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Fit for the task’: equipment sizes and the transmission of military lore, sixth to tenth centuries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Timothy Dawson
Timothy Dawson*
Affiliation:
Medieval History Magazine
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Abstract

The interpretation of the measurements given in Byzantine military manuals from the sixth to the tenth centuries has been a problematic matter. If the main conclusions of currently accepted scholarship are applied, an appearance is created of equipment much too large to be usable. When the measurements are compared to equipment which practical experience and comparable history show to be functional, it can be seen that as the middle Byzantine period progressed units of measurement were devalued. The sources also reveal the processes whereby military lore was transmitted, including accidental corruption and deliberate revision.

Type
Articles
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , 2007 , pp. 1 - 12
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 2007

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References

1 For example, the recommendation of the Strategikon of Maurice that bows be ‘suited to the strength of each man, more in fact on the weaker side’, Strategikon 1.2: Dennis, G.T. (ed.) and Gamillscheg, E. (tr.), Das Strategikon des Maurikios (Vienna 1981) 78 Google Scholar; Dennis, G.T. (tr.), Maurice’s Strategicon (Philadelphia 1984) 12 Google Scholar.

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9 For example, the Khludov Psalter, f.67r, an ivory casket in the Metropolitan Museum (inv. 17.190.237), the front panel of the Metropolitan Museum Joshua casket (inv. 17.190.137a), and a fresco from the church of the Dormition, Episkopi, now in the Byzantine Museum, Athens, which helpfully shows the inside fittings.

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11 Strategikon, XII A 7, 11. 52-57: Dennis and Gamillscheg, Strategikon, 410; Dennis, Strategicon, 134.

12 Syll. Tact, 39.2: Dain (ed.) 61.

13 Another clear illustration of this is the triumphal portrait of Basil II from the psalter in Saint Mark’s Library in Venice (Z 17, f IIIr) where the emperor is standing with the end of the scabbard of his spathion on the ground, and his hand upon the cross-guard with his elbow slightly bent. A sword 93 cm long would make Basil 176 cm tall.

14 Taktika of Leo the Wise, ch. 5, para. 5; MPG 107, col. 717.

15 Schilbach, Byzantinische Metrologie, 20.

16 Taktika of Nikephoros Ouranos, 56.82-84: McGeer, Sowing the Dragon’s Teeth, 92

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