THE ART OF WAR IN THE MIDDLE AGES 25
The Equipment of the Byzantine Troopers
3.10. The Equipment of the Byzantine Troopers
The kaballarios, or heavy trooper, wore at both epochs a steel cap surmounted by a small crest, and a long mail shirt, reaching from the neck to the thighs. He was also protected by gauntlets and steel-shoes, and usually wore a light surcoat over his mail. The horses of the officers, and of the men in the front rank, were furnished with steel frontlets and poitrails. The arms of the soldier were a broad-sword, spathion, a dagger, paramêrion, a horseman’s bow and quiver, and a long lance, kontarion, fitted with a thong towards its butt, and ornamented with a little bannerole. The colour of bannerole, crest, and surcoat was that of the regimental standard, and no two bands in the same turma had standards of the same hue.
Thus the line presented an uniform and orderly appearance, every band displaying its own regimental facings. Strapped to his saddle each horseman carried a long cloak, which he assumed in cold and rainy weather, or when, for purposes of concealment, he wished to avoid displaying the glitter of his armour.
The light trooper had less complete equipment, sometimes a cuirass of mail or horn, at others only a light mail cape covering the neck and shoulders. He carried a large shield, a defence which the heavy horseman could not adopt, on account of his requiring both hands to draw his bow. For arms the light cavalry carried lance and sword.
The infantry, which was much inferior to the horsemen in importance, was, like them, divided into two descriptions, heavy and light. The scutati, or troops of the former class, wore a steel helmet with a crest, and a short mail shirt; they carried a large oblong shield, the thyris, which, like their crests, was of the same colour as the regimental banner. Their chief weapon was a short but heavy battle-axe, securis, with a blade in front and a spike behind: they were also provided with a dagger.
The light infantry, psiloi, wore no defensive armour; they were provided with a powerful bow, which carried much further than the horseman’s weapon, and was therefore very formidable to hostile horse-archers. A few corps, drawn from provinces where the bow was not well known, carried instead two or three javelins, rhiptaria. For hand-to-hand fighting the psiloi were provided with an axe similar to that of the scutati, and a very small round target, which hung at their waists.
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