The Romanization of northwest Iberia (modern Portugal)

During the last two centuries of the second millennium BCE a series of settlements were established along the coastal areas of northern Portugal. Their noble elite celebrated ritual banquets and participated in an extensive network of interchange of prestige items such as  cauldrons, knives, bronze vases, roasting spits, flesh-hooks, swords, axes and jewelry, from the Mediterranean up to the British Isles. But this network appears to collapse at the beginning of the first millennium and their open settlements were gradually replaced by fortified hill-forts constructed of earthen walls, battlements and ditches, which enclosed an inner habitable space. Trade dwindled to just the production of various axes and tools.

Then, beginning in the 6th century BCE, the "Castro" culture once again began to expand and widespread trade returned driven by Carthaginian merchants who brought imports of wine glass, pottery, and other goods.  The Carthaginians constructed emporia that sometimes even included temples and other civic structures. While the archaeological record of the Iron Age Castro suggests a very egalitarian society, a privileged class appears to have developed with better access to prestige items as evidenced by findings of large quantities of fibulae, pins, pincers for hair extraction, pendants, earrings, torcs, bracelets, and other personal objects used to enhance personal appearance.

Their hill-forts evolved as well, becoming semi-urban fortified towns we now know as oppida that in some cases housed several thousand inhabitants. These citadels included paved streets equipped with channels for stormwater runoff, reservoirs of potable water, and evidence of urban planning. Many of them also presented an inner and upper walled space, relatively large called acrópole by local scholars and the structures were surrounded by concentric ditches and stone walls sometimes reinforced with towers. Gates to these oppida become monumental and were decorated by sculptures of warriors.  Dwelling areas that have been excavated were frequently externally walled, with kitchens, sheds, granaries, workshops and living rooms ordered around an inner paved yard, sometimes equipped with fountains, drains and reservoirs.

People inhabiting the far northwestern corner of Iberia, now northern Portugal, became known as the Gallaeci. Those tribes living in what is now southern Portugal became known collectively as the Lusitani.

The people eventually encountered Rome when the Carthaginians hired them as mercenaries to fight the Romans during the Punic wars. During the Second Punic War between the years 218 and 201 BCE,  Silius Italicus reports a combined Celtic contingent of Lusitani and the Gallaeci led by a commander named Viriathus raided northern Italy whenever the terrain was too rough for Hannibal's famed Numidian cavalry. 

In retaliation, the Romans levied heavy taxes from the tribes. Between 209 and 169 BCE, the Roman army collected 4 tons of gold and 800 tons of silver from the locals and a number of their men were required to serve in the legions. The exploitation and extortion reached such an extreme degree that Rome had to create a special tribunal and laws, like the Lex Calpurnia which established the first permanent criminal court in Roman history, in order to deal with the growing number of crimes committed by Roman governors in the provinces.

In 150 BCE Praetor of Hispania Ulterior, Servius Sulpicius Galba joined forces with the Governor of Hispania Citerior, Lucius Licinius Lucullus and began to systematically depopulate Lusitania. Fearing a long siege and the destruction the Roman siege engines would cause in their towns, the Lusitanians sent an embassy to Galba to negotiate a peace treaty. Galba seemingly agreed but when the Lusitanians were gathered together to turn over their weapons, Galba's army surrounded them with a ditch, to prevent them from escaping. Then , Roman soldiers were sent in and began to massacre all the males of military age. Galba killed 9,000 Lusitanians and later sold 20,000 more as slaves in Gaul (modern France).  

Three years after the massacre, another Viriathus appeared with an understanding of Roman military tactics and proceeded to wreak havoc among the Romans until 139 BCE when he was betrayed and killed in his sleep by three of his companions who had been sent as emissaries to the Romans.  The warriors were bribed by Marcus Popillius Laenas to perform their treachery. However, when the three returned to receive their reward from the Romans, the Consul Quintus Servilius Caepio ordered their execution, declaring, "Rome does not pay traitors".

Viriathus stands as the most successful leader who ever opposed the Roman conquest in Iberia. During the course of his campaigns he was only defeated in battle against the Romans once, and from a military standpoint can be said to have been one of the most successful generals to have ever opposed Rome's expansion.

After the death of Viriatus, the Gallaecians and Lusitanians kept fighting and as a result the Roman general Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus led a successful punishment expedition into the North in 137 BCE. The victory he celebrated in Rome granted him the title Callaicus (“Galician”). During the next century Gallaecia was still theatre of operation for Perpenna (73 BCE), Julius Caesar (61 BCE) and the generals of Augustus (29-19 BCE), but gradually the native people acquired Roman culture and language and eventually gained the status of "Citizens of Rome". Although most of their oppida were abandoned or converted to religious sanctuaries, some continued to be occupied up to the 5th century CE when the Germanic Suevi established themselves in the region.

Rebuilt hut in the oppidum of Santa Tegra, A Guarda, Galicia earth courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Froaringus

Statue of a Gallaecian Warrior, Castro Culture, 1st Century CE, North Western Iberian Peninsula, courtesy of the National Museum of Archaeology (Portugal) and Wikimedia Commons.

Gold fibula, of long-footed form decorated with the figure of a naked warrior, wearing a Celtic helmet, with scabbard suspended from his waist and carrying a sword (scabbard and pommel are both of La Tene type), with another figure of a hunting dog jumping up to him. The eyes of both figures were originally inlaid with enamel. The arched bow has eight curls and the side panels are elaborated with running spirals and loops, also originally inlaid with blue enamel. Each end of the brooch is terminated by a dog's head. The hinge or spring and pin are now lost. The long foot of the fibula comprises two thick wires, twisted together and terminated with another dog's head, jaws agape and ears raised. The brooch was probably made by a Greek craftsman active on the Iberian Peninsular. Image courtesy of the British Museum and Wikimedia Commons.

Diadem from Moñes (Piloña, Asturias). Warriors with horned helmets parade carrying torcs and cauldrons, Castro Culture, 3rd - 1st century BCE, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Ángel M. Felicísimo

Lunula from Chão de Lamas, Coimbra (Portugal) courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Luis Garcia. (removed glare spots) 

Boat-shaped earrings decorated with filigree and granules, Gallaecian, gold, from the "Bedoya Treasure", exhibited in the Museum of Pontevedra

Late Bronze Age golden helmet from Galicia courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Carlos de Paz.

Iron Age Castro Culture Torcs from Asturias, Spain courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Dageno.

Head of an stone Iron Age Galician warrior, wearing a torc. Now, in the Museo Provincial de Ourense, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Froaringus.

A Castro Culture severed head sculpture courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Froaringus.

Nabia Fountain in Braga, Portugal. The deity probably had an association with water, the sky and the earth courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Snitrom

Galician Celtic Stele for the deceased, called Apana, presumably an aristocrat of the tribe of Celtic Supertamáricos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Alexandre Gal.

Mosaic from the Casa dos Repuxos Roman villa in ancient Conimbriga, Portugal courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Halley Oliveira

Roman mosaic with marine life in ancient Conimbriga, Portugal courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Marta Magalhães 

Mosaics in the House of the Swastika in ancient Conimbriga, Portugal, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Carole Raddato.

Roman mosaic with man and dog in ancient Conimbriga, Portugal courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor GFreihalter (Adjusted perspective and cropped)

Mosaic in ancient Conimbriga, Portugal courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Elisardojm. (Adjusted perspective and cropped)

Roman peristyle with mosaics in ancient Conimbriga, Portugal courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Elisardojm

A Roman mosaic depicting Dionysus (?) in ancient Conimbriga, Portugal, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Elisardojm.

A Roman mosaic depicting a man walking a dog (?) in ancient Conimbriga, Portugal, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Elisardojm

More Roman mosaics in ancient Conimbriga, Portugal courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Duca696.

Conimbriga is one of the best preserved Roman archaeological sites in Portugal.  You can see many more of its beautiful Roman mosaics here:  

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ancient_Roman_mosaics_in_Conimbriga

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Archaic Period Horse Sculptures

 Horses, with or without riders, were favorite subjects for Boeotian artisans. The figurines were frequently left as burial offerings in graves. Horses were a sign of wealth for the Greeks of this period, and the terracotta horses were probably left to symbolize and to reinforce the high status of the deceased. Thousands of clay figurines like this one survive from the Archaic period (600 to 480 BCE).

"Horses played a central role in the great civic festivals in the ancient world, such as the Panathenaic Games in Athens and the Olympic games at Olympos, where they took part in chariot races and single horse races. The horse’s long affiliation with gods and heroes in Greek mythology no doubt also fostered a special respect and admiration for this remarkable creature in the minds of “ordinary” Greeks. In Homer’s Iliad, horses drive the chariots of the heroes and are praised for their swiftness and beautiful coats. They are often depicted as having special relationships with their owners, like Achilles and his immortal horses, Balius and Xanthus.  In the Iliad, it is told how, when Patroclus was killed in battle, Xanthus and Balius stood motionless on the field of battle, and wept, yet when Achilles rebuked Xanthus for letting Patroklus get slain, Hera granted the horse human speech to deliver to Achilles a warning about his own fate." - Stasahatzoglou, The significance of the horse in ancient Greece.

Terracotta horse and rider, Greek, Boeotian, about 550 BCE, courtesy of the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, California.

Archaeic Period Horse and Rider from Cyprus, 700 BCE 

Pyxis Lid with Three Horses Greek made in Boeotia 760-750 BCE Terracotta that I photographed at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, California

Terracotta horse with warrior rider Cypriot Cypro-Archaic I-II 600 BCE said to be from the temple of Apollo Hylates at Kourion that I photographed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Terracotta wheeled horse thought to be a toy Cypriot Cypro-Archaic 6th century BCE that I photographed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York

A BOEOTIAN TERRACOTTA HORSE AND RIDER, 575-550 BCE,  courtesy of Christies

Greek Horse and Rider 6th century BCE Terracotta with slip decoration courtesy of The Barnes Foundation

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The aspis and rise of the Argives

The ancient city of Argos was inhabited as far back as 7,000 years ago.   Argos experienced its greatest period of expansion and power, though, under the energetic 7th century BCE ruler, King Pheidon.  Pheidon was said to have been a descendant of Heracles through Temenus. Pheidon seized the throne from the reigning aristocracy with the support of the lower classes.  He was a vigorous and energetic ruler and greatly increased the power of Argos.

Under Pheidon, Argos regained sway over the cities of the Argolid and challenged Sparta’s dominance of the Peloponnese. Spartan dominance is thought to have been interrupted following the Battle of Hyssiae in 669-668 BCE, in which Argive troops defeated the Spartans in a hoplite battle. The Argive army was already equipped at the time with a deeply dished wooden shield called the aspis which is thought to have given the Argives an advantage over the Spartans.  The revolutionary part of the shield was, in fact, the grip. Known as an Argive grip, it placed the handle at the edge of the shield and was supported by a leather fastening for the forearm at the center. This allowed hoplites more mobility with the shield, as well as the ability to capitalize on their offensive capabilities and better support the phalanx. The convex shape of the shield allowed it to be supported comfortably on the shoulder and made it possible for warriors to use it as a flotation device for crossing rivers and to be used for hauling the bodies of the dead from the battlefield.

Image: Statuette of a Warrior thought to be an Argive, Greek, 470-460 BCE, Bronze, now in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum.  A standing male figure. Both feet are missing. He raises his right hand to his right shoulder and rests the left hand against his chest. He wears a short tunic underneath a cloak pinned over the right shoulder and slanting underneath the left arm. Straps cross over his shoulders at the chest and between the shoulders at the back. He is bearded and wears a cap or helmet. The eye sockets are empty and were perhpas once inlaid. The hair is cut away at the back of the head leaving a rectangular depression and the right hand is pierced for an attachment.

  

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The psychological cost of warfare in the ancient world

Then said Achilles, "Son of Atreus, king of men Agamemnon, see to these matters at some other season, when there is breathing time and when I am calmer. Would you have men eat while the bodies of those whom Hector son of Priam slew are still lying mangled upon the plain? Let the sons of the Achaeans, say I, fight fasting and without food, till we have avenged them; afterwards at the going down of the sun let them eat their fill. As for me, Patroclus is lying dead in my tent, all hacked and hewn, with his feet to the door, and his comrades are mourning round him. Therefore I can think of nothing but slaughter and blood and the rattle in the throat of the dying." - Iliad 19.226

As some of you know, I am the spouse of a veteran who has suffered from PTSD since service in Vietnam back in 1967-68. Although the psychological trauma suffered by those who have experienced a traumatic event now has a very modern-sounding diagnosis, it is not a recent phenomenon but has been a plague upon mankind, probably since men began engaging in warfare to wrest the territory or possessions from a competing group or avenge the losses incurred in such actions.

Some scholars have proposed PTSD is a modern phenomenon brought on by the use of explosive weapons like IEDs, land mines, or booby traps and the concussions that resulted from their use.  

In her paper, Caesar in Vietnam: Did Roman Soldiers Suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?, classicist Aislinn Melchior admits that concussion is not the only risk factor for PTSD but says it is so strongly correlated that it suggests the incidence of PTSD may have risen sharply with the arrival of gunpowder, shells, and plastic explosives.

"In Roman warfare, wounds were most often inflicted by edged weapons. Romans did of course experience head trauma, but the incidence of concussive injuries would have been limited both by the types of weapons they faced and by the use of helmets," Melchior observes. Melchior also speculates that death was so common in the ancient world that it desensitized many of its residents to the prospect of unexpected death. 

But in his 1999 paper entitled "The Cultural Politics of Public Spectacle in Rome and the Greek East in 167-166 BCE"  Jonathan C. Edmondson points out that when King Antiochus IV introduced Roman-style gladiatorial combats in Syria in 166 BCE, the Syrians were terrified rather than entertained.

"In time gladiatorial contests came to be accepted and even popular, but only after Antiochus had instituted a local variation whereby fights sometimes ended as soon as a gladiator was wounded."

This hardly sounds like people desensitized to death.

Recently, scholars studying cuneiform medical texts left behind by ancient Mesopotamians point to passages describing mental disorders expressed by soldiers and even a king during the Assyrian Period (1300–609 BCE) when military activity was extremely frequent and brutal. The King of Elam is said to have had his mind changed.  Soldiers were described as suffering from periods where they were forgetful, their words were unintelligible, they would wander about, and suffer regular bouts of depression.

I also think scholars dismiss too readily the psychological aspects of PTSD in the ancient world because of their observations that the ancient world was a far more brutal environment than we have now (outside of inner city ghettos).  They point out how people were surrounded by death because of disease, accidents without proper medical treatment, and entertainments that featured the orchestrated deaths of both people and animals.  I propose that observed deaths occurring in a venue where the observer and the participants are separated both by physical barriers and social hierarchy (most human victims were criminals, prisoners of war, "Others" so to speak, or slaves, those whose social status separated them from the vast number of citizens in the audience) are distinctly different when compared to violent deaths of friends, family members, and comrades, your "band of brothers," fighting right beside you in a person-to-person battle scenario.

Furthermore, ancient executions were designed to further distance the audience from the victim through the use of mythological reenactments or by placement outside the city.

"Crucifixions were usually carried out outside the city limits thus stressing the victims rejection from the civic community. Because of the absence of bloodshed out of an open and lethal wound, which evoked the glorious fate of warriors, this type of death was considered unclean, shameful, unmanly, and unworthy of a freeman. In addition the victim was usually naked. Essential, too, was the fact that the victim lost contact with the ground which was regarded as sacrilegious." - J.J. Aubert, "A Double Standard in Roman Criminal Law?" from "Speculum Juris: Roman Law as a Reflection of Social and Economic Life in Antiquity"

We also cannot forget the medical personnel either.  The medical environment of an ancient treatment facility following a major battle was far worse than in a modern field hospital.  Ancient surgeons attempted to treat often thousands of wounded in a relatively short time compared to only handfuls at a time during the Vietnam conflict.  Ancient physicians were surprisingly quite skilled, especially Roman military surgeons, but they had little but herbal compounds (and honey if the Romans listened to the Egyptian physicians) to ward off infections.  Their patients' mortality rate was much higher than the relatively low mortality rate experienced in Vietnam. 

I sometimes wonder, though, if modern scholars think that ancient people just didn't value their lives as much as we do, since they did not shrink from casualties as high as 50,000 in a single military engagement or investment of an enemy city.  But if you've ever looked at some of the poignant grave goods found in ancient burials or studied the reliefs and inscriptions on ancient funerary monuments, I think you will conclude that we are only separated by time, not by our shared human nature.

This post is a condensed summary of a paper I wrote, "Concussion and PTSD in the Ancient World" back in 2013.  You can read the full article at:

https://ancientimes.blogspot.com/2013/01/concussion-and-ptsd-in-ancient-world.html

Terracotta plate, ca. 510 B.C.E. Greek, Attic, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  The weight of the wounded or dead Amazon is beautifully conveyed by the lowered spears and shield carried by her companion.

Terracotta kylix (drinking cup), ca. 500 B.C.E., Attributed to a painter of the Thorvaldsen Group at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Sober depiction of a warrior. While his attendant looks on, he discards his shield and helmet and leans on his spear with a pensive, downcast face. 

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Burial of a Celtic Prince

The Hochdorf Chieftain's Grave is a richly-furnished Celtic burial chamber dating from 540 BCE near Hochdorf an der Enz (municipality of Eberdingen) in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Beginning in 1968, a volunteer at the State Antiquities and Monuments Office in Baden-Württemberg, Renate Leibfried, kept coming across stone fragments plowed up in the field. She reported her observations and the Archaeological Preservation Office identified what had been a large burial mound.  Dr. Jörg Biel led a complete excavation of the site between 1978 to 1979.

The grave contained a Celtic prince, roughly 40 years of age and 6 ft 2 in tall, who was laid out on a bronze recliner with eight wheels.  He wore a gold-plated torc on his neck, a bracelet on his right arm, a hat made of birch bark, a gold-plated dagger made of bronze and iron, rich clothing, amber jewelry and the remains of thin embossed gold plaques which once decorated his now-disintegrated shoes. Other grave goods included a razor knife, a nail clipper, a comb, fishing hooks, and arrows. At the foot of the funerary couch was a large cauldron decorated with three lions around the rim. This cauldron was originally filled with about 100 gallons of mead. The east side of the tomb contained an iron-plated wooden four-wheeled wagon holding a set of bronze dishes.  A collection of drinking horns hung on the walls was enough to serve nine people.  

A reconstruction of the burial can be viewed at the Hochdor/Enz Celtic Museum which opened in 1991.  The original finds of the Hochdorf princely burial are to be found in the Württemberg State Museum in Stuttgart’s Old Palace although both are currently closed due to the pandemic. 

Reconstruction of the Celtic Hochdorf Chieftain's Grave in the museum nearby the location of the original grave courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor, Magnus Hagdorn

Celtic-style bronze lion replacement on the Hochdorf cauldron, 540 BCE, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Xuan Che.

Hochdorf cauldron with drinking horns courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Dr. Bernd Gross.

Greek-style Bronze lion on the Hochdorf cauldron, 540 BCE, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Xuan Che.

Gold fibulae of the Hochdorf Celtic Prince courtesy of Harry Meinhardt. Two identical brooches, one of which has been slightly compressed, are composed of seven parts. The body is of solid gold, the hoops have been hammered out in a square cross-section. The garment hooks were joined with a piece of fluted sheet metal.

Reconstruction of the Hochdorf Celtic prince with his gold burial goods courtesy of Pinterest.

Gilded in preparation for the afterlife, this 42cm long, bronze and iron dagger was carried by the prince in life. The blade was protected by a richly decorated sheath. The gold coating made for the burial consisted of 16 parts, all precisely fitted onto the dagger without any fold, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Rosemania.

Gold shoe plaques from the Hochdorf Chieftain's Grave, Germany, c. 540 BCE, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Rosemania

Hochdorf gilded drinking horn, 540 BCE, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Xuan Che.

Reconstruction of the grave good chariot of a Celtic prince in Hochdorf, Germany, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor NobbiP

I saw this beautiful miniature of a Celtic prince riding into battle in a chariot accompanied by his body guard and hound in my image search. The Celtic Chieftain Chariot is in 75mm scale and it is a scrathbuilt, the sculptor of this figure is Andrea Jula while the painter is Fabrizio Russo. Image courtesy of https://sergeantblackart.wordpress.com/.../showcase.../

 

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Sasanian military organization

 When Ardashir I (r. 224-241 CE) founded the Sasanian Empire, he created a  standing army which was under his personal command and whose officers were separate from satraps, local princes and nobility. He restored the Achaemenid military organizations, retained the Parthian cavalry model, and employed new types of armor and siege warfare techniques. 

Organizationally, the Shahanshah (the King of Kings) served as the head of the military and there were four military commanders under his authority. Initially, the offices of the Great King of Armenia, King of Meshan, King of Gilan, and King of Sakastan fulfilled these roles. After the reforms of Khosrow I, there were four spahbeds (Army Commanders), each for a cardinal direction.

In the character of their warfare, the Persians of the Sasanian period differed greatly, though, from their forebears under the Achaemenid kings. The war chariot was no longer used, the  elephant corps was advanced to a very prominent and important position, and cavalry on the Parthian model, including both heavy cataphracts and horse-archers became pre-eminent. Therefore, the strategic components became the elephants, the horse, the archers, and the ordinary footmen.

The Sasanian army employed foreign mercenary troops from many different regions. The most frequently used types of mercenaries were Kurdish mercenaries from the northern boundary of the Zagros, who begin to appear in 6th-century sources, tribal people from Gilan and Daylam, Caucasian Albanians (regarded as elite soldiers equal to Huns in the 4th-century), and Sakastanis.

The Parthian Azadan nobility continued to serve the Sasanian state, forming a minor aristocracy of lower-ranking administrators, mostly living on their small estates and providing the cavalry backbone of the Sasanian army. Most prestigious among them were the armored Asvaran, sometimes referred to as Savaran, who were the forerunners of  the later Arabian Faris, the Caucasian horsemen, the Indian Sowar (derived from Persian Savar), and the Turkish Tarkhans.

During the early Sasanian period, these fiercesome warriors battled forces of the Roman emperors Valerian, Galerius, and Julian and later the forces of the Byzantine emperors Justin I and II and Justinian directed by his famous general Belisarius.

Sasanian helmet, 4th century CE at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Surviving examples of Sasanian armor are extremely rare, particularly in such stunning condition as this helmet. It consists of a bronze band forming a rim and supporting two arched bands that cross over the top. Between these arched bands there are triangular plates of iron that are overlaid with sheets of silver worked in scale patterns. Sasanian silversmiths were renowned for their craftsmanship.

Iranian Bronze Silver and Iron Helmet 225 to 650 CE that I photographed at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Los Angeles, California

Reconstruction of a Sasanian cataphract in Oxford courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor John Tremelling

Remnants of a Sasanian gold sword with two-point suspension, 600-650 CE at the Sackler Gallery of Asian Art at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Quadell.

Sasanian silver plate depicting an equestrian single combat scene at the Azerbaijan Museum in Tabriz, Iran courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Alborz Fallah.  Some scholars think this plate, although in the style of Sasanian plates usually featuring hunt scenes, was likely  manufactured in the late 1920s or 1930s when Iranian national awareness was enhanced by modern archaeological research.

Shahnameh illustration of the Sasanian general Sukhra fighting the Hephthalites (484 CE) attributed to Bashdan Qara ca. 1530-35, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Abu'l Qasim Firdausi.

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Byzantine warriors of the 4th - 5th centuries BCE

The Byzantine army evolved from that of the late Roman Empire, but it became considerably more sophisticated in strategy, tactics and organization over time. The language of the army was still Latin, until the 6th century when Greek became the official language of the entire empire. Unlike the Roman legions, though, the Byzantines' strength was in its cavalry, especially the armored cataphracts, which evolved from the clibanarii of the late empire. 

The Romans introduced armored cavalry after clashing with cataphracts at the battles of Magnesia in 190 BCE against the Seleucids, Trigranocerta in 69 BCE against the Armenians, and the disastrous Carrhae in 53 BCE against the Parthians. Parthian cataphracts became a constant threat from the 1st - 2nd centuries CE then their threat was replaced by the cataphracts of the Sassanian Persians in the 3rd century CE.

Marc Antony and Cleopatra employed contarii (from the Greek kontarioi meaning lancers) in the 1st century BCE and, when Thracia became a Roman province in 45 CE, the Thracian aristocracy provided Rome with heavy armored lancers.  According to Josephus, cavalrymen with long spears were used by Flavian troops in 69 CE, too, although scholars have not been able to determine if Vespasian raised regular units of contarii.  However, by the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian (98-138 CE) armored cavalrymen and, sometimes , completely armored horses, began to appear in allied cavalry recruited in the Eastern provinces. 

Contarii wielded the contus ( Greek kontos), using it two-handed.  The later Byzantine kontarion used by Byzantine cataphracts, from about 1100 CE onwards, was used single-handed couched under the armpit.

The kontarioi were supported by heavy infantry, the armored skutatoi (a name derived from the scutum, the classic rectangular Roman shield) and the psiloi, light infantry who usually acted as skirmishers and missile troops, including archers and slingers, and who fought irregularly in a loose formation and wore little armor.  The skutatoi were armed with the deadly, three metre-long kontarion, derived from the kontos lance favored by cataphracts. Some skutatoi were positioned on the front lines to repel cavalry, with their sword-armed counterparts behind them, ready for the melee that followed the initial charge. 

The Byzantines valued intelligence and discipline in their soldiers far more than bravery or brawn. The "Romaíoi stratiótai" were a loyal force composed of citizens willing to fight to defend their homes and their state to the death, augmented by mercenaries. The training was very much like that of the legionaries, with the soldiers taught close combat techniques with their swords, spears and axes, along with the extensive practice of archery. The Byzantine army's reliance on heavier cavalry, more archers and other missile troops, and fewer Foederati may have been contributing factors to the eastern empire's survival after the fall of the Western Empire in 476 CE. 

Bronze Byzantine Warrior of the 4th-5th century CE at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Image: Illustration of Roman Heavy Cavalry by Andrey Negin for Osprey Publishing's title, "Roman Heavy Cavalry (1): Cataphractarii and Clibanarii, 1st century BCE-5th century CE.

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