This is a great thread.... I like the Byzantines. I only wished I had all this detailed art when I was studying them. The Byzantines did indeed inherit the Greek phalanx that the brunt of the Byzantine army besides the cataphract were a type of hoplite hybrid especially under Justinian. I would not clasify them being Roman in the truest sense, but they just like their big sister copied and used, hacked, changed, modify the strategies, weapons, tactics, army the lot to be something that was more of an elite force with superior quality rather than massive numbers of poor equiped soldiers. Think of Nazi Germany vs Russian serfs.. Larl Quality vs numbers and the Byzantine army were the biggest expence to the Byzantine Empire... They were eventially dealt heavy blows against the deadly Turkish horse archers which eventually shot the once mighty and potent Byzantine army to pieces. So yes Byzantium was Rome in a way, but they simply were the twilight of her eastern Empire...