Byzantine Weapons and Warfare

[Theodosius the Great]

Yes, I suppose you could say that. I'm in a group that portrays the Varangian Guards.

Ah, that explains your interest in the period. I've ran across Yahoo groups who also focus on the Varangians - comprised mostly of Englishmen. Besides these, no other Yahoo groups focus on Byzantine reenactment. Maybe I should start one :wink:

I contend that any Varangian who didn't have his own armour when he joined, would have been supplied from the Imperial arsenal.

Sounds plausible. And the Varangians being the Emperor's bodyguard would surely have been equipted with the finest armor of the day.

So I'm wearing a late 11th century AD lamellar klivanion, and I have a Roman "kite" shield and a helmet based on the Skylitzes Chronicle of Madrid.

Yes, your armor looks superb. Is your helmet of spangenhelm design ?

I'll have to get some more photos taken and remedy the situation.

I'll look for them on the appropriate thread. Even with only half your kit visible on your avatar I'm impressed with the workmanship that's gone into the armor's construction.

In the meantime, you can see the kind of thing I do here

Thank you, Steven. //www.angelfire.com/empire/egfroth/TimArmour.jpg:159extrj]This fellow's[/url]kit looks similar to yours. I like how mail is combined with lamellar.

For my own VI century impression I am thinking of buying Deepeeka's brass lamellar platesto construct a cuirass based on the Ravenna Christ mosaic. Deepeeka's plates could perhaps be a close enough match, IMO. As for helmet I intend to commission someone to make a VI century spangenhelm based on actual survivals like this one. Right now I already have a set of pteruges as well as a concave shield with a Chi-Ro emblem. Hopefully everything will be ready by Christmas.


~Theo