Recreating a Greek Cavalryman

[Kineas]

My shaft is the best javelin wood you could ask for. I just wish it was a foot longer.

Note that it is quite thin and has a barely discernible taper.

Now, make Giannis find us a supplier!

[nikolaos]

John,

Great Stuff!

What did you use to get that red on the shoulder panels of your spola?

Have fun!
Cole

[John Conyard]

Good to hear from you again.

I used the armour as a test bed to try out different techniques. I am unaware of any finds of dyed leather in this country to after the Norman Conquest, so I’m used to painting leather as a Roman in Britain. Instead I used dyes and ink. The tube is coloured using modern dyes. The purple edging is another dye. And the red yoke is coloured with ink. I had never used ink before, and tried several colours, but could only really get red to give a good finish. But that was the colour I was after. I suspected the yoke wouldn’t turn out well, so is made to be expendable. I reasoned I could always make another.

A few years ago using Pliny as a reference, and the advice of a nice lady I met at an event, I put together a set of mineral pigments. Mixing them up was great fun, and I went through my “artistic phase”. One of my portraits still hangs in my hallway. On leather the “authentic” pigments gave a finish much like modern leather paints, but the latter are more flexible and less likely to crack.

Looking at the 3rd century AD leather fragments from Dura, leather seems to have been “painted” using coloured wax. The wax would help with water proofing.

Today I was wearing my tube and yoke in a torrential rainstorm. The dyed yellow tube darkened and softened. So did I. The yoke held up well. The armour dried after several hours and returned to its normal state. But after a year of relatively constant use, the ink is wearing off some areas, for example under my armpits.

In the future I’m tempted to mix ink with my bees wax and lanolin. On vegetable tanned leather it should help water proof it, and colour it.

[nikolaos]

Thanks John, I'm glad to be back! Its been busy!

Thanks for the info about the ink, thats really interesting, as my previous attempts to dye leather red have been uniformly disappointing. I also like the idea of mixing it with wax. Not only would it waterproof, but it would also make the leather more resistant to cuts.

I'm ready to start on my spola, and I really like the red you got, do you know what kind of ink you used?

Thanks
Cole

[John Conyard]

I used acrylic artist ink, a flame red 517 from Daler Rowney at www.daler-rowney.com

But I would take some of your leather to an art shop, explain what you are doing, and try out the different inks on your leather to make sure they give a good coverage. It will partly depend on your leather. I enjoy visiting the art shop in the Shambles in York, and they supply me with all sorts of things. Currently I have a carving block to mess around with. I fancy making a grave stele.

Leather paint would be a safer bet. In the UK leather paint has gone through several manifestations. I certainly didn't like the aerosol versions. Currently I'm using Dylon Shoe & Accessories Colour, red 03, from www.dylon.co.uk

For detail ordinary wargames acrylic works fine. But I've never tried it on a large area of leather.

Have fun.

[nikolaos]

Thanks John, I'll do some experiments on some scraps!

Cole

[John Conyard]

I had a chance to ride a Welsh cob thoroughbred cross today. As ever the sun was shining in Yorkshire and I had a great day. This little chap is called Hal, and he hasn't done much for years. But he has the feel of a classical horse. Hopefully we'll get to understand each other better over the winter and we'll see what he can do next season.

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[Dan Howard]

Xenophon provides a list of body armour, including what I always took to be a sort of vambrace for the bridle arm, something easy and cheap to make. What he actually recommends is something that covers the whole arm including the elbow, something similar to a Roman manica enclosing the whole arm.

It is difficult to determine whether Xenophon is recommending such a manica or speculating on the possible construction of one. There is nothing to suggest that Greek cavalrymen ever wore such arm protection. He also suggests modifying the right shoulder of a bronze cuirass to make it easier to throw a javelin but I can't think of any surviving examples that have such a modification.

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

The thing is,Xenophon had travelled a lot,and had seen many different kind of troops,that few other greeks would have seen in his age. He had also written novels about foreign kings and solders,so we shouldn't search for similar armour only in the greek region,but in every region that Xenophon had travelled,and of any different kind of soldier that he could have actually seen,even if he hadn't been in their original country. Given he had come in contact with a gathering of many different kind of soldiers from all over Persia and not only,it's rather difficult to know where we should look at,for every different piece of equipment he mentions. And of course he could have invented some. The bronze quirass modification sounds like one of them,but perhaps inpired by a foreign type of cuirass and for a foreign kind of fighting.
Khaire
Giannis

[John Conyard]

I agree with you Dan, up to a point. Too much can be read into the Datames coin with may just show folded sleeves rather than a manica style armour. But the much shown reliefs from the Temple of Athena Polia Nikephorus in Pergamon at least show tubular manica from an Hellenistic context.

As Giannis says Xenophon may be trying to describe something he has seen elsewhere. But it does sound like a manica.

[hoplite14gr]

Mainland Greece was not considered a rich place. Also horsese were rarer and more expensive than other places.
Yet colonist cavalry especialy in the western colonies seemed to have been well armored both horse and rider.
We can not also exclude the possibility that colonist cavalrymen in Crimea had not adopted Skythian armor details.
The horsemen in the images can be interpreted as being armored as the early Archaic hoplites who had hand and thigh protection in addtion to their cuirrass and grieves. In my opinion Xenophon is advocating reintroduction of older practices.

Kind regards

[John Conyard]

Military writers do seem to like to harp on about the good old days when more armour was worn and there was more discipline. But I've always felt Xenophon was trying to be more innovative based on his foreign adventures. I think his description of arm armour does sound very much like a manica, and less like the earlier plate armour.

Although I suspect Greek cavalry took ideas from their neighbours, and that there was a two-way exchange of information and equipment. So called techno-borrowings are not just a Roman innovation.

[Dan Howard]

I agree that Xenophon is being innovative rather than attempting to reintroduce an older type of armour. I also agree that he is likely describing some sort of segmented manica. The question is whether the Greeks ever adopted it. IMO this needs to be demonstrated before a Greek calvary re-enactment could make use of it.

[John Conyard]

Agreed.

Unless I was a Seleucid with probable eastern tendencies. Which I'm not.

I look for archaeological, written and iconogrpahic evidence.

For the time of Xenophon we have his writings.

For the later period we have some artistic evidence.

But not enough for a cavalry impression from the time of Xenophon.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

There are fragments of armour for covering the thigh, feet, calves, and also armour for the arms...
Why would the cavelry not have used this, as it seems it would be easier to ride in the fott armour than walk/march?