Tagma (military)

The tagma was a Byzantine military unit of battalion or regiment size, best known as the elite standing regiments, called the tagmata, that formed the central army of the Byzantine Empire between the 8th and 11th centuries. The Greek word, from tassein meaning to set in order, was attested from the 4th century for an infantry battalion of 200 to 400 men in the Eastern Roman army. Emperor Constantine V, who reigned from 741 to 775, reformed the old guard units of Constantinople into the tagmata after the revolt of Artabasdos, to give the emperor professional and loyal troops against provincial revolts. They were heavy cavalry kept permanently in and around the capital as a central reserve. In the 9th and early 10th centuries there were four proper tagmata: the Scholai, the Excubitors, the Arithmos or Vigla, and the Hikanatoi. Officers often began there before commanding provincial armies.