East Roman Military Equipment, part 1 The Early Empire

[Nikos]

This is just an overview of some Eastern Roman (Byzantine) military equipment through the ages. this is part 1, the early Empire.

Early Period
Infantry
Early East Roman soldiers were clad much differently from their Augustan and Princepian counterparts. Gone was the Lorica Segmentata, scutum. Replaced with cheaper and more easily manufactured shields and armor. The famous caligae sandals replaced by Gothic boots. The classic gladius short sword replaced by the longer Spatha.
Shown here are typical Eastern Roman Infantryman a 4th to 6th centuries AD.

As you can see, the traditional rectangular scutum shield has been replaced by an oval shield. Instead of the Pila, he carries lighter javelins or small lead weighted darts called plumbata or martiobarbulli .

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The legionary is also armed with a stout spear as his primary weapon to ward off cavalry. Instead of the testudo formation of earlier eras, the East Roman legionary was trained to form the foulkon . The foulkon was formed by interlocking shields and sticking the spears outwards , sort of a hybrid of the testudo and the Ancient Greek Hoplite phalanx . The infantry were specially trained to make gaps in the line for friendly cavalry to charge through and surprise the enemy. At the command of "Appear spaces!", the legionarys would form 3 foot wide gaps in the line for the heavy cavalry to charge through and decimate the enemy infantry. As quickly as the spaces would appear, the infantry line reformed and continued the assault.

For protection, he wears a lorikon of either chain or scale mail. Only the front line soldiers would be equipped so heavily however, with legionarys in the middle of the line protected with only their shields and padded or leather armor. His helmet is a mass produced "ridge" helmet, with crosses cut into the helmet to show the Empire's religion and to lighten the helmet's weight. Instead of the gladius, he is armed with the Spatha (or spathion in Greek) longsword, an influence from the large amount of Germanic soldiers in the army. the Spatha gave the legionarys a longer reach when fighting, and also more penetrative and slashing power due to the increased weight.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The skirmisher is equipped with only a shield and tunic. He wears no armor so his speed is not hindered in battle. Skirmishers would be equipped with a variety of weapons including Javelins, slings, plumbata darts and bows. And also a sword if close combat duty was needed. The main role of the skirmishers was to harass and pepper the advancing enemy with projectiles from in front of the line of infantry. When enemy infantry or cavalry would come close, the skirmishers would retire behind the friendly infantry line and continue their assault from there. Skirmishers were also used to lure opponents into traps and ambushes.
Cavalry

The main offensive arm of the Eastern Roman army was it's super heavy cavalry. Referred to as either Cataphractii, meaning "covered in armor" (Kataphraktoi in Greek) or Clibanarri, meaning "Oven men" (Klibanophoroi), these soldiers were inspired by the Sassanian Persian soldiers of the same name. Horse and rider are covered from head to toe in armor. The first layer of armor for the rider would be padded cotton armor, to absorb shock and provide a barrier between the armor and skin. The second layer would be the chain mail lorikon , and the third would be the scale or lammelar klibanion .

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Usually, a small round shield would be strapped to the left arm while the right was used for fighting. The Cataphracts carried a variety of weapons. Sometimes, the riders would carry plumbata darts in a saddle bag and harass the enemy before charging. A short spear was carried for the initial charge, after which a heavy mace or the Spathion was brought to bear for close quarters melee.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Eastern Roman army also employed Horse Archers in their armies, usually of Hunnic or nomad stock. They would wear their native garb while fighting for the Empire, and sometimes would adopt some Roman armor, but never anything heavy as speed was essential for their role on the battlefield. In Belisarius' campaigns in Africa and Italy, the Hunnic horse archers were an essential part of the order of battle. They would be armed with the Hunnic or eastern composite recurve bow. The small size of the bow made it ideal for shooting on horseback. And even though the bow's size was small, it's materials of sinew and horn would be able to deliver the same amount of force as a full sized all wooden bow, in a smaller package.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Sources
Maurice's Strategikon
"Warfare,State and society in the Byzantine World"- John Haldon
http://s_van_dorst.tripod.com/lrarmy.html
http://warandgame.wordpress.com/2008...e-roman-armor/

[The_Nord]

Very nice.

[Poach]

Most interesting, I look forward to the following parts.

[Pious Agnost]

Thank you Nikos!

[Nikos]

Thank you Nikos!

My pleasure.

[Scipio Afracanis]

Love the info and pics.GJ Nikos.

That iron spider web on the horses eye freaked me out the 1st time I looked at it.

[Steve Holt]

Very nice

[Gromovnik]

Very interesting, excellent photographs. That catafract is pretty impressive.

[Babur]

awesome article

I look forward to the next part.

[Charontas]

Nice, I'm loving the pictures.

Thanks Nikos

[Timoleon of Korinthos]

Very good presenation. I would like to add a few things about the Cataphracts. They are derived from a much later military treatise, the Praecepta Militaria of Niciphoros Phocas (10th century AD), but given that Phocas was the one to reintroduce the Cataphract cavalry in the Byzantine army, which had eclipsed in the mean time, and that he had studied meticulously the treatises of his predecessors, there is a great chance that the Cataphracts of his era were operating in the same way with those of the early Byzantine period
When attacking, the Catapharacts used the wedge formation. The first line consisted of 20 men and each line had 4 more men than the previous one, 2 more on each flank. So the second line had 24 men, the third 28 and so on. In Praecepta Militaria the ideal manpower of such a unit is proposed to be 500 men, which means that by following this norm the unit would have had depth of 12 lines. This would techincally require 504 men, so it is very probable in the armies of the middle byzantine period the last two lines were composed by an equal number of men. The minimum manpower acceptable was 384 men in depth of 10 lines, which in praxis must have been used more often than the nominal one. Lance was used by the cataphracts of the first 2 lines and those in the outer positions of every other line. The rest carried maces (σιδηροράβδιον or βαρδούκιον in greek) and swords and finally a formidable part were armed with composite bows; 150 men in the unit of 504 men and 80 men in the unit of 384 men, in other words a percentage ranging from 20% to 30% of the unit's total manpower. Their purpose was to disrupt the enemy formation with their volleys of arrows and thus make the effect of the charge more devastating.
They were a very expsensive unit and as such they were never put to wide use and never composed more than 5-6% of the army. They were, however, its vanguard and all offensive tactics of the middle byzantine period revolved around all other units faciliating the charge of the cataphracts. Their last remnants were most likely eliminated in the battle of Mantzikert in 1071 AD.

[Nikos]

Very good presenation. I would like to add a few things about the Cataphracts. They are derived from a much later military treatise, the Praecepta Militaria of Niciphoros Phocas (10th century AD), but given that Phocas was the one to reintroduce the Cataphract cavalry in the Byzantine army, which had eclipsed in the mean time, and that he had studied meticulously the treatises of his predecessors, there is a great chance that the Cataphracts of his era were operating in the same way with those of the early Byzantine period
When attacking, the Catapharacts used the wedge formation. The first line consisted of 20 men and each line had 4 more men than the previous one, 2 more on each flank. So the second line had 24 men, the third 28 and so on. In Praecepta Militaria the ideal manpower of such a unit is proposed to be 500 men, which means that by following this norm the unit would have depth of 12 lines. This would techincally require 504 men, so it is very probable in the armies of the middle byzantine period the last two lines were composed by an equal number of men. The minimum manpower acceptable, which in praxis must have been used more often thsn the nominal one, was 384 men in depth of 10 lines. Lance was used by the cataphracts of the first 2 lines and those in the outer positions of every other line. The rest carried maces (σιδηροράβδιον or βαρδούκιον in greek) and swords and finally a formidable part were armed with composite bows; 150 men in the unit of 504 men and 80 men in the unit of 384 men, in other words a percentage ranging from 20% to 30% of the unit's total manpower. Their purpose was to disrupt the enemy formation with their volleys of arrows and thus make the effect of the charge more devastating. I think their last remnants were eliminated in the battle of Mantzikert and they were never put to use by the Byzantine Empire again.

Thank you for your input! While it is true the Kataphraktoi of the Middle period used bows, the early period Kataphraktoi most probably did not.

[Timoleon of Korinthos]

Ok, sorry I didn't know that.

[Nikos]

Ok, sorry I didn't know that.

No problem man! Your information though is perfect for the next installment!

[motiv-8]

Excellent, Nikos!

[Tiberios]

Awesome Nikos! Rep for that

[white-wolf]

very good article.

[Nikos]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone! Part 2 will be done in early November!

[alien_t]

Great thread. For me personally will be very interesting, what was the ERE equipment for period 7th-9th(or 10th) century.
I look forward to the second part.

[Rhaegar1]

yes very interesting ,a much better addition than all the A where better fighters then B that allways pop up on this board.