Glossary

 

Abbasid Caliphate: An Islamic Caliphate that controlled the lands of ancient Persia before the 10th Century AD. In the following years, much of this control was ceded to the Daylamids.

Akhi: Seljuk infantry armed with long anti-cavalry spears, scimitars, shields and sometimes armoured in lamellar.

Bey: Seljuk military commander, subordinate to an emir.

Ballista: Primarily anti-personnel missile artillery capable of throwing bolts vast distances. Utilised from fortified positions and on the battlefield.

Bandon: The basic battlefield unit of infantry in the Byzantine army. Literally meaning ‘banner’, a bandon typically consisted of between two hundred and four hundred men, usually skutatoi, who would line up in a square formation, presenting spears to their enemy from their front ranks and hurling rhiptarion from the ranks behind. Banda would form together on the battlefield to present something akin to the ancient phalanx.

Buccina: The ancestor of the trumpet and the trombone, this instrument was used for the announcement of night watches and various other purposes in the Byzantine forts and marching camps as well as to communicate battlefield manoeuvres.

Buccinator: A soldier who uses the buccina to perform acoustical signalling on the battlefield and in forts, camps and settlements.

Chi-Rho: The Chi-Rho is one of the earliest forms of Christogram, and was used in the early Christian Roman Empire through to the Byzantine high period as a symbol of piety and empire. It is formed by superimposing the first two letters in the Greek spelling of the word Christ, chi = ch and rho = r, in such a way to produce the following monogram:

Daylamid Dynasty: An Islamic Persian dynasty that originated in Daylaman in modern-day Iran and grew to take control of the Abbasid Caliphate. Also known as the Buyid Dynasty.

Dekarchos: A minor officer in charge of a kontoubernion of ten skutatoi who would be expected to fight in the front rank of his bandon. He would wear a red* sash to denote his rank.

Djinn: Islamic demon.

Droungarios: A Byzantine officer in charge of two banda, who would wear a silver* sash to denote his rank.

Emir: Seljuk military leader, equivalent to the Byzantine strategos.

Fatimid Caliphate: Arab Islamic caliphate that dominated modern-day Tunisia and Egypt in the middle ages.

Follis: A large bronze coin of small value.

Foulkon: The Byzantine heir to the famous Roman testudo or ‘tortoise’ formation.

Ghulam: The Seljuk heavy cavalry, equivalent to the Byzantine kataphractos. Armoured well in scale vest or lamellar, with a distinctive pointed helmet with nose guard, carrying a bow, scimitar and spear.

Ghazi: The Seljuk light cavalry, whose primary purpose was to raid enemy lands and disrupt defensive systems and supply chains.

Ghaznavid Empire: A Persian Muslim dynasty of Turkic origin who ruled much of Persia, Transoxania and Northern India prior to the rise of the Seljuks.

Haga: A ferocious two-headed eagle from ancient Hittite mythology. Also the basis for what would become the emblem of both the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk Empire.

Kampidoktores: The drill master in charge of training Byzantine soldiers.

Kataphractos: Byzantine heavy cavalry and the main offensive force in the thema and tagma armies. The riders and horses would wear iron lamellar and mail armour, leaving little vulnerability to attack. The riders would use their kontarion for lancing, spathion for skirmishing or their bow for harrying.

Kentarches: A Byzantine officer in charge of one hundred Byzantine soldiers. A descendant of the Roman centurion.

Kentarchia: A notional unit of one hundred Byzantine soldiers, commanded by a Kentarches.

Klibanion: The characteristic Byzantine lamellar cuirass made of leather, horn or iron squares, usually sleeveless, though sometimes with leather strips hanging from the waist and shoulders.

Komes: An officer in charge of a bandon who would wear a white* sash to denote his rank.

Kontarion: A spear between two and three metres long, the kontarion was designed for Byzantine infantry to hold off enemy cavalry.

Kontoubernion: A grouping of ten Byzantine infantry who would eat together, patrol together, share sleeping quarters or a pavilion tent while on campaign and would be rewarded or punished as a single unit.

Mangonel: Catapult-style seige engine that shot heavy projectiles from a bowl-shaped bucket at the end of the arm. Used for both anti-personnel and anti-fortification purposes.

Nomisma: A gold coin that could be debased by various degrees to set its value.

Protocancellarius: Chief clerk in charge of Byzantine military thema administration.

Protomandator: The chief of heralds in a thema, responsible for despatching messengers and relaying communication.

Rhiptarion: A short throwing spear. Skutatoi carried two or three of these each.

Salep: A hot drink made with orchid root, cinnamon and milk.

Shatranj: A precursor to modern-day chess.

Skutatos: The Byzantine infantryman, based on the ancient hoplite. He was armed with an iron helmet, a spathion, a skutum, a kontarion, two or more rhiptaria and possibly a dagger and an axe. He would wear a lamellar klibanion if positioned to the front of his bandon, or a padded jacket or felt vest if he was closer to the rear. Tagma skutatoi may well all have been afforded iron lamellar armour.

Skutum: The Byzantine infantry shield that gives the skutatoi their name. Usually teardrop-shaped and painted identically within a bandon.

Spathion: The Byzantine infantry sword, derived from the Roman spatha. Up to a metre long, this straight blade was primarily for stabbing, but allowed slashing and hacking as well.

Strategos: Literally ‘army leader’. The themata armies of Byzantium were organised and led by such a man. The strategos was also responsible for governance of his thema.

Tagma: The tagmata were the professional standing armies of the Byzantine Empire. They were traditionally clustered around Constantinople, but in the 11th century they were moved closer to the empire’s borders to counter emerging threats. These armies were formed to provide a central reserve, to meet enemy encroachment that could not be dealt with by the themata, and also to cow the potentially revolutionary power of those themata. They were well armoured, armed, paid and fed. Each tagma held around five thousand men and was composed of exclusively cavalry or infantry.

Thema: In the 7th century AD, as a result of the crisis caused by the Muslim conquests, the Byzantine military and administrative system was reformed: the old late Roman division between military and civil administration was abandoned, and the remains of the Eastern Roman Empire’s field armies were settled in great districts, the themata, that were named after those armies. The men of the themata would work their state-leased military lands in times of peace and then don their armour and weapons when summoned by the strategos to defend their thema or to set out on campaign alone or with the tagmata. When mustered, each thema could field around ten thousand men, primarily infantry.

Tourmarches: A Byzantine officer in charge of the military forces and administration of a tourma.

Toxotes: The Byzantine archer, lightly armoured with a felt jacket and armed with a composite bow and a dagger.

Tourma: A subdivision of a Byzantine thema, commanded by a tourmarches and comprised of some two thousand soldiers of the thema army and encompassing a geographical subset of the thema lands.

 

*The use of a sash to denote rank is backed up by historical texts, but the sash colours stated are speculative.