Proud Rome was still considered the "eternal city", and the unified Roman Empire did not exist. It was divided into East and West. In the West, Rome fell, but in the East, the empire still continued to survive. And imagine all the horror of the Romans of that time: they were the only ones left from the ancient civilization, and from all sides there were only wild barbarians. And indeed: in the south, dirty and ignorant Arabs - with camps littered with sewage, sources of plague. There are also ignorant and wild Seljuk Turks. It is not known who is worse. In the north - unenlightened Slavs and Scandinavians. In addition, the Goths, Bulgarians and various other tribes ruled throughout the territory of the former empire. And the Byzantines had no choice but to beat them all. They were all beaten: the commander Narses, and the emperor Vasily II the Bolgar fighter, and the Varangi mercenaries. And they beat them until 1204, when the proud Byzantines, the Orthodox, were beaten, in turn, by the rude Catholic crusaders. In the end, the foundation of Byzantine civilization was undermined by continuous war. Byzantine Empire in the 15th century was on its last legs: complete decline and a stop in development.
The regular raids of the Turks, the continuous plunder of coastal cities by sea robbers did not make it possible for the Byzantine aristocracy to maintain their former military power: to buy weapons and mercenaries at the expense of collecting land rent. The Byzantines could not recruit the required number of recruits on their lands, and the hiring of knights from the West was sporadic and sporadic. However, the Byzantine equestrian elite - stradiots - managed to survive even in these conditions. It consisted of native Greeks, although there were also foreigners among them. What was their armament, what and how did they fight? What did these last warriors of the Byzantine military elite look like?”An interesting study on this topic was conducted by the British historian David Nicole, the author of more than 40 monographs on the history of military affairs of different nations, so his opinion will certainly be interesting to everyone who, one way or another, is interested in this topic.
First of all, he emphasizes that the dying empire experienced the strongest influence of its neighbors who overtook it, which was manifested in clothing in the first place. Although, of course, the tribute to tradition was just as extremely strong, since it was always considered unethical to "morally disarm" in front of a stronger enemy. And what does borrowing someone else's fashion mean, if not this very "disarmament"?
Let's begin to consider this issue from the status of the late Roman elite, because it is the military status of the horseman that shows the degree of traditionality of his position and weapons. So, in the cavalry, the former division into spearmen (horsemen with long pikes - "kontarii") and archers was preserved, although the weapons of most stradiots were spears and swords. Italian Observers 1437-1439 described the stradiots who arrived in Italy as part of the Byzantine diplomatic mission as heavily armed warriors, and the light horsemen accompanying them were identified as javelin throwers with or very similar to Turkish weapons. Even their short stirrups were Turkish.
Bosnians, Vlachs, Genoese, Catalans, - also replenished the troops of the Byzantine Empire and they hired whole troops with their weapons. Sometimes mercenaries received weapons from the Byzantine government. And although this weapon was not enough for everyone, they were armed at the level of Turkish heavily armed horsemen.
In 1392 Ignatius of Smolensk, a Russian priest, saw 12 warriors in armor from head to toe, standing around the emperor. Of course, a dozen riders "can't make the weather." More convincing are the sources from the Turks, describing the vestments of the Byzantine Christian horsemen as "gnashing blue iron". Obviously, this armor was close to Western European knightly armor in terms of the level of protection. They also mention horses, protected by shells, and massive peaks (most likely on the Byzantine land ancient pike-contos "took root"). In addition, they wore helmets shining in the sun and shiny armor on their arms and legs, as well as magnificent plate gauntlets. So not only the Byzantine stradiots were armed, but also the Serbian heavy cavalry, which used long pikes.
According to other written and illustrative sources, the Byzantine cavalry mostly used Italian or Spanish-Catalan weapons. But there is no great faith in the painters: whoever caught the eye, they very often depicted.
For example, horsemen mention helmets with visors. But more often the common salade and barbut helmets are depicted, or the typical "battle hats" in the form of bells. It is believed that a gorget - a rigid quilted collar (it could have been purely metal) - could have been an attribute of a stradiot rider. Stradiots who did not have armor wore quilted protective clothing, sometimes even from embroidered silk. It could also be worn with metal armor. The Byzantine horsemen used shields, which the European knights had already abandoned, and if they did, it was only at tournaments.
Many types of weapons of the stradiots were produced not in Byzantium, but somewhere in the Balkans. One of these centers for the manufacture of armor and weapons was the city of Dubrovnik. Many weapons were also made in nearby southern Germany, Transylvania and Italy. Therefore, the armament of the elite of the riders practically did not differ from the knightly.
As for tactics, it was like this: the combat unit was two types of horsemen: the elite lagador and the warrior - his squire. They were armed with local short swords - Spata Schiavonesca. Most of the blades themselves were brought to the Byzantines, and handles were made to them on the spot. Oriental sabers have become widespread since the XIV century. These were Turkish and Egyptian blades made of very high quality steel.
The shields were varied: triangular and rectangular. The "Bosnian scutum" with the left edge of the shield protruding upward for greater neck protection was also used. The shield of this type later spread very widely and was associated with the later cavalry of Christian horsemen, as well as with the Balkan light cavalry.
The riders differed not only in the elements of their costume, but also in their hairstyles: (Christians did not wear turbans, although in the 15th century the French historian described the stradiots as dressed "like Turks"). Orthodox Serbian soldiers wore long beards and hair, and Catholics - mercenaries shaved them. Natives of Rus who served with the Byzantines also wore beards. Hungarians, Poles and Kipchaks were beardless. Note, however, that Byzantium itself, Egypt and Iran had an influence on the Turkish costume.
The best examples of horses were imported, according to contemporaries, from the southern Russian steppes, as well as from Romania. These animals were striking in their excellent quality, while the horses of local breeds looked smaller.
Naturally, the equipment required appropriate training, especially since by the time of its decline the Byzantine army was very small and, therefore, the lack of quantity had to be compensated for by quality. Thus, the Burgundian nobleman Bertrandon de la Broquière, who visited Byzantium in the 1430s, personally observed the "games" of the stradiots, with whom he was very surprised.
I saw Bertrandon and the despot of Morea, the brother of the emperor, with his numerous (20-30 people) retinue: “Each rider, holding a bow in his hands, dashed across the square. was declared the best ". De la Broquière also describes the Byzantine horsemen who “took part in the tournament in a very strange manner for me. But the point is this. In the middle of the square was built a large platform with a wide deck (3 steps wide and 5 steps long). about forty riders galloped along it, holding a small stick in their hand and doing various tricks. They were not dressed in armor. Then the master of ceremonies took one of them (it was very bent when he rode on a horse) and thrust it into the target with all his might so much so that this impromptu "spear" broke with a crunch. After that, everyone began to shout and play their musical instruments, reminiscent of Turkish drums. " Then all the remaining participants of the tournament, in turn, hit the target."
Another late Byzantine feature that shocked Byzantium's neighbors from Western European countries and even neighboring Muslims was the extremely cruel attitude of the stradiots towards their captives. Their heads were cut off with delight, so that later even the Venetian Senate adopted this completely barbaric custom from them.
However, a similar attitude towards prisoners (remember, at least, the cruelty of the Byzantines towards the captured Bulgarians) also took place in the earlier history of Byzantium, and this was the result of their exceptional position as an "island of civilization among the sea of barbarians." Well, many English artists and historians (in particular, the artist Graham Sumner and the same David Nicole) made an attempt to reconstruct the appearance of the stradiots, but their images turned out to be very eclectic.
These are these mysterious stradiots of the decay of Byzantium …
