Byzantine Military

[Fatboy]

I was wondering if some of the military buffs on the site ( or anyone else ) could give me the lowdown on the exact equipment and dress of Byzantine soldiers, especially footsoldiers, from various periods roughly from 800 AD to 1300 AD. Particularly from the reigns of:

Nicephorus Phocas, John Tzimisces and Basil Bulgaroctonus, the late 10th and early 11th Centuries

John and Manuel Comnenos in the 12th Century

Andronicus III in the mid to late 14th Century

 

Anything at all though would be appreciated.

 

I'm not looking for a detailed equipment list or anything( not that I'd say no to one though ), really I'm looking to impove my rather fuzzy mental image of these guys. What a Byzantine army actually looked like at these times.

 

 

*EDIT* This probably belongs in the Post Roman History Forum now that I think of it. Feel free to move it wherever you think it should go Mods.

[Ursus]

Hmmm. Well it's somewhat post-Roman, but its also military related. Hmmm. Tough call. I can't decide. This job is so tough some times.

 

Ahh, we'll move it to the post-Roman folder.

[Fatboy]

Ahh, we'll move it to the post-Roman folder.

 

 

Yeah, this one probably needs the business more

[Lacertus]

Oh! I have a book about Byzantine Military with good illustrations. I understand there are many types of soldiers depicted of them. But book was printed in 1976 and wrote in Russian. At present time I don't can to scan images (the book is in Moscow and I'm in Crimea). I tried to find this images in Internet but without any results. How to help you now?

[PerfectimusPrime]

The byzantine army had the very good kataphratkoi or cataphracts that were copied from the Persians, they were fully armoured and the horse was often more heavily armoured than the rider.

they were armed with a Lance (kontos), Sword (spathion), Recurved bow (Toxion) and with darts (marzobarbuloi).

 

They were made to counter the horsee archers that the constantinople had to face in increasing numbers.

Horse archers were usualy not armoured that's why they were very fast and they were very good skirmishers. They could avoid close combat with the legions and fire arrows all the time and to lure the heavy infantry and cavalry into traps. But instead of running after them the byzantine catapharcts used their bow to answer to the enemy horse archer's fire. They threw the darts before they charged like the legionaries did.

 

Byzantine army became more ''eastern''-style, with curved slashing swords and the Roman style chain mails were replaced with lamellar armouring.

 

And horse archers became more permament in the byz. army and they had very large mercernary troop selection.

 

 

 

I don't know much about the infantry, but it became more eastern, more eastern in tactics.

[longbow]

weaponry

 

 

 

 

Mercenaries

 

 

i was interested to see there were English mercenaries fighting for the Byzantine,never heard of that before.

L

[Spurius]

Related but off topic question-

 

I know there was a system used from horseback for their short bows that enabled them to fire a rough equivalent of a crossbow bolt; meaning ability to fire a shorter, very weighted or even metal arrow, for greater impact.

 

It consisted of a straight grooved piece of horn or wood held perpendicular to the bow along the bow wrist. The bolt could then be placed in the groove as the string was drawn. Since the pull was longer than the bolt, the grooved holder ensured a smooth release and flight without catching the bow. Thus the strength of the bow could be used to launch a weighted missile. Very awkward, but it was useful to get one good shot on a heavily armored target.

 

What I am asking is what this was called.

I used to have it in my reference works, but since a forced reshuffle of my files I can't find it. I need to reference some battles in which it was employed.

[Fatboy]

The bolt could then be placed in the groove as the string was drawn. Since the pull was longer than the bolt, the grooved holder ensured a smooth release and flight without catching the bow.

 

 

An arrow guide basically?

The Byzantines used a thing called a solenarion which was some sort of arrow guide. I couldn't tell you any more about it though.

 

 

BTW Thanks for your help everyone

[Spurius]

Yes, that was what I was thinking of, but in relation to its uses in an Islamic army. The n

[Guest Scanderbeg]

The Byzantine military apparently used Turks also

 

John Cantacuzene: Unruly nomads pay homage to the emperor 1328, 1332, 1336

Here as in other texts, the Albanian tribes are described as wild and unruly nomads living in mountanious regions in the summer months and migrating to the lowlands in the winter months. An attack against them is setup by the Byzantine Emperor of the area who used an alliance with the Turks against them.

 

"While the emperor was staying in Thessaly, the unruly Albanians living in the Thessalian mountains appeared before him who, according to their tribal leaders, are called Malakasians, Buians and Mesarites and whose numbers reach 12.000. They paid homage to the emperor and promised to serve him, for they were afraid of being annihilated by the Byzantines at the onset of winter, living as they do, not in towns, but in the mountatins and in inaccessible regions. Since they must abandon these regions in the winter due to the cold and snow, which falls in incredible amount in such vicinities, they believed that they would easily fall prey to them. "

 

 

Continues further down...

 

"After repeated attack, they also took Timoros(Tomor), a fortress int he west of the country not far from Berat and entrenched themselves in it. For these reasons, the emperor resolved to lead a campaign against them. Since the Dux John, ruler of Acarnania, was already dead at this time, the emperor hurried to reach the west for he hoped to bring Acarnania under his control. During preparations, he thought it a good idea to bring in an auxiliary force of Turkish infantrymen from Ionia to put down the Albanians. Since thew albanians live in high and inaccessible mountain regions with numerious secret paths and hideouts, they cannot be overcome by horsemen, in particular since they take to the mountain peaks in the summer where, in view of the natural environment, even infantrymen have no easy task becouse the defendants can shoot at them from above. As such, he sent an emissary to Umur and requested an Auxillary force of infantrymen. Umur received the emperor's representatives with pleasure since he regarded it as an honor to do something for him, and sent troop to Thessoloniki right away. Soon thereafter, the emperor arrived himself with his Byzantine forces, took the Turkish allies with him and marched through Thessaly against the Albanians."

[longbow]

Byzantium Horse Archer

Heavy Cavalry

[Valens]

The Byzantine military apparently used Turks also

 

A multitude of different Turks, in fact (Uzes, Patzinaks, Seljuks, etc.).

 

During the Middle Byzantine period, Patzinaks constituted the majority of the Empire's Asiatic mercenaries (disappeared from Byzantine armies in the 12th C.). Starting in the 14th Century (lasting until the Empire's fall), Turks became the largest foreign force in the army (interestingly, most Turks of the period were generally auxilia forces, rather than mercenaries).

[Tobias]

When Basil Bulgaroktonos was the Emperor, he forged an alliance with Varangian Tsar Vladimir of Kiev, and this man, as well as converting his nation to Christianity, supplied the Byzantine Empire with 6000 Varangians, who were eventually organised into the Varangian Guard. The Varangians were known in Byzantium as the pelekephoroi, or Axe-bearers, from their customary weapon, the two-handed axe.

The only contemporary representation of Varangians in action, in a copy of the Chronicle of John Skylitzes, which show the Varangians in armour of Byzantine style.

Byzantium was the mightiest, richest and most sophisticated civilization in Christendom. It seems unlikely that a Byzantine Emperor would knowingly endanger his own safety and that of his Empire, by allowing his personal bodyguards to be vulnerable to the first weapon that came their way. I think we can assume that whatever their social origins as individuals, as members of the Varangian Guards they would have been well equipped, with Byzantine armour from the Imperial arsenal.

[Hamilcar Barca]

There is a great book called "The Byzantine Wars" by John Haldon which was published in 2000, unfortunatly its all out of print now, but you may be able to find it in a decent library. The book covers from 527 - 1171AD and covers key wars, battles and other major military operations of the Byzantine army, as well as describing the organisation of the army as a whole.

[Favonius Cornelius]

Of course there were core home units, but wasen't the Byzantine Empire one of the great users of mercenaries in history, almost like Carthrage? Their situation was similar; heavy on the money end light with avaliable manpower.