"Byzantine Army: The Concise 10th -11th century AD" Topic

…Imperial Infantry and Cavalry Soldier

"After almost two decades of research on the subject of byzantine arms and armour, and military history, as well as experience with re-enactment and experimental archeology, this presentation marks the culmination and fulfilment of a long-due obligation. The thesis of this presentation aims to provide an archeology-based, evidence-based and profoundness-based answer to the evertroubling question of what a 10th-11th century (the high byzantine era) imperial soldier most probably appeared like. For the sake of this research, any reliance on iconographical sources (byzantine hagiography, miniature manuscripts and religious ivory carvings) was eliminated completely, and it is only cited and linked to when there exist one or more elements that can allude, even vaguely, to archeological evidence and/or written source descriptions. The latter have been treated as the main and primary gauge of this research, as well as the careful reading and translation of primary medieval Greek textual sources…"

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Armand

Nice post Armand. And the Castle of Sant' Aniceto (San Niceto) displayed at the end of the article looks amazing and one of those places you would just love to visit.

Interesting. Miniature wise it looks like in 28mm the Perry Armenians could be used as Bycantines.

As it happens, I'm finding myself having a growing interest in the Byzantines, not for wargaming, more of a military history interest. But if I win the lottery that castle would be on my list to visit.

A votre service mes amis…

Armand

I use the Perry Armenians as Byzantine Thematic cavalry.

Good idea!

Armand

Marcus Brutus

I use the Perry Armenians as Byzantine Thematic cavalry.

With no archery equipment on the models?

I mix in a few CU11 Turcopoles as well to represent bow aspect of the units. As an aside, as far as I know the Byzantine cavalry had dedicated archers in the unit. Not every rider carried bow.

Clever!

Armand

From the latest research it appears that troops would be divided into various groups before a battle to fill roles. Their would be a group of mounted archers for skirmishing purposes, a group of medium lancers for both offensive and defensive operations, and finally a group of "picked men" who serve as kataphratoi in the battle. These groups could be further divided into smaller sub-groups from there. This per Professor Timothy Dawson.