Who formed the basis of the Byzantine army in the 8-9 centuries?

After the military reform of the 7th century, the Byzantine army was based on the femdom militia. Themes in Byzantium were called administrative-military districts. In the capital of Byzantium, elite divisions were created – tagma. It was analogous to the modern guard. People from noble families served there, but there were also many foreign mercenaries with decent military training.

The femdom militia also had mercenaries, but it included a large number of peasants who preferred highly paid military service to hard peasant labor.

This situation persisted until the 10th century.