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.
fastened on sides by means of leather thongs (fig.15 n. 21) as
those You could see in the miniature of David and Goliath of
Cod. Parisinus Graecus 139 of 10 th cent 299 . This is a
extraordinary source which shows us a way of fastening a
leather cuirass, and the same way of fastening is shown for the
scale klibanion worn by Basil I in the folio 86r of the
Scylitzes. 300
Smaller lamellae grew thinner narrowing on the
shoulders. So in the reconstructed cuirass of our man the 16
rows of scales end on the shoulders with what look like a
transversal joint 301 which could reinforce the idea of two valves
united and fastened, on the sides by laces, and on the shoulder,
by means of clasps (fig. 15 n. 22) which may be similar to some
fragments of the lamellar armour found in the Great Palace 302 .
The under cuirass garment does not look as muscledshaped
in the source, because the warrior, apart from helmet and
armour, is armed in a more western fashion. It has got, in any
case, decorative shoulder pieces remembering the ancient ones
(fig. 15 n. 23).
The spear carried by the men in the Capua Exultet is
undoubtely of the typical “winged”one, so called for its iron
projections on every side of the grove in the wood pole. This
weapon, derived from Germanic races , was used or for war or
for hunt, but as a war weapon it reached its finest development
in the Carolingian age, as attested and used by all the Northern
and Mediterranean races, including East-Romans, Franks,
Vikings, Muslims and Slavs 303 .
The specimen in the reconstruction has been copied from
point GW959 found in the Arabo-Byzantine shipwreck of Serçe
Limani 304 . Apart from its similarity, in style and proportions to
Identical armour but of metallic plates is worn by a warrior in the same Exultet of Pisa, Temporal Authorities, 2, s.
Exultet, p. 173.
299
Heath, Byzantine armies, p. 33.
300
The detail is very clear in Sherrard, Byzanz, p. 67, where the ending part of the laces goes out from the right side of
the κλιβανιον.
301
Better visible at the scanner.
302
Talbot Rice, The Great Palace, pl. 58 fig. 7.
303
S. Kovacs L., Bemerkungen zur Bewertung der Frankischen Flugellanzen im Karpatenbecken, in Mitteilungen des
Archäologischen Instituts der Ungarischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 8/9 1978/1979, pp.97-119, pls. 59-68;
Paulsen P., Flügellanzen zum archäeologischen Horizont der Wiener Sancta Lancea, in Frümittelalterliche Studien 3,
pp. 289-312, pls. XIX-XXI; a good specimen in a Lombard-East-Roman context was found in Nocera Umbra, grave 6,
together with other weapons of Eastern Mediterranean origin; s. Paroli-Arena, Museo dell’alto Medioevo, Roma 1993,
pp. 32-33 fig. 29; the evidence of the use by East-Roman troops of this kind of weapon is well attested, for Italy, in the
famous Crucifixion fresco of Santa Maria Antiqua, in situ, Forum Romanum, dated 700 circa, where Longinus holds
this kind of spear, cfr. P. Romanelli, Santa Maria Antiqua, Roma 1999 pl. VII; a very nice specimen found in Rome
and dated to the same period is now shown in the Crypta Balbi Museum. For 9 th cent. Constantinople, we can clearly
distinguish it in the hands of one of the Guards of Salomon in folio 215 v of Gregorius Nazianzenus 510, representing
probably an Imperial Primikerios Kandidatos, s. note 94 above. For their use by the Vikings see Nurmann, The Vikings,
pp.14-15; and the Muslims Nicolle D., Armies of the Caliphates 862-1098, London 1998, p. 17 pl F.
304
45 cm. length. For what concerns the whole length of the spear, the wood fragments attached to the same suggest a
total length of 1 m. and an half (pole and head together). It was directly put in the wood pole, without rivets. S.
Schwarzer J.K., Arms from an eleventh Century Shipwreck, in Graeco-Arabica IV, 1991, pp. 327-350, p. 329, fig. 5.
The armament discovered in the eleventh century shipwreck of Serce Limani, always more considered a Byzantine ship
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