Tag Archives: Byzantine

English Refugees in the Byzantine Armed Forces: The Varangian Guard and Anglo-Saxon Ethnic Consciousness

English Refugees in the Byzantine Armed Forces: The Varangian Guard and Anglo-Saxon Ethnic Consciousness Nicholas C.J. Pappas (Sam Houston State University, 2004) One of the most interesting episodes in Byzantine military history and in medieval English history is the Anglo-Saxon … Continue reading

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Byzantines, Avars and the Introduction of the Trebuchet

Byzantines, Avars and the Introduction of the Trebuchet Stephen McCotter The Queen’s University of Belfast (2003) While there has been much debate over when the traction trebuchet appeared in the west and the extent to which it replaced late-antique torsion … Continue reading

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The Infamous Svjatoslav: Master of Duplicity in War and Peace?

The Infamous Svjatoslav: Master of Duplicity in War and Peace? Walter K. Hanak Peace and War in Byzantium: Essays in Honor of George T. Dennis, S.J. (Washington: The Catholic University of America Press, 1995) Several decades ago Jonathan Shepard elaborated upon the … Continue reading

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The Organisation and Support of an Expeditionary Force: Manpower and Logistics in the Middle Byzantine Period

The Organisation and Support of an Expeditionary Force: Manpower and Logistics in the Middle Byzantine Period John Haldon  Byzantium at War (1997)  It is generally recognised that the maintenance of its armies and the recruitment and equipping of its military expeditions … Continue reading

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Strategies of Defence, Problems of Security: the Garrisons of Constantinople in the Middle Byzantine Period

Strategies of Defence, Problems of Security: the Garrisons of Constantinople in the Middle Byzantine Period John Haldon Constantinople and its Hinterland: Papers from the Twenty-Seventh Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Oxford, April 1993 (1995) The title I have chosen is intended … Continue reading

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Foundations of Venetian Naval Strategy from Pietro II Orseoto to the Battle of Zoncho, 1000-1500

 Foundations of Venetian Naval Strategy from Pietro II Orseoto to the Battle of Zoncho, 1000-1500 John E. Dotson Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies v.32 (2001) For Venetians during the Middle Ages the sea was life. The prosperity, the very existence, … Continue reading

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Byzantine Heavy Artillery: The Helepolis

Byzantine Heavy Artillery: The Helepolis George T. Dennis Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies: v.39 (1998) Abstract The military manual (Strategikon) attributed to the emperor Maurice stipulated that the infantry contingents should be followed by a train of wagons, some of which … Continue reading

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The Byzantines at Battle

The Byzantines at Battle George T. Dennis Byzantium at War (1997) Although the Byzantines were constantly under attack or under threat of attack, they regarded warfare as the least desirable method of defending themselves. Leo VI prefaced his Tactical Constitutions … Continue reading

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Military Intelligence in Arabo-Byzantine Naval Warfare

Military Intelligence in Arabo-Byzantine Naval Warfare Vassilios, Christides To empolemo Byzantino – Byzantium at War:(Athens: Institute for Byzantine Studies, 1997) Abstract During the long Arab-Byzantine struggle for supremacy in the Mediterranean Sea from the Seventh to the fourteenth century an … Continue reading

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Robert of Clari’s account of the Fourth Crusade

Robert of Clari was a knight from Picardy who took part in the Fourth Crusade, which ended with the capture of Constantinople in 1204.  Robert seems to have returned to France in 1205, since although his work contains references up … Continue reading

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Rural Fortifications in Western Europe and Byzantium, Tenth to Twelfth Century

Rural Fortifications in Western Europe and Byzantium, Tenth to Twelfth Century Mark Whittow Byzantinische Forschungen v.21 (1995) Abstract In 1992-warmly encouraged by Cyril Mango-Hugh Barnes and I, plus a team of Oxford undergraduates, began what is planned in the first … Continue reading

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A Byzantine campaign in the Balkans (594), according to Theophylact Simocatta

Theophylact Simocatta, who wrote in the early seventh century during the reign of Heraclius (Herakleios) (610-41), was the last in the succession of secular classicizing historians devoted mainly to the military, diplomatic, and political history of the Roman empire. Continue reading

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Byzantine conquest of Italy in the Sixth-Century, according to the Chronicle of Marcellinus

In this anonymous addition to the Chronicle of Marcellinus Comes, the events from 534 to 547 are described, with much of the text devoted to the conquest of Italy by the Byzantine general Belisarius. Continue reading

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George Akropolites, Warfare in 13th century Byzantium

The History of George Akropolites is one of main sources for the Byzantine world in the 13th century.  George Akropolites (c.1217-1282) was an important civil servant of the Byzantine emperors of Nicaea, and was involved in many of the important political … Continue reading

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Nicolle — Cross & Crescent in the Balkans (Goodrich)

David Nicolle Cross & Crescent in the Balkans: The Ottoman Conquest of Southeastern Europe Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword Military, 2010. 256 pp. ISBN: 9781844159543 Dr. David Nicolle is perhaps best known as the prolific author of many of the … Continue reading

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Kyriakidis — Warfare in Late Byzantium, 1204-1453 (May)

Savvas Kyriakidis Warfare in Late Byzantium, 1204-1453 History of Warfare, vol. 67. Leiden: Brill, 2011.  254 pp.  $144.  ISSN: 1385-7827 The capture and sacking of Constantinople in 1204 by the Fourth Crusade, the Byzantine Empire split and went into a … Continue reading

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