "solenarion". Arrowheads were found in the excavations of Amorion and Sardis, although largely of types used for hunting, while war heads have been found at Pliska and Veliki Preslav. The crossbow was adopted by the Byzantine infantry in the 13th century, although the Cypriote rebel Isaac Komnenos is recorded to have used crossbowmen as early as 1191. They were also noted to be used during the siege of Constantinople in 1204. Associated primarily with western Europeans, the crossbow or "tzangra" remained of secondary relevance and was mostly restricted to naval combat and sieges. Soldiers wearing this weapon were known as "tzangratoroi". Despite their relative rarity, John Kantakouzenos approvingly referred to their efficiency in siege battles, while a new military office was also created, the "stratopedarches ton tzangratoron".


title: Byzantine army

text: The shield ("skoutarion") came in several forms in the middle Byzantine period, with large 107-118cm ovoid and cicular shields like earlier classical examples mostly giving way to the smaller 50-80cm circular shield and the 90-100cm oblong kite shield (sometimes called a "thyreos") shortly before 900 AD. The rectangular shield, in use since classical antiquity, is also mentioned textually by the "Sylloge Tacticorum" and evidenced in art. The "Tactica" of Leo VI states that shield patterns and tunic color was matched by regiment, a feature also evidenced in the earlier "Notitia Dignitatum", a late Roman register of offices and military units from the late 4th to early 5th century. Incidentally, some of those units are listed in the "De Ceremoniis" in its section on the expeditions to Crete and Italy in 911-949, including the "Victores", the "Theodosiaci", and the "Stablesiani", although only the "Victores" can be identified with a specific unit with a shield pattern in the "Notita Dignitatum". The majority of shield motifs took the form of geometric patterns, with radial bands, diamonds, greek key motifs, and other forms all being popular. Inscriptions are also frequent on shields, typically in pseudo-Kufic script, but on rare occasions actual Greek inscriptions are also present. Crosses are also evidenced starting in the 12th century, as attested by Niketas Akominatos, and proto-heraldic patterns appear by the 12th-13th century, including lions and chequering. Stars and crescent moons are also attested, being native to the regions of Thrace, Anatolia, and the Peloponnese, with a red-and-white star and crescent being the signature motif of the "Tzakones" marines and guard regiment in the 13th-14th centuries.


title: Byzantine army

text: Arms and armor are well attested at the end of late antiquity, with Niederstotzingen-type lamellar armor ("kelivanon") being introduced around 520 AD as evidenced at the fort of Halmyris in Romania. More than a dozen individual lamellar cuirasses are known from late Roman sites in the Balkans, such as at Caricin Grad (Justiniana Prima), attesting their widespread use by the Roman army. The majority of lamellar armors in Europe from the 6th-7th centuries are of late Roman manufacture, which were gifted to and then found in the burials of Germanic and Avar nobles, although a handful were of local make. Maille ("lorica hamata") and scale ("lorica plumata") are also conclusively evidenced in artwork, and a scale armor similar to that from Kunszentmarton was found in the late antique layers at Cartago Spartaria, from after Justinian's reconquest. Fragments of maille armor are also well attested in archaeology, either in the form of helmet aventails or fragments of torso haubergons, and a full hauberk is known from the 6th century Germanic grave of Gammertingen. Late Roman maille armor was made in the same fashion as coptic tunics, being formed out of one large cross-shaped sheet of links and then folded in half, and joined up the sides with riveted rows on the front connected to rows solid links on the back, usually with small splits left at the lower hem of the skirt at either side for mobility. Limb armor is also evidenced, with the "Strategikon" of Maurice referring to "kheiromanika sidera" ("iron hand-sleeves," probably eastern in origin), and "ocreae", "okridia", or "periknemides" (greaves). Avar splinted greaves with scale sabatons have been found at Kölked-Feketekapu, similar to the splinted greaves with maille sabatons from Valsgarde. Lamellar hand-guard reinforcements are evidenced from Sovizzo, Rome, and Crypta Balbi in Italy, while a myriad of maille examples are evidenced from the 6th-8th century Caucasus. A pair of 7th century plate gauntlets is also known from the Sochi district in the Krasnodar region of Russia.


title: Byzantine army

text: Helmets from the 6th-8th centuries are incredibly well evidenced, belonging to three main forms: the lamellar helmet, band helmet, and "spangenhelm", all of which were used by the late Roman army at that time. Late Roman ridge helmets and early conical helmets of the kind found at Staritsa and Apsaros may also have been present, with the former being in the decline and the latter slowly growing in popularity. The dominant forms were the Narona-type band helmet, the Leiden/Novae-type "spangenhelm", and the Baldenheim-type "spangenhelm". Niederstotzingen-type lamellar helmets were also in used, as evidenced by the find from the 6th–7th century arms manufacturing center of Stara Zagora. However, these forms fell out of use some time in the late 7th to mid-8th centuries, being supplanted by newer types and the medieval conical helmet. The gorget ("peritrakhelion") is also mentioned, although it is uncertain if this took the form of maille and cloth aveintails, or the earlier plate gorgets like those from Chatalka and Tarasovo.


title: Byzantine army

text: Scale ("Thorax Pholiodotos"), Maille ("Zava, Lorikion", or "Thorax Halusidotos"), and Lamellar ("Klivanion") are all evidenced in artwork from the 6th-14th centuries, alongside some form of defensive cloth armor ("Zava, Kavadion, Bambakion", or "Neurikon"). Skirts attached to this armor were called "kremasmata" and could be made of maille, defensive cloth, scale, or lamellar. Pteryges ("ptera") are also evidenced, alongside pauldrons ("mela"), arm armour ("manikia", "manikellia", "kheiropsella", "kheiromanikia") and leg armour ("khalkotouba", "periknemides", "podopsella"). Although there are a myriad of finds of helmets and body armors from the end of late antiquity in the 6th-7th century, archaeological evidence for Byzantine armor in the middle ages is decidedly poor, with sparse examples from the North Balkans and the Crimea being spread out across more than 600 years. The most prominent finds are a 10th century silvered brass maille hauberk from Stara Zagora, Bulgaria, housed in the museum at Sofia, and multiple maille hauberks found at the site of middle Byzantine Cherson in the Crimea, as well as a single fragment of a lamellar armor. A fragment of another type of Lamellar armor was found in the destruction layer of the Great Palace in Istanbul, possibly from the late 12th or early 13th century. A foot from a maille chausse was also found in the catacombs at Kyulchevka Village in Bulgaria, dating to between the 9th-11th centuries AD. Three helmets of "Phrygian" type have been found from Branicevo, Serbia, and Pernik, Bulgaria, all dating to approximately the time of the Bulgarian revolt of 1185. The Aleksandr Nevskii helmet housed in the Kremlin Armory is also believed to have been made in Constantinople, and dates to the 13th–14th centuries. Finally, a hoarde of Italian armor was cleared out from Hagia Eirene in 1839, believed to be from the siege of Constantinople in 1453, but none of the pieces have ever been located. Italian armor is well known from other sites in the Balkans, such as Chalkis and Rhodes, where some equipment is believed to have been re-used by local Byzantines in Venetian employ when they fell out of fashion. The infamous "Byzantine Banded Scale" or "Byzantine Lamellar" seen in art has never been found archaeologically, although conversely there are very few archaeological digs of military sites from the Byzantine period from Turkey and Greece, and none of those have turned up fragments of body armor.


title: Byzantine army

text: The Traction Trebuchet is believed to have been carried over from China to Europe by the Avars in the 550s-580s AD, where it was quickly adopted by the late Roman army, calling it a "manganikon" or "alakatia", hence the term "mangonel." Counterweight trebuchets are believed to have been invented in the middle Byzantine period, as Anna Komnene claims new artillery was invented by Alexios Komnenos in 1097, and counterweight trebuchets are described shortly thereafter in the 1120s onwards. Alongside trebuchets, the "Tactica" of Leo VI mentions the use of the "toxobolistra", which is further described by the "De Ceremoniis"' section on the expeditions to Crete as being an iron-framed torsion engine the same as that from late antiquity. Finally, the "siphon" and "kheirosiphon" were used to project Greek Fire, both from warships and walls.


title: Byzantine army

text: Unlike the Roman legions, the Byzantine army's strength was in its armoured cavalry Cataphracts, which evolved from the "Clibanarii" of the late empire. Its type of warfare and tactics were evolving from the Hellenistic military manuals and the Infantry were still used but mainly in support roles and as a base of maneuver for the cavalry.


title: AirPort Extreme

text: The AirPort Extreme is a residential gateway combining the functions of a router, network switch, wireless access point and NAS as well as varied other functions, and one of Apple's former AirPort products. The latest model, the 6th generation, supports 802.11ac networking in addition to older standards. Versions of the same system with a built-in network-accessible hard drive are known as the AirPort Time Capsule.


title: AirPort Extreme

text: Apple discontinued developing its lineup of wireless routers in 2016, but continues limited hardware and software support.


title: AirPort Extreme

text: The name "AirPort Extreme" originally referred to any one of Apple's AirPort products that implemented the (then) newly introduced 802.11g Wi-Fi standard, differentiating it from earlier devices that ran the slower 802.11a and b standards. At that time the gateway part of this lineup was known as the AirPort Extreme Base Station. With the addition of the even faster Draft-N standards in early 2009 this naming was dropped, and from then on only the gateway has been known as the AirPort Extreme. Several minor upgrades followed, mostly to change antenna and power in the Wi-Fi. In 2013, a major upgrade added 802.11ac support and more internal antennas.


title: AirPort Extreme

text: The AirPort Extreme has gone through three distinct physical forms. The earliest models were packaged similar to the original AirPort Base Station, in a round housing known as the "flying saucer". From 2007 to 2013 the Extreme was packaged in a rounded-rectangle white plastic housing, similar in layout and size to the Mac mini or earlier Apple TVs. The 2013 802.11ac model was re-packaged into a more vertical case, taller than it is square.


title: AirPort Extreme

text: In approximately 2016, Apple disbanded the wireless router team that developed the AirPort Time Capsule and AirPort Extreme router. In 2018, Apple formally discontinued both products, exiting the router market. Bloomberg News noted that "Apple rarely discontinues product categories" and that its decision to leave the business was "a boon for other wireless router makers."


title: AirPort Extreme

text: The AirPort Disk feature allows users to plug a USB hard drive into the AirPort Extreme for use as a network-attached storage (NAS) device for Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows clients. Users may also connect a USB hub and printer. The performance of USB hard drives attached to an AirPort Extreme is slower than if the drive were connected directly to a computer. This is due to the processor speed on the AirPort Extreme. Depending on the setup and types of reads and writes, performance ranges from 0.5 to 17.5 MB/s for writing and 1.9 to 25.6 MB/s for reading. Performance for the same disk connected directly to a computer would be 6.6 to 31.6 MB/s for writing and 7.1 to 37.2 MB/s for reading. NTFS-formatted drives are not supported.


title: AirPort Extreme

text: The original AirPort Extreme Base Station was so named because of its support for the 802.11g standard of the day, as well as for its ability to serve up to 50 Macs or PCs simultaneously. One feature found in most models of this generation was an internal 56K dial-up modem, allowing homes that lacked a broadband connection to enjoy wireless connectivity, albeit at dial-up speeds. It was the last generation to retain the "flying saucer" form factor. Later generations would adopt the short, rounded-square form factor that would be seen until 2013.


title: AirPort Extreme

text: On January 9, 2007 the AirPort Extreme began shipping, with support for 802.11n draft specification, and built-in wireless print and storage server.


title: AirPort Extreme

text: On March 19, 2008, Apple released a firmware update for both models of the AirPort Extreme that, according to third-party reports, allowed AirPort Disks to be used in conjunction with Time Machine, similar to the functionality provided by AirPort Time Capsule.


title: AirPort Extreme

text: On March 3, 2009, Apple unveiled a new AirPort Extreme with simultaneous dual-band 802.11 Draft-N radios. This allowed full 802.11 Draft-N 2x2 communication in both 802.11 Draft-N bands at the same time.


title: AirPort Extreme

text: On June 21, 2011, Apple unveiled an updated AirPort Extreme, referred to as "AirPort Extreme 802.11n (5th Generation)".


title: AirPort Extreme

text: The detailed table of output power comparison between the "4th generation" model MC340LL/A and the "5th generation" model MD031LL/A can be seen below:


title: AirPort Extreme

text: On June 10, 2013, Apple unveiled an updated AirPort Extreme, referred to as "AirPort Extreme 802.11ac (6th Generation)". The 6th generation AirPort Extreme (and 5th generation AirPort Time Capsule) featured three-stream 802.11ac Wi-Fi technology with a maximum data rate of 1.3Gbit/s, which is nearly three times faster than 802.11n. Time Machine was now supported using an external USB hard drive connected to AirPort Extreme (802.11ac model only).


title: AirPort Extreme

text: According to a Bloomberg report on November 21, 2016, "Apple Inc. has disbanded its division that develops wireless routers, another move to try to sharpen the company’s focus on consumer products that generate the bulk of its revenue, according to people familiar with the matter."


title: AirPort Extreme

text: In an April 2018 statement to 9to5Mac, Apple announced the discontinuation of its AirPort line, effectively leaving the consumer router market. Apple continued supporting the AirPort Extreme.


title: British Rail Class 373

text: The British Rail Class 373 or TGV TMST, sometimes referred to as Eurostar e300, is a French designed and Anglo-French built electric multiple unit train that is used for Eurostar international high-speed rail services from the United Kingdom to France and Belgium through the Channel Tunnel. Part of the TGV family, it was built with a smaller cross-section to fit the smaller loading gauge in Britain, was originally capable of operating on the UK third rail network, and has extensive fireproofing in case of fire in the tunnel. It is both the second longest——and second fastest train in regular UK passenger service, operating at speeds of up to .


title: British Rail Class 373

text: Known as the TransManche Super Train (TMST) or Cross-channel Super Train before being introduced in 1993, the train is designated Class 373 under the British TOPS classification system and series 373000 TGV in France. It was built by the French company GEC-Alsthom at its factories in La Rochelle (France), Belfort (France) and Washwood Heath (Britain) and by Brugeoise et Nivelles (BN, now part of Bombardier Transportation) in Bruges (Belgium).


title: British Rail Class 373

text: Since the introduction of the new Class 374 "e320" units from Siemens in 2015, refurbished versions of the Class 373 or TGV-TMST sets have been officially referred to as e300 by Eurostar to distinguish them from the new Velaro fleet.


title: British Rail Class 373

text: The North of London sets were intended to provide Regional Eurostar services from continental Europe to and from north of London, using the West Coast Main Line and the East Coast Main Line, but these services never came to fruition because of long proposed journey times and the proliferation of budget airlines offering cheaper fares; there were also issues with the relatively crude design of British Rail overhead electrified lines and problems with finding suitable routes within Greater London.


title: British Rail Class 373

text: The sets were ordered by the railway companies involved: 16 by SNCF, four by NMBS/SNCB, and 18 by British Rail, of which seven were the North of London sets. Upon the privatisation of British Rail, the BR sets were bought by London and Continental Railways, which named its subsidiary Eurostar (UK) Limited, now managed by SNCF (55%), LCR (40%) and SNCB (5%).


title: British Rail Class 373

text: The first Eurostar Class 373 set, 373001/373002, was built at Belfort in 1992. Identified as "PS1" ("Pre-Series 1"), it was formed of two power cars and seven coaches, and was delivered for test running in January 1993. Its first powered runs were between Strasbourg and Mulhouse, and it was transferred to the UK for third-rail DC tests in June 1993. Full-length pre-series train PS2 was completed in May 1993.


title: British Rail Class 373

text: To test the 750 V DC third rail shoes needed on the Southern Region lines in Great Britain, an eight-vehicle locomotive-hauled train was used in early 1994, consisting of a Class 73 locomotive (73205), a converted Class 33 locomotive acting as a Driving Brake Van (33115, reclassified as NZ under TOPS), and six carriages from Class 438 (4TC) multiple units 8007, 8023 and 8028.


title: British Rail Class 373

text: An extra power car, numbered 3999, was built as a spare. This was required for a couple of years, when 3999 was renumbered and replaced another power car whilst it underwent rebuilding at Le Landy. It was overhauled and renumbered 3204 in 2016.


title: British Rail Class 373

text: The 22 sets still operating for Eurostar were refurbished in 2004/05 with a new interior, designed by Philippe Starck. The grey-yellow look in standard class and the grey-red look in first class were replaced with a more grey-brown scheme in standard and a grey-burnt orange in first class.


title: British Rail Class 373

text: In 2008, Eurostar announced that it was beginning the process to institute a mid-life update, which would not include the Class 373 sets being used by SNCF in France. As a part of the update process, the Italian company Pininfarina was contracted to redesign the interiors; the first refurbished Eurostar was not originally due in service until 2012. The refurbishment programme would also include an engine maintenance and a new external livery. Eurostar later planned for the process to be complete by 2014, allowing the fleet to remain in service beyond 2020, but following additional delays the first refurbished train was not completed until July 2015.


title: British Rail Class 373

text: When Eurostar services ran from London Waterloo International, maintenance was carried out at North Pole Depot in West London, next to the Great Western Main Line. Since November 2007, Eurostar maintains its Class 373 fleets at Temple Mills Depot in East London; in France the trains are maintained at Le Landy depot in Paris, and Brussels Forest/Vorst depot.


title: British Rail Class 373

text: Eurostar originally ran services to and from Waterloo International along existing mainline tracks, until it moved to St Pancras International in November 2007.


title: British Rail Class 373

text: In October 2010, Eurostar ordered ten Class 374 "Eurostar e320" trains from Siemens to run on its existing routes from London to Paris and Brussels as well the newest route to Amsterdam alongside its Class 373 fleet. In 2016, Eurostar announced that it would retain eight Class 373 once the full Class 374 (e320) fleet were in service; the rest of the Class 373 were either stored or scrapped.


title: British Rail Class 373

text: As of 2020, eight trains had been refurbished with an additional three un-refurbished units in service.


title: British Rail Class 373

text: In May 2000, two Regional Eurostar sets were leased to GNER to operate "The White Rose" services from London King's Cross to York. From May 2002, the "White Rose" was altered to operate to Leeds with a third set leased. Sets 33013306 all had GNER livery applied, whereas the rest carried the original Eurostar livery without logos.