This is a VIth century Justininian Roman cavalryman. I didn't know they used helmets with a Viking-like small eye protector and a long mail hauberk. Has somebody more info. (drawings, pictures,etc....) on the helmet and the mail hauberk? All info. is welcome.
If the horse would have been semi-armed, how would the chest protector of the horse have looked like?
Many thanks.
Regards
They didn't use that Viking-style helmet mask, that's someone's artistic license. The long Mail Hauberk didn't come around until the Vikings came in the 9th century.
The helmets here seem to be of the type known as 'spangenhelme' and these were certainly common in the 4th-6th centuries A.D., some while before the reign of Justinian - at the beginning of this period although such items were long-lived and could easily have been around much later. Some of these helmets seem to have had a nasal guard of the type shown here - particularly the Der-el-Medineh type but in most cases the surviving examples only have the vestiges of the guard remaining. The Deurne helmet also has nasal guards of this type.
The long mail coat, however, is a different matter. It looks rather like the armour that one sees on the Bayeux 'Tapestry' being worn by the Norman knights!
Do you know the source of the models depicted here, i.e. the firm who made them?
Mike Thomas
(Caratacus)
visne scire quod credam? credo orbes volantes exstare.
The Notitia has several pages that show hauberks that appear to be at least knee-length, they have a split up the centre to allow the rider freedom of movement once on his horse. Not sure about ankle length hauberks though!
There was one mailshirt found which confirms the existence of integrated coifs in the 1st half 6th C.
It comes from the Alamannic "Princely" grave of Gammertingen.
Sadly only the back of the shirt survived, so we have no idea in which way it was closed at the front.
The painting shows a reconstruction of the Gammertingen warrior I've recently done for a forthcoming book.
Quote:The Notitia has several pages that show hauberks that appear to be at least knee-length, they have a split up the centre to allow the rider freedom of movement once on his horse. Not sure about ankle length hauberks though!
The two figures look almost exactly like the ones in Plate 1 and 6 of Roy Boss' Justinian's Wars:
I think Ian Heath also has an almost identical cavalryman with ankle length mail in his book and Boss might've used it for his reconstruction. I think it's dodgy, as I never heard of ankle length mail this early and Boss claims that David Nicolle's and Angus McBride's reconstructions in Romano-Byzantine Armies is classicized, but I only found one strange looking figure.
Quote:If the horse would have been semi-armed, how would the chest protector of the horse have looked like?
Mail coifs are relatively richly documented in Parthian and Sassanian(and Sogdian)art.Some examples are known also from Roman context(3 and 5th centuries) like those on the pictures.Although it is not completely clear from it if they are "integrated" coifs.
Many beautiful ilustrations of the horse chest protectors were already created and many are also known from ancient art.Like for example on famous equestrian portrait of Khosrau II on the picture.It is quite likely "Byzantine" would look quite similar or was virtualy the same.
What is described in the translation as "a hooded coat of mail" is called in the text "a zava with skaplia". I have looked into it but I am not that good in terminology that has to do with Byzantine armor, it tends to be a bit tricky and the words are a bit rare...
zava seems to be a generic term for "body armor", like a corslet.
A skaplida also seems to be the hood of an armor
So, the armor described is some kind of corslet with some kind of hood. No material hint is given in the terms.
Macedon MODERATOR Forum rules
George C. K.
῾Ηρακλῆος γὰρ ἀνικήτου γένος ἐστέ
I head a look into T.G. Kolias, Byzantinische Waffen (Wien 1988) who writes that a zaba or lorikion was regularly made of iron rings.
Isidore of Sevilla (XVIII, 13) wrote: Lorica vocata eo quod loris careat; solis enimcirculis ferreiscontexta est.
In Leons Taktika (LT V 5) it is recommended to make lorikia, when possible, of iron rings.
It is interesting to note, that the coifs which Maurikios describes, are recommended to be worn at a siege also by soldiers who have no zaba, to make them look fully armoured for the defenders. Which can mean that the coifs were seperate items or could have been seperated from the zaba (Maur. X, 1).
I cannot read Greek, but could this be a misinterpretation of the original text and simply mean that soldiers who have a coif should wear them on their heads ina siege?
And those who have no zava should wear skaplia of zavatoi(those who wear zava), so that they appear like zavatoi from a distance.
No, it is clear. He means that the men with zavas should give their coifs to other men, so that they look like they are armored from a distance. Note that he says "skaplia of the zavatoi, of the men with zavas" and not "skaplia of zavas".
Macedon MODERATOR Forum rules
George C. K.
῾Ηρακλῆος γὰρ ἀνικήτου γένος ἐστέ
Yep. Zava/zaba seems to be a general term for armour. Just like lorikia. There is no way to tell whether it is mail, or scale. Some texts use halysidoton and folidoton to distinguish betweern mail and scale.
![[Image: Plate1.jpg]](http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y154/gieImages/JustianWars/Plate1.jpg)
![[Image: Plate6.jpg]](http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y154/gieImages/JustianWars/Plate6.jpg)
