Why Is It Important To Portray The Battle Of The Byzantines?

Leo the Deacon’s descriptions of the battles fought by the generals of Byzantium are incredibly detailed and portray the military strength of the Byzantines and the skill of its generals. While many of his claims have proven to be accurate, the finer details of military conquests he retells are likely dramatizations designed to highlight desired characteristics or actions of the Byzantine generals. His chronicles of the battles fought by the Byzantines in the expansion of their empire portray the actions of the emperor and generals as defensive rather than adversarial and expansionist. His description of the triumphs and loot was also descriptive, demonstrating that he had no qualms about destroying and enslaving adversaries, but it is important to note that
His claim that emperor Romanos was waging war against the “tyranny of the Arabs of Crete” was based on his need to avenge Creatian plundering of Byzantine lands, stemming from a Byzantine military defeat in 949. Leo does not specify, however, that the previous defeat was actually the result of a failure during a campaign the Byzantines launched against the Cretes (1.2). Nikephoros’s speech to his men, most likely constructed by Leo to emphasize the rationale for the attack on the Creatians, focused on the evil nature of the Arabs and served to justify any military action against Saracens as retribution for their past actions. The divine decree that the Christians should repay the Arabs “sevenfold” more than justified the plunder of their land and the expansion into Crete. Leo’s description of the battle against Hamdan and the Agarenes contains the same dynamic of the fight of valiant Byzantines against underhanded and devious Arabs. Thus, Hamdan’s trickery provided justification for the Byzantine expansion into his