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Logistical considerations for the arms production industry in the Middle Byzantine Empire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 October 2020

Jordan M. Dills
Jordan M. Dills*
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[email protected]
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Abstract

Utilizing the information recorded in the mid-tenth century Byzantine document known as De Ceremoniis, this paper will examine labour requirements for armament production in the context of a naval expedition to Crete launched by the Byzantines in AD 949. A series of interviews was conducted with experienced blacksmiths with the intention of exploring time requirements for equipment manufacture. The information provided by the De Ceremoniis, as well as that produced through the interviews, has allowed for the assessment of overall trends in the tenth century arms production industry, including labour investments, thematic and imperial production capabilities, and transportation logistics.

Keywords

Byzantine military logisticsweapon and armour productiontransportationthematic production capabilities
Type
Articles
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 44 , Issue 2 , October 2020 , pp. 220 - 243
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press and Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies

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References

1 For more on De Ceremoniis, and specifically chapters 44 and 45, see Haldon, J. F., ‘Theory and practice in tenth-century military administration: Chapters II, 44 and 45 of the Book of Ceremonies’, Travaux et mémoires 13 (2000) 201–352Google Scholar, and Zuckerman, C., ‘On the Byzantine Dromon (with a special regard to De Cerim. ii, 44–5)’, Revue des Études Byzantines 73 (2015) 57–98Google Scholar. Also see Moffat, A. and Tall, M., Constantine Porphyrogennetos: The Book of Ceremonies Vol.1 and 2 (Canberra 2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Haldon, Theory, 291–4 briefly discusses thematic and imperial production.

3 Constantine Porphyrogennetos, De Ceremoniis, ed. J. F. Haldon (Paris 2000) 224–5.

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9 Porphyrogennetos, De Ceremoniis II 45, 232–3.

10 Porphyrogennetos, De Ceremoniis II 45, 228–9.

11 D. Sim, The Roman Iron Industry in Britain (Gloucestershire 2012) 46. This five-man operation appears in a tenth-century early Bukhara style illumination stored in the Bodleian Library (MS.Elliott 340, fol. 80a). A similar operation appears again in a Roman bas-relief of unknown date held at the Pinacoteca Capitolina, Palazzo Conservatori in Rome (although no fire-tender is depicted).

12 ‘Amr ibn Bahr al-Jāhiz, Manāqib al-Turk, ed. R. G. Hoyland and B. Gilmour (Cambridge 2012) 6.

13 For detailed information on the Byzantine panoply, see P. L. Grotowski, Arms and Armour of the Warrior Saints: Tradition and Innovation in Byzantine Iconography (843–1261) (Leiden 2010); T. Dawson, Byzantine Infantryman: Eastern Roman Empire c. 900–1204 (Oxford 2007) 23; T. G. Kolias, Byzantinische Waffen: Ein Beitrag zur byzantinischen Waffenkunde von den Anfängen bis zur lateinischen Eroberung (Vienna 1988); J. F. Haldon, ‘Some aspects of Byzantine military technology from the sixth to the tenth centuries’, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 1 (1975) 16.

14 For archaeological examples of similar morphology, see A. B. Biernacki, ‘Early Byzantine iron helmets from Novae (the Diocese of Thrace)’, in B. Böhlendorf-Arslan and A. Ricci (eds), Byzantine Small Finds in Archaeological Contexts (Istanbul 2012) 97, and G. Arwidsson, ‘Armour of the Vendel period’, Acta Archaeologica 10 (1939) 31–59.

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18 Sylloge Tacticorum, ed. A. Dain (Paris 1938) 61. For equipment sizes, also see T. Dawson, ‘“Fit for the task’: Equipment sizes and the transmission of military lore, sixth to tenth centuries’, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 31 (2007) 6.

19 E. Schilbach, Byzantinische Metrologie (Munich 1970) 19–23.

20 Sim, Roman Iron, 67.

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23 Bruckner and Marichal, Chartae, 409.

24 M. C. Bishop, ‘The military fabrica and the production of arms in the early Principate’, in M. C. Bishop (ed.), The Production and Distribution of Roman Military Equipment: Proceedings of the Second Roman Military Equipment Research Seminar (Oxford 1985) 3.

25 S. James, ‘The Fabricae: State arms factories of the Later Roman Empire’, in J. Coulston (ed.), Proceedings of the Fourth Roman Military Equipment Conference, British Archaeological Reports, International Series 394, (Oxford 1988) 275.

26 Sim, Roman Iron, 94.

27 Justinian, Novels, ed. F. Blume (Wyoming 1920–52) Nov. 85.

28 Sim, Roman Iron, 94.

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31 Porphyrogennetos, De Ceremoniis II 45, 226–7.

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35 Justinian, IV, 433–4.

36 Bruckner and Marichal, Chartae, 409.

37 Porphyrogennetos, De Ceremoniis II 44, 208–9.

38 Porphyrogennetos, De Ceremoniis II 44, 208–9.

39 Porphyrogennetos, Three Treatises on Imperial Military Expeditions, ed. J. F. Haldon (Vienna 1990) 85.

40 Haldon, Warfare, 169.

41 Porphyrogennetos, De Ceremoniis II 44, 234.

42 Porphyrogennetos, De Ceremoniis II 44, 208–9: ἰστέον, ὅτι ἐδέξατο ὁ κριτὴς Ἑλλάδος καμɛῖν μɛναύλια ͵α, ἅπɛρ καὶ ἐτɛλɛίωσɛν. ἐδέξατο δὲ καμɛῖν καὶ ἕτɛρα καὶ καταγωγιάσαι αὐτὰ ἐν οἷς ἂν δέξηται.

43 Porphyrogennetos, De Ceremoniis II 44, 208–9.

44 Porphyrogennetos, Three Treatises A, 81.

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47 Sim, Roman Iron, 65–6.

48 Sim, Roman Iron, 68.

49 Haldon, Warfare, 167–9.