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.
laces, crossed on breast. It is the so-called Varangian Bra. 239
This chest harness is represented in a very large number of
artistic sources of the middle period, as fitting of κλιβανια as
well of other kinds of armour 240 . It was already used in Late
Roman Times, and closed by small buckles joint with small
rings on the frontal breast 241 . A major problem is the
interpretation of the way of fastening in the middle Byzantine
age, because the East-Roman sources do not mention such
arrangements. My own personal opinion is that there were
various methods in use. The system I reconstructed derives from
the system suggest to me by Gamber, in his reconstruction of the
Roman leather muscled armour of the Sutton Hoo burial ship 242 .
A buckle strap end (fig. 11 n. 30), 243 found in Garvan, in
Romania, really belonged to a Varangian Warrior, and could
have been fastened and buckled at the centre of the bra back by
a piece of strap. I would prefer such a position for the bra
fastening buckle because less exposed at the danger of a enemy
blow frontally directed which could loose the harness. A
reference to the shoulder reinforcements is may in the passage
described by Leo Taktika, V, 4, where, beside the mention of the
κρινκελλοι or rings for the mail λωρικιον, he provides that
armours should be held also by λωρια, i.e. straps. The
transversal strap, stretched at front and back by two rings on
both sides, or by a back horizontally fastened buckle, or sides
laced under the armpits 244 , holds tightly the κλιβανιον or other
armours preventing it from moving during the battle.
The reconstructed sword (spathion, fig. 12) is East-
Roman, about 86 cm. long, and has been copied from the
239 See Wyley S., The Chest Harness known as the Varangian Bra, in Varangian Voice n. 28 pp. 29-30.
240 See Heath, Byzantine Armies, pp. 31, 34, 35,36.
241 See the 4 th century Roman warrior shown in a mosaic of Amazonomachia from Antiochia, now in Louvre; I have the
photo in my photographic archive. It was may be a armour harness derived from Sassanian Persians. See Nicolle,
Sassanian Armies, pp. 18 fig. 11, 22 fig. 14, and pls. D1-F3; Wyley, The Chest, p. 29 ; Hoffmeyer, Military Equipment,
fig. 17.
242 Gamber O., The Sutton Hoo military Equipment, an attempted reconstruction, in The Journal of The Arms and
armours society, Vol. V, n. 6 june 1966, pp. 265-289 and pl. LVII.; Idem, Kataphrakten, Klibanarier,
Normannenreiter, in “Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischer Sammlungen”, Wien, 1968, p. 35 fig. 53.
243 See Diaconu, Dinogetia, p. 299-300, fig. 173 n. 26 ; it is of gilded bronze, discovered in 1950 in the sector A of the
city, and dated to 11 th century ; its dimension are 0,046 x 0,016 m. ; a extremity is cut while the other is round shaped,
may be to imitate an animal head. Over the convex face is executed, by pressing, a ornament tuft shaped, interlaced
with another one arched, with symmetrical branches disposed longitudinally on a surface, with a internal decoration
partially of animal, partially of vegetal aspect, typical of the Germanic Nord Europe and classified as of the II Germanic
style. On the back two rivets were used to fixed an ornamental plaque to the strap.
This ornament, with Norman decoration, together with a sabre cross guard discovered in Gravan (s. p. 337), are
classified by archaeologists as trade objects of Russo-Scandinavian origin passing through the so called “road of the
Varangians to the land of Greeks”, from the Baltic Sea to Constantinople. Garvan and Dinogetia were part of the
Thèma Paristion and were land of passage and recruitment for the Varangians enroled as mercenaries in the East-
Roman army. S. also Barnea N., Preliminary reports of memorial stones of Besarabia, in Dacia, VI, 1962, pp. 293-316,
in russian, especially pp. 311-316.
244 Cfr..alternative or cumulative hypothesis in Byzantine Lamellar armour, Much Ado about bondage, of Nicholson-
Alaric of Lothian 1989-1990, on Internet, A/Byzantine Lamellar armour.htm.
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