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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.
The Komnenian restoration of the Byzantine Empire during that century created a new kind of Byzantine army, which is known as the Komnenian army. Yet it seems that the cataphract was eventually superseded by other types of armoured cavalry. The emperor Manuel I Komnenos, for example, re-equipped his elite cavalry in the style of western knights.
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 ...
853 – Sack of Damietta – Byzantine fleet raids and captures the port of Damietta in Egypt 862 – Capture of Faruriyyah – Abbasids capture the border fortress of Farurriyah 863 – Battle of Lalakaon – Byzantine army under Petronas annihilates the army of Malatya and kills its emir, Umar al-Aqta
The Byzantine army of the Komnenian era or Komnenian army [2] was a force established by Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos during the late 11th/early 12th century. It was further developed during the 12th century by his successors John II Komnenos and Manuel I Komnenos.