Late antique and Byzantine arms and armours

ABSTRACT

GALLAECIA GOTHICA: FROM CONSPIRACY OF DUX ARGIMUNDUS (589/590 AD) TO INTEGRATION IN THE VISIGOTHIC KINGDOM OF TOLEDO.
The rebellion of the dux Argimundus was one of the most delicate moments of the reign of Reccared. We have no precise details of how the plot unfolded but certainly the throne was seriously threatened: the John of Biclaro’s Chronicle underline the seriousness of this threat expounding on punishment suffered by the rebel and his accomplices. All this topped with a lapidary phrase with John of Biclaro closes its chronic (et docuit famulos dominis non esse superbos). This categorical condemnation of the attempted overthrow King is unmatched by any other uprisings narrated throughout the pages of his chronicle. It gives us an idea of transcendence that John of Biclaro gave it in his story. The fact that the Biclarensis mentions that Argimundus was not only a member of the Aula Regia but also dux prouinciae, the name of the rebel, the Gallaecia situation and the circumstance of being a newly conquered province, and last, the parallel with the revolt of the Duke Paulus regarding modus operandi and subsequent punishment, are arguments that incline us to think that of dux Argimundus complot was not just a palace conspiracy, but a genuine revolt of the province of Gallaecia that could have ruined the political work built by Leovigild and Reccared. This interpretation confirms an old hypothesis defended decades ago by the Portuguese historian A. M. de Faria, who, based on the study of numismatics Reccared’s reign, suggested that this attempt of usurpation would have taken place in Gallaecia.
However, due to the inaccuracy of our source, it is difficult to prove what the ultimate goal of the dux Argimundus was: if Reccared overthrow the Visigothic throne or, conversely, to restore the old Suebian kingdom in Gallaecia. Some indications seem to suggest rather the latter. First, the province had recently conquered thanks in part to a clash between two factions of the Suebic nobility, and the rebel could belong one of them. Secondly, there is the deafening silence of Biclarensis on the development of the facts, silence that contrasts with the details that contributes to other similar events. And finally, we are inclined to believe in this option the way the rebels were punished, with a final ride on the back of a donkey through the streets of Toledo, in a kind of mock triumph or parody ceremony investiture, which certainly seems more akin to a military triumph than a palace conspiracy. These, in general, were solved with a series of summary trials and subsequent execution of the sentence, as we have seen in the case of conspiracies of Segga in Merida and Uldila in Toledo. In this regard, significantly, in our opinion, the punishment inflicted Argimundus is virtually identical to suffer years after dux Paulus after his unsuccessful revolt in Septimania. Through the study of Onomastic, we propose in this paper the hypothesis of a Suebian origin of dux Argimundus and his possible relationship to the Suebian royal dynasty as well as the possibility that the news transmitted by John of Biclaro hide actually an attempt to restore the Suebian kingdom of Gallaecia.
In our own point of view, the importance of the rebellion of dux Argimundus is mainly to be seen as the beginning of a phenomenon that marks the future of Gallaecia in Visigothic times: the militarization of the Duchy. An analysis of the various literary and archaeological sources that we have been doing confirms the idea that the incorporation of old Suebian kingdom to the Visigoth kingdom of Toledo not has been as peaceful and complete as described in unison the chronicles of the time. On the contrary it seems clear that it was a long and gradual process, alternating with difficulties and successes, which resulted in a significant military presence in the area. In relation with this matter, we also discussed here geography Leovigild’s military campaigns in the Northwest aimed at the conquest of the Suebian kingdom of Gallaecia and location of the territory inhabited by the Ruccones and the Aregenses mountains, whose location is today discussed. We propose here that the Ruccones of the Visigothic literary sources will be identified with old Luggones, an ethnic group related to the ancient Astures, who should inhabit the current region of Bierzo (province of León). And we also propose that the Aregenses mountains will be located in Cabrera’s montains, around the river Eria valley, in the border between de current provinces of León and Zamora.
Definitely Visigothic conquest prompted the province to acquire a strong military character, which would explain the emergence of a strong Suebian-Gothic aristocracy eventually get done with the reins of power and held power in Toledo during second half of 7th Century. In a certain sense, it can be assumed to Gallaecia a situation not unlike of Septimania, but in this case its closeness of Merovingian and Burgundian realms provokes a greater risk and greater chance of success on holdup, hence the need to place in front of Duchy nobles with blood ties with the ruling dynasty.
Anyway, and similar to the Narbonensis case, it seems that Gallaecia was considered a foreign body within the Visigoth kingdom of Toledo. As underlined by one author is highly significant that chronic of Alfonso III of Oviedo mentions the kingdom of the Suebi a century and a half after its conquest. The literary sources, in fact, suggest the existence of a certain feeling of uniqueness in Visigothic Gallaecia that would have kept alive well into the Middle Ages. The heavy militarization of the territory and the enormous power accumulated by his aristocratic circle will make up an important faction within the Visigothic nobility. As mentioned, unlike Narbonensis, geographic isolation of Gallaecia and the impossibility of having foreign allies difficult here any attempt of usurpation, but instead it served to tie important kinship between the Suebian nobility and Gothic one. This should further strengthen the personality of the territory and give it some political content that will hatch in the Middle Ages. In any case, the situation experienced by Gallaecia and Narbonensis during the Visigoth period will have a certain parallel with the events that followed the Arab conquest at 711 with a Kingdom of Asturias isolated and left to their fate and some counties of Septimania and Northern Tarraconensis willing to agree with the Franks. In this sense, if the Galician origin of kings who occupied the throne Toledo in the second half of the seventh Century will confirmed, the mechanisms that led to the emergence of a core of political and military domination of Islamic resistance in the Northwestern area of the Iberian Peninsula would better understand.

Статья посвящена предварительной публикации тайника из позднеантичного склепа Фанагории. Глубокий грунтовый склеп конца IV – первой половины V в. н. э. был исследован на Восточном некрополе в 2019 г. Он имел две погребальные камеры, одна из которых сохранилась в первозданном виде. В ней обнаружено семь захоронений в деревянных гробах, сопровождавшихся богатым погребальным инвентарем, в том числе золотыми украшениями. В полу камеры склепа был открыт тайник. В нем обнаружен длинный всаднический меч с золотым навершием на длинной деревянной рукояти. Рядом с мечом лежали элементы снаряжения воина. Престижное оружие имеет восточное происхождение и принадлежит к группе иранских мечей ранней сасанидской традиции с характерным навершием. Подобные мечи с очень длинными рукоятями известны на изображениях сасанидских царей. Экземпляр оружия из тайника уникален для Азиатского Боспора эпохи Великого переселения народов. Самые близкие аналогии найдены в тайнике склепа 145 из некрополя Пантикапея. Похожее оружие происходит из памятников Северного Причерноморья, Северного Кавказа, Приуралья. Меч из Фанагории является очередным свидетельством культурных связей Боспорского царства не только с Восточной Римской Империей, но и с Державой Сасанидов.

The paper contains a preliminary report on a cache from the Late Classical vault in Phanagoria. A deep ground vault dating from the end of the 4th – first half of the 5th centuries was excavated in the Eastern cemetery in 2019. It had two burial chambers one of which was preserved intact. It yielded seven burials in wooden coffins with rich funerary assemblages including gold jewelry. A hiding place was found beneath the floor of a vault chamber. It contained a long horse rider’s sword with a gold pommel on a long wooden hilt. There were elements of warrior’s armor lying near the sword. This prestigious weapon with a typical pommel has an oriental origin and belongs to the group
of Iranian swords of the early Sasanid tradition. Such swords with very long hilts can be seen on the paintings of Sasanid rulers. The weapon from this cache is unique for the Asian Bosporan Kingdom of the Migration Period. The closest analogies have been found in a hiding place of vault 145 in the Panticapaeum cemetery. Similar weapons come from the sites located in the northern Black Sea region, the northern Caucasus, and the Urals region. The Phanagoria sword is another evidence of cultural links that the Bosporan Kingdom maintained not only with the Eastern Roman Empire but also with the Sasanid Empire.

В 2017 г. некропольским отрядом Фанагорийской экспедиции ИА РАН было исследовано позднеантичное детское захоронение, которое относится к одному из самых редких типов погребений Фанагории этого времени – глубоким могилам с подбоем в торцевой стене шахты. В некрополе столицы Азиатского Боспора IV–V вв. подбойные гробницы в количественном отношении существенно уступают простым могилам и грунтовым склепам. В них гораздо чаще встречаются золотые предметы, что свидетельствует в пользу довольно высокого социального статуса погребенных в них горожан. Не стал исключением и комплекс № 280, которому посвящена настоящая статья. Погребение представляло собой узкую прямоугольную шахту с нишей в северо-западной стене, на полу которой стоял деревянный гроб со скелетом ребенка. Погребенный был уложен на левый бок, кости рук располагались на туловище и под ним; ноги вытянуты и в области стоп при-
жаты друг к другу. Ребенок ориентирован головой на юго-восток – к шахте погребения, что не типично для фанагорийских позднеантичных захоронений. Инвентарь представлен исключительно изделиями погребальной практики, имитирующими реальные предметы. Все они изготовлены из фольги благородных металлов. В области туловища ребенка найдены золотые имитации деталей ременного гарнитура (пряжка, два наконечника ремня) выполненные в единой стилистике и изготовленные по одной технологической схеме. В нижней части голеней обнаружен тлен от серебряной фольги, вероятно, это остатки пластины, имитировавшей элемент ременного гарнитура (пряжка или наконечник ремня). Рядом с нижней челюстью погребенного обнаружена золотая индикация, которая, повидимому, была использована в качестве «обола Харона» и находилась изначально во рту ребенка. Именно индикация, оттиснутая с бронзовой монеты – полуфоллиса Константина I, выпускавшейся на монетном дворе Рима в период с октября 312 по май 313 г. н.э., задает нижний хронологический рубеж всего комплекса и позволяет датировать погребение временем не ранее 313 г. н.э. На основании анализа аналогичных погребальных наборов Боспора, археологического контекста в котором они были обнаружены, высказывается предположение о принадлежности этих древностей, прежде всего, воинской погребальной культуре. Выдвигается гипотеза, согласно которой имитации пряжек и наконечников ремней могли использоваться в качестве элементов погребальной портупеи.

            In 2017, the necropolis team of the Phanagorian Mission of IA RAS explored the Late Antique children’s burial, which is one of the rarest types of burials of Phanagoria of this time (deep tombs with a niche in the sidewall of the mine). There are less niche tombs than simple graves and ground crypts in the necropolis of the Asian Bosporan capital in the 4th –5th centuries AD. Gold items are seldom found there, indicating a rather high social status of the citizens buried in them. The burial No 280 is a narrow rectangular mine with a niche in the northwest wall. A wooden coffi n with a child’s skeleton was situated in the center. The dead laid on his left side; the bones of his hands were located on the body and under it; the legs are stretched out and in the area of the feet are pressed against each other. The child is oriented by head to the southeast, to the burial mine, that is not typical for the Phanagorian Late Antique burials. Solely goods of funeral practice imitated real artefacts. All of them are made of foil of precious metals. In the fi eld of the body of the child, gold imitations of the details of the belt headset (buckle, two belt tips) were made in the same stylistics and made according to the same technological scheme. In the lower part of the shins a decay from the silver foil was recovered, probably the remnants of a plate imitating an element of the belt headset (buckle or belt tip). Next to the lower jaw of the buried one, a gold danake was found, which, apparently, was used as the “Charon’s obol” and was fi rst in the child’s mouth. The danake was impressed from the bronze coin – the half-follis of Constantine I, issued at the mint of Rome from October 312 to May 313 AD. It sets the lower chronological boundary of the whole complex and allows dating the burial after 313 AD. Based on the analysis of similar burial sets of the Bosporus, the archaeological context in which they were discovered, we are suggesting that these antiquities belong to a military funerary culture. A hypothesis is advanced that the imitation of buckles and belt tips can be used as elements of a funeral belt set.

Resumen:

La primera gran invasión bárbara en la Península Ibérica tuvo lugar en el año 409 y fue consecuencia de la guerra civil que enfrentó a dos usurpadores entres sí –Constantino III en las Galias y Geroncio en Hispania-, y a éstos con el legítimo emperador romano Honorio. Esta primera invasión apenas ha dejado vestigios arqueológicos apreciables, aunque es posible documentarla a través de yacimientos como el de Tinto Juan de la Cruz (Pinto, Madrid).

Palabras clave: Primeras invasiones, armamento, Tinto Juan de la Cruz.

Abstract:

The firts Barbarian wave took place in 409 after Christ as a consequence of the Hispania’s civil war between two usurpers, Constantin III and Geroncio. Both were fighting one another and against the Hispanic Roman legal emperor, Honorius. The first wave left archeological important traces; we can refer to the exploitation of devasted villas. The ruins in Tinto Juan de de la Cruz are related to the widespread destructions, wich can be appreciated in this kind of exploitations during the first half of 5th century.

Keys words: First Barbarian, weaponry, Tinto Juan de la Cruz.

EL CABALLERO EN EL MEDIEVO

Orígenes de la caballería 1
La caballería del Bajo Imperio romano 13
La caballería de los pueblos bárbaros 25
La caballería imperial bizantina 37
La caballería islámica en Europa 49
La caballería carolingia 61
La caballería hispánica hasta el año 1000 73
El caballero de la época feudal 85
La educación caballeresca 97
La estirpe del caballero 121
Los ideales del caballero 133
Torneos y justas 145
El caballero español 157
Inglaterra y la caballería 169
El Reino de Francia 181
Condottieri italianos 193
Cruz vs media luna 205
La caballería heroica 217
El fracaso de las cruzadas 229

In the following work the results of the 2014 field campaign developed in the castel-lum and in Tamuda's Mauritanian city are shown. Funded by the «Proyectos Arqueológicos en el Exterior» spanish program, different activities have been conducted during this campaign. In this respect the University of Huelva dug in the principia of the Roman military camp, developing previous works; field work was also carried our in the water supply of the site and in the huts for the troops. The University of Cadiz team dedicated its efforts to continuing with the works on the outside of the castellum, in the so called oriental neighborhood («Barrio Oriental»), where different Mauritanian structures, as well as the balneum identified during the previous campaigns have been studied in detail.

Hijo de una noble familia bizantina,
Alejo Comneno hizo del fortalecimiento
del estado y el poderío militar bizantino la
guía de su ideal político. En su intento por
frenar el avance de los turcos sobre Anatolia,
el emperador no dudó en pedir ayuda al
mismísimo papa de Roma

El triunfo de Abu el-Abás sobre los omeyas significó
la instauración de una nueva dinastía que iba
a regir los destinos del islam. El nuevo califa y
sus sucesores, los abasíes, provocaron multitud de
cambios en la estructura del Estado y en la
organización de sus ejércitos, cuya principal
fuerza de choque fueron los arqueros a caballo
acorazados.

Las campañas de Balbars redujeron los límites del reino de
Jerusalén a una estrecha franja costera difícil de
defender. Las únicas razones de ser de este
pequeño enclave eran mantener la antigua ruta
comercial con Oriente, así como el temor a
que su final sirviera de excusa para una Intervención de
Carlos de Anjou.

Los normandos franceses mantuvieron viva la
tradición aventurera de sus antepasados vikingos.
A mediados del siglo XI, algunos grupos de
normandos arribaron a las costas de Sicilia
y el sur de Italia con la intención de formar allí
el reino que se les negaba en su tierra de origen.
Para ello tuvieron que enfrentarse a un
poderoso enemigo: el Imperio bizantino.

HIjo de Juan II Comneno y la princesa húngara Irene,
Manuel I abordó una ambiciosa restauración del Imperio
bizantino aprovechando las disensiones entre los turcos
anatolios a la muerte del emir danishmend Muhammad ibn
Ghazi. Inclinado hacia las modas de Occidente, Manuel se propuso también transformar la anquilosada
corte bizantina en la más brillante de las cortes europeas
de su tiempo.

En 1081, Alejo Comneno se coronaba
emperador de Bizancio y destronaba al usurpador
Nicéforo 111. Durante su reinado, tuvo que lidiar
con dos enemigos que acosaban al imperio, los normandos
y los turcos selyúcidas, y fue precisamente su
petición de ayuda al papa Urbano XI la que dio origen
al movimiento cruzado.

Las tierras del norte de Britania fueron uno
de los últimos territorios europeos en ser
conquistados por las legiones romanas, que
no llegaron a traspasar los límites del río Clyde,
más allá del cual acechaban los bárbaros.
Hacia finales del siglo IV, las tribus bárbaras
cruzaron esas fronteras y pusieron fin al poder
de Roma en la isla.

Aunque en la actualidad el nombre de Armenia se
relaciona con la república del mismo nombre
situada entre las repúblicas de Turquía y Azerbaiján,
en la época de las cruzadas los armenios se extendían desde el noreste de Anatolia hasta Cilicia. Las correrías de los turcos selyúcldas de Alp Arslan y, sobre todo, la derrota de los bizantinos en la batalla de
Manzlkert (1071) acabaron con el reino de Armenia y
dejaron el país en manos del sultán selyúclda. Sin embargo,
una parte de la población armenia encontró refugio en
Cilicia, donde fundaron el reino de la Pequeña
Armenia.

E loultiin Salah ad-Din o Saladlno
(113&1193), que slgnlftca «Honrando
la fe .. , nació en Tlkrlt (actuallrak)
en el seno de una familia kurda.
Fundador de la dinastía ayyubí,
fue uno de los personajes más
Importantes de la tercera
cruzada, y Junto a Ricardo
Corazon de León formó el
reino latino de Jerusalén.