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.
by all the people who was accustomed to come to blows 313 .
The man wears two tunics: a light undergarment, probably a
καµισιον 314 , in a ochre dyed linen, and a superior cotton, felt or
silk garment, who could be the identified with the so called
armilausion, 315 or a kind of padded himation worn under
armour. Under the cuirass the soldiers wore special garments, to
prevent the body from the direct contact with iron or other
coarse materials or armour and to make it easier to wear it. So at
least you could deduce from the text of Anonymus de re militari
of 6 th cent., which can be applied to later ages. He says that an
important factor for the equipment’s effectiveness should be its
distance from the body: "It should not be worn directly over
ordinary clothing, as some do to keep down the weight of the
armour, but over a himation at least a finger thick. There are
two reasons for this. Where it touches the body the hard metal
may not chafe but may fit and lie comfortably upon the body. In
addition, it helps to prevent the enemy missiles from hitting the
flesh because of the iron, the design, and the smoothness, but
also because the metal is kept away from the flash."(Anonymus
Peri Strategias, 16, 20-27) 316 . Under-garments of this kind
(ιµατια) formed a heavier weight for the soldiers, but protected
them from wounds caused by their armour and offered a more
consistent protection. Furthermore these undergarments were
not only worn under the metal armour, but also, as in this way,
under the leather fabric of the lamellae, so that their defensive
function takes on a bigger importance.
We know from tacticians 317 that in 10-11 th centuries the
Roman infantrymen wore padded tunics made of felt, cotton or
coarse silk; the καβαδια of the infantry are recorded as wearing
an outer protective layer 318 , over the armour or even instead of
it, but this does not exclude that under cuirass tunics, made as
well of padded material or kentoukla, 319 were worn under the
armour as shown in the pictorial sources.
We should verify if the padded tunic under armour here worn
is to identify with the kind of tunic called αρµιλαυσιον. The
use of this tunic by the infantrymen in Roman army is attested
313
S. Pio Franchi de Cavalieri, Il Menologio, folio 3 (Joshua) p. 4.note 3; for other examples of mantle rolled up the
body in 10-11 th cent. Byzantium s. the Joshua Roll, in Heath, Byzantine Armies, p.5,28,30; the Goliath in Cod. Gr. 17
of Marciana, in idem, p.37.
314
About καµισιον s. note 138 above.
315
De Cer. II, 670; s. Reiske Commentarii pp. 341, 792-793; Du Cange, Glossarium, col. 123 : “...a men wearing a
yellow- red-scarlet armelausion, quadrangolar and padded...” Cfr. Martyrium S. Bonifatii and Paulinus, Ep. XVII, 1,
“...cum armilausa ruberet...” in Pio Franchi de Cavalieri, Come andavano vestiti ed armati i milites, p. 225 n.3 . In De
Cer. I, 352 this dress is mentioned for the charioters of the factions in cyrcus, who should have a padded dress.
316
Translation of Dennis, in Three Treatises, p. 55.
317
Nikephoros Phokas, Praecepta Militaria, I, 3; Nikephoros Ouranos, Taktika, 56, 3; Sylloge Tacticorum, 38, 4 ;
38,7;
318
On the argument s. also the interesting article of Walker G., Byzantine military coats, in Varangian Voice 45, pp.
17-21
319 See also Kolias, Waffen, pp. 54-55 and note 136 ;
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