Army, Late Antiquity

Abstract In 235CE, at the beginning of Late Antiquity, the Roman army was not all that different from the army of 14CEat the end of the reign of Augustus. By the seventh century, and in the aftermath of the Arab invasion of the Near East, the Roman army had been transformed, with significant differences with regard to its organization, size, tactics, strategy, and operations. What had been a heavily armed force, which sought to engage its foes head‐on and whose primary strength lay in its infantry, had become a force that often sought to avoid pitched battle unless left with no alternative, and whose strength lay in its cavalry.