Unità generiche e unità speciali

1- Tzakones (light infantry)

Tzakones, or Lakones, as Pachymeres and gregoras thought they should properly be called, were those men whom Michael VIII transplanted from Mores, at first perhaps only from Momnevasia, later from other parts of the Morea - these being ethnic tzakones - to serve as marines, light-armed troops to guard the walls of the city and, as we learn from other sources, even as a division of palace guards.
Tzakones who served as bodyguards were armed with clubs or cudgels (apelatikia) and, according to Pseudo-Kodinos, wore distinctive sky-blue surcoats (epano klivana ieranea), adorned with two white lions face-to-face (leontas istamenous leukous, orontas antikry kata prosopon).
The profession of Tzakon was - at least occasionally - hereditary, as gregory of Cyprus mentions the Tzakones by "genos".

2- Mourtatoi (foot archers)

Pseudo-Kodinos asserts that they fought an foot as archers. he word “Mourtatoi" itself ought to derive from the Arabo-Turkish word “murtedd”, ”murtat” meaning “apostate” or “renegade” and it has generally been thought that the Mourtatoi were therefore Christianized Turks. However, a passage in the “Advice for and Overseas Passage” makes a slight revision of this view: “They are descendants of Turks by one parent and of Greeks by the other [...] Although they are called Christians, they are quite foreign to christian worship and works, and without exception given to the exercise of arms, for they have no other occupation. [...] No exercise of arms that requires a faithful, vigosous and steady warrior includes them, but rather thaft, destruction and rapine".