Not relating to the army, but rather "other things", there are some very interesting Byzantine women who joined the monasteries, they're known as transvestite nuns. They disguised themselves easily due to the long robes and the privacy the monasteries granted people. My favourite person in particular Mary (who changed her name to Marinos) was not discovered to be a woman until her death. Funnily enough she was also accused of fathering a child to an innkeeper's daughter, who she took in a her own. Source: Holy Women of Byzantium: Ten Saints' Lives, Life of Marinos, Trans Nicholas Constas http://www.doaks.org/resources/publications/doaks-online-publications/holy-women-of-byzantium/talbch1.pdf