TheVardariotai (Greek:Βαρδαριῶται), sometimesAnglicized asVardariots, were an ethnic and territorial group (probably originally ofCuman andPecheneg origin)[1] in the laterByzantine Empire, which provided a palace guard regiment during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
The exact origin and nature of theVardariotai is uncertain. The name first appears in the tenth century, when a bishopric of the "Vardariotai orTourkoi" is mentioned as subject to the diocese ofThessalonica.[2] The mid-fourteenth century writerPseudo-Kodinos calls them "Persians" by race (a typical Byzantine anachronism for "Turks"), and recalls that they were settled in theVardar river valley by an unnamed Byzantine emperor of old. In both cases, however, "Turks" probably implies theCumans andPechenegs, who were called "Tourkoi" by the Byzantines in the tenth–eleventh centuries. Hence it seems that theVardariotai were Cumans and Pechenegs resettled inMacedonia in the tenth century, and that they had becomeChristians by the end of that century.[3]
By the twelfth century, theVardariotai, their Cuman and Pecheneg identity by now much diluted, were being recruited into theByzantine army, and, at the latest during the latter part of the reign of EmperorManuel I Komnenos (r. 1143–1180), they were formed into a distinct palace guard regiment.[4][5] Their functions, however, at least in thePalaiologan period, appear to have been more those of a police force than a military unit: Pseudo-Kodinos lists them not with the guards, but with the unarmed palace personnel, and states that their duty was "to keep people orderly" during ceremonies. Unlike the armed members of theVarangian Guard and theParamonai regiment, they were equipped only with a whip (themanglabion) and a staff (thedekanikion).[2][6] Kodinos also records that they wore distinctive red uniforms and a "Persian" hat calledangouroton ("cucumber-shaped"), and that the whip, hanging at their belt, was their symbol. This latter reference has led to the hypothesis that theVardariotai were the replacement of the olderManglabites guards corps.[2] They were commanded by aprimikerios, first attested in the year 1166.[3][5][7] The thirteenth-century historianGeorge Akropolites further states that theVardariotai accompanied the Byzantine emperor to his military camp whilst on campaign.[2][8]
It is unclear whether and how thevardarioi, administrative officials ofThessalonica in the tenth–eleventh centuries, known through their seals, are related to theVardariotai.[2]
