Ad
related to: byzantine cataphracts history facts and information images
Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The Byzantine cavalrymen and their horses were superbly trained and capable of performing complex manoeuvres. While a proportion of the cataphracts appear to have been lancers or archers only, most had bows and lances. Their main tactical units were the numerus (also called at times arithmos or banda) of 300-400 men.
The primary weapon of practically all cataphract forces throughout history was the lance. Cataphract lances (known in Greek as a Kontos ("oar") or in Latin as a Contus) appeared much like the Hellenistic armies' sarissae used by the famed Greek phalanxes as an anti-cavalry weapon. They were roughly four meters in length, with a capped point ...
The Byzantine army was the primary military body of the Byzantine armed forces, serving alongside the Byzantine navy. A direct continuation of the Eastern Roman army , shaping and developing itself on the legacy of the late Hellenistic armies , [ 1 ] it maintained a similar level of discipline, strategic prowess and organization.
At the Battle of Turin the emperor Constantine I destroyed a numerous force of enemy cataphracts; he manoeuvred his army in such a way that his more lightly armoured and mobile cavalry were able to charge in on the exposed flanks of the cataphracts. Constantine's cavalry were equipped with iron-tipped clubs, ideal weapons for dealing with ...
The Roman contus was also wielded two-handed. The later Byzantine kontarion was used by Byzantine cataphracts, from c. 1100 it was used single-handed couched under the armpit, as was the contemporary knightly lance. The Sasanian lance, known as nēzak (Middle Persian), [3] used by the aswaran cavalry, was derived from the Parthian kontos. The ...
As such, the treatise contains several novel aspects not touched upon in other Byzantine military manuals, such as an exact account of the formation and use of the cataphracts wedge, the new mixed infantry brigade , the proper formation of intervals between units and of how they should be guarded, and the use of the menavlon spear. The treatise ...
The Battle of the Yarmuk (also spelled Yarmouk) was a major battle between the army of the Byzantine Empire and the Arab Muslim forces of the Rashidun Caliphate.The battle consisted of a series of engagements that lasted for six days in August 636, near the Yarmouk River (also called the Hieromyces River), along what are now the borders of Syria–Jordan and Syria-Israel, southeast of the Sea ...
The row of the first line comprised 20 horsemen, the second 24, the third 28, down to the 12th line, which consisted of 64 men. If such a number of men is not available, he proposes that the wedge be formed by 304 cataphracts and 80 horse archers, or a total of 384 men, the first line comprising 10 men.