What would daily life have been like in the Varangian Guard?

by [deleted]

I've been trying to do some research on the Varangian Guard, particularly during their earlier years during the reign of Basil the Bulgar-slayer. If I may ask a few questions:

  1. What was their command structure like? I understand the akolouthos was the overall commander of the Guard, but I've also found reference to captains - was there a rank of promotion? And were there other stations in the Guard? I imagine some sort of interpreter might be necessary, for example.

  2. Where would they have lived, and what would they have eaten?

  3. How much interaction would the average Varangian have with the Emperor? Officially they were bodyguards, of course, but it seems odd to me that 6,000 people would be put in personal contact with the emperor.

Thanks!

token_bastard

For research on this topic, I would highly recommend Sigfus Blondal's excellent work "The Varangians of Byzantium," which I actually recently purchased and read. I'm at work and don't have the book with me, so I cannot give any anecdotes for the inquiries, but.it's a superb history breakdown of the structure of the Guard

I know questions 1 and 3 can be answered, but I don't have any research covering question 2. I'll see what I can add in after work to answer these from the source.