Combat Motivation AND Psychological Warfare in Byzantium 900-1204: Tactics and Strategy.

Byzantine military history is a field that was been thoroughly explored by scholars through the years, yet it still offers new findings and information on the military practices and ethos of the empire. Recently initial forays by Byzantinists have begun to investigate how the Byzantine military approached soldier morale and psychological warfare. However, the current research on combat motivation, whilst identifying some stratagems that have been used for psychological warfare and morale stimulation, has not attempted to discuss their potential effects, their application in different circumstances and operations or the psychological mechanisms they triggered. The objective of this thesis is to investigate the use, defence from, and effect of psychological warfare by the Byzantine empire and its armies between the tenth and late twelfth centuries. It will perform this task by examining primary sources that refer to medieval Byzantine warfare and observing them through the analysis and findings of modern military psychology. This thesis will not attempt to simulate or indeed assume the feelings of the average Byzantine soldier. Rather it will examine tactics, in military treatises and battle reports of chronicles and histories, with a comparative approach and through the lens of military psychology to analyse the meticulous use of psychological manipulation the Byzantines used to motivate their own armies and demoralise those of their enemies.