Roman cavalry re-enactment

Α magnificent reenactment of a group of late Roman cavalrymen bearing combat and partly parade armour. Note the dragon standard of the draconarius, his elaborate greaves, the somewhat ‘familiar’ visor and helmet of the “lancer” on the left,

Korean cavalry scale armour, infantry helmet and plate armour

A scale armour of a heavy cavalryman from the Korean kingdom of Koguryo ca. 6th cent CE in an uknown Korean museum. Note the protection of the neck and also his scale ‘trousers’.   

Gaya heavy cavalryman

 

A reconstruction of a heavy cavalryman of the Korean tribal union Gaya, ca. 4th cent CE, in an uknown Korean museum. He is protected by a full-body lamellar armour. Note the ‘opening’ of his armour around his waist in order to help him ride, and also his

Book Review: The Byzantine Wars by John Haldon, History Press, 2008

 

At times I receive emails with which my readers ask me to suggest to them some studies, treatises, sourcebooks etc for specific issues of history, military history and engineering/architecture. Due to the unfortunate fact that I do not have the time to answer to each one separately (which is why I also had to disable the comments on the posts), I decided to write some reviews on books that I’ve studied on such topics. The Greek readers know that I’ve written two historical novels on Antiquity, so some readers ask me which my favorite historical novels are; thereby from time to time I’ll also suggest some of these works for the English-speaking and German-speaking readers, especially recent ones and some older.
I will start this new section with a military study that is a work by the well known Byzantinologist John Haldon: The Byzantine Wars.          The Byzantine Empire during her very long history, faced a multitude of enemy states, peoples and nomadic hordes, thus developing the characteristic Byzantine warfare, one of the most advanced of its time concerning the entire planet. Her geographical position at the “crossroads of civilizations”, her weighty heritage from both the Roman and the ancient Greek armies and her confrontation with particularly dangerous enemies in all her borders, led her to always maintain a vigorous and well-organized army, an army of the real “imperial” kind.

Warhorses

Republication from Archaeology.org

.

(Bridgeman-Giraudon/Art Resource, New York)

Bayeux Tapestry, France, 11th c. A.D.

By the mid-second millennium B.C., the use of horses in warfare had become common throughout the Near East and Egypt. This development was made possible by advances both in the design of chariots, in particular the invention of the spoked wheel, which replaced the solid wooden wheel and reduced a chariot’s weight, and the introduction of all-metal bits, which gave chariot drivers more control over their horses. Though chariot warfare was expensive, and its effectiveness was determined by the durability of the chariots and suitability of the terrain, the vehicles became essential battlefield equipment.