ΠΟΡΦΥΡΑ - Porphyra

A Prôtospatharios, Magistros, and Strategos Autokrator of 11 th cent.
the equipment of Georgios Maniakes and his army according to the Skylitzes Matritensis miniatures
and other artistic sources of the middle Byzantine period.
could be of leather, but we can not exclude the use of a mixture
of coarse silk and cotton (κουκουλιον and βαµβακιον) or
even felt by the cut of stripes of kavadia to form this kind of
protection. 83
The use in the East-Roman army of bossed pteryges is
archaeologically suggested by a buckle from Sardinia, found in
a cavalryman s’ grave of the 8 th century, where the owner of the
buckle is shown falling from his horse : he is dressed with an
undercuirass garment with bossed pteryges. 84 Of course this
kind of protection should be hung from a metallic or leather
bronze plated belt, because of the weight. The overall
impression was in any case a metallic one 85 .
On the upper arms he wears metallic bracelets, probably
the Manikia mentioned in the sources 86 ; these are protective
sections of the upper arm shaped like true armoured bracelets
(fig.7 n. 7-8). It was an extension of the arm protection, as
separated metallic scales pteryges-kremasmata forming an
additional protection which the warrior fastened around the
upper arm. These metallic µανικια are similar but bigger than
those worn by Basil II in the miniature of Marcianus Gr.17., and
can be seen in a lot of artistic subjects representing East-Roman
83 This could help to explain also the difficult interpretation of the passage mentioned in Praecepta Militaria III, 8;
cutting the καβαδιον in the form of old fashioned pteryges and so forming the protection from waist down gives as
result κρεµασµατα which preserves the Roman aspect of the armour without excluding the practical protection,
necessary for the cavalrymen with short klibania. The kavadion was a word used in medieval Greek of this age both to
indicate a military garment which could be used alone, as undercuirass or overcuirass, composed by felt mixed with
cotton, as well a Court Dress.
As a garment, finding his apogee as Court Dress in the 14 th cent., was probably derived by the Sassanian Persian. The
late Sassanian warriors of Piandjikent are represented wearing them it distinctively in the frescoes of 7-8 th century
(Yakobovsky, Questions in the study of Piandjikent paintings, Moscow 1953, fig. 19-23, pl. XXXIII, in russian). It is
so not improbable that the word comes from a garment used from the Persian Princes, called kabbade, as said by
Tzetzes in his Commentarii Iliadis,2 and as confirmed by Kodinos, VI, who tells us as the Roman Emperors received,
through Cyrus and then Alexander the Great, this dress from the Assyrians, i.e. from the Persians: "...and from the
Lordship of the Medians received the phakiolion and l'epilorikion, from the Assyrians the skaranikon, the kabbadion
and the flag dragon shaped...". - (Codinus Curopalates, De Officialibus, VI, p. 54 ; commentarii pp. 229-230).
As military dress was a long one, shorter of the Court dress, composed by padded material doubled internally and
externally, with or without sleeves, not folded and without hems, touching the calf, composed of doubled κεντουκλον
which formed the thick body of the garment; when the body was closed by a belt, the movement of the legs reveals that
the lower edges were folded by means of sewing on the internal hems. The soldiers wore it in battle if were lacking
metal armour, even if the καβαδιον could well be worn under or over the κλιβανιον for a better body protection. See
Sylloge Tacticorum, 38, 4 ; 38, 7 . This fasten again to his function, in successive ages, of overgarment. So Tzetzes in
the above over mentioned passage: "...The battle dress, the garment cloak of the soldiers, just called καβαδηs from the
Persian kabbade ...".About it see also Kolias, Waffen, pp. 55-56 ; Dawson, Kremasmata, 39-42 ; Kondakov P. N., Les
costumes orientaux à la cour byzantine, in Byzantion, 1, 1924, 7-49.
84 Cfr. Lilliu G., Milizie in Sardegna durante l’età bizantina, in Sardegna, Mediterraneo ed Atlantico tra medioevo ed
età moderna, Roma 1993 p. 105-136, p. 133 ; and Caprara R., Reperti metallici altomedievali in AA.VV. Sardegna
centro-orientale dal neolitico alla fine del mondo antico, Sassari 1978, 209-221, pl.LXXXVI.
85 See Laszlo G., Etudes Archéologiques sur la societé des Avares, Budapest 1955, pp. 265-269 where the author
shows plates of East-Roman and Avarian belts from the 6 th – 7 th centuries, which were probably produced by East-
Roman workshops from the same mould used to do the metallic applications of the cuirass pteryges-kremasmata.
86 See for instance Digenis Akritas, VI, 158, p. 153, where the hero, after a battle, comes back to his beloved taking off
his weapons, i.e. shield, sword and arm protection.
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