A Byzantine Style Fresco of Three Mounted Saints, Monastery of Diskouri at Mylopotamos in Crete, late 14th century AD.

Fig. 2. Three Saints cavalrymen. Fresco from Monastery of Diskouri at Mylopotamos in Crete, late 14th c. AD (photo by courtesy of Dr. B. Tsamakdá).

The War-Mace Of Byzantium
In a more general meaning, between the 10^th and the 13^th c., the Roman authors use mainly the word κορύνη, to indicate always the war-mace, especially that of the cavalryman. With their cherished iron war-maces (korrhinê), the 12^th c. Eastern Roman cavalry were a deadly force to be reckoned with in battle. The Hungarians, in particular under Istvan III, felt the full force of this weapon and suffered a dreadful defeat in 1167 at the hands of Andronikos Kontostephanos, Strategos (general) under Manuel I²². The Roman cavalryman, feared by the Hungarians, wearing this weapon in the right hand, with a spherical spiked head, was called korrhinêphoros (Eustathii Thessalonicensis... 1892, 35, 11-36, 14).

       The carrying of the mace
       During the middle and the late periods of Byzantium, the mace was therefore an integral part of the equipment of the heavy-cavalry warriors, who carried it in three different ways:
       a) in a sheath attached to their saddles²³; this was probably provided especially for the maces made of a rather delicate or oxydable material, like bronze, which could be damaged by bad weather so that it was necessary to keep them in a leather case when not in use (Hoffmeyer 1966, 113);
       b) or, as we have seen in Theophanes Continuatus, at their belts²⁴;
       c) or, according to Leo Diaconus, by means of a string or lace wrapped around the wrist (see n. 5).
       The presence of a fastening system for the mace is also attested in the Digenis Akritas poem, when the hero orders to prepare his horse for the kidnapping of his future wife from the house of her father: hang the good sword-mace to the saddle²⁵ (Digenis Akritas... 1995 IV, 378).
       The hanging system is specified in a further passage, as formed by a special hook for the fastening, called rabdovastakin (ραβδοβαστκιν)²⁶. The uncle of the hero, preparing himself for a duel with the Arab Emir who kidnapped his sister attached the club (or the mace) to the mace-holder²⁷. This was a sort of case from which it was easy to draw the mace or the club at the moment of the fight. Sometimes it was a leather case and sometimes it was a simple hook which
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21 He brandished also in his hand the mace-breaker of the helmets (Digenis Akritas... 1995, E 931; Kolias 1988, 183, n. 57).
22 In this case the Romans, having taken up with hands the iron maces – they were accustomed to wear this kind of weapon beside the other weapons when they went to the fight – began to beat the Hungarians (Choniates… 1994, VI, 203-204).
23 Attached to the saddles they should have throwing maces and fighting maces (Sylloge Tacticorum... 1938, 39; see also Parani 2003, 138).
24 This was also the way in which the mace was worn by the infantrymen (see n. 9).
25 The employed word, spathorravdin, is difficult to interpret, because it can be translated as the good sword and the mace or also the good sword-mace. The author personally believes that this was a particular kind of mace used by the Akritai, having a hilt like a sword but the head like a mace; also according to Kolias the σπαθορράβδιν was a particular weapon which united the fencing and cutting function of the sword with that of thrusting typical of the mace. Anyway the system of attaching to the saddle was the same as used for the proper mace (see also Digenis Akritas... 1995, IV, 645). For a possible representation of a sword-mace in Skylitzès see Hoffmeyer (1966, Fig. 18:8), which can be compared with similar Persian Sassanid sword-maces of the 7^th c. cavalryman (see for instance Nicolle 1996, 59); in 14^th c. Italy see the Polittico [polyptych] of Paolo Veneziano of about 1321 AD in Firenze, representing the legend of Saint Orsola [Ursula] (Babuin 2009, Fig. 1099).
26 And he wore the mace at the mace-holder (Digenes Akritas 1971, G 119).
27 εβάσταζε καί τό ραβδίν εισ τό (Digenis Akritas... 1995, v. 148).

fastened the mace at the saddle, at the height of the right leg of the cavalryman. This hook is illustrated in Late East Roman paintings representing military Saints: a fresco of the late 14^th c. AD from Crete, preserved in the Monastery of Diskouri at Mylopotamos, shows Aghios Demetrios with a horseman, having the head of his mace attached with a hook-ring at the saddle, visible beside the right leg of the cavalryman (Fig. 2). Although the fresco illustrates a hanging system of a late period, there is no reason to exclude that similar hooks were used since the 9^th-10^th c., besides leather cases for the maces attached to the saddle. In the Praecepta Militaria the three systems are mentioned as possibly employed contemporaneously by the 10^th c. Kataphraktos: they should have their iron maces and sabers in their hands and have other iron maces either on their belts or saddles²⁸ (Praecepta Militaria... 1995, III,7, 57-60).
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28 In the parallel passage of Nikephoros Ouranos only hanging from belts and attaching to saddles are mentioned (Nikephoros Ouranos 1995, 60.69-70).

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b) Flanged bulbous heads
This shape is a sub-category of the polygonal head and appears in Byzantine paintings only in the 14th and the 15th c. Probably this form of mace originated in the East, as could be proved by the image of a charging Persian-Mongol cavalryman holding such a mace in a miniature of about 1330-1335 from Tabriz⁴⁴ (Nicolle 1999, Fig. 632:j; Babuin 2009, Fig. 1019). The best example is visible in the cavalrymen of the Church of Diskouri (Fig. 2), representing Greek élite Cretan noblemen of the late 14th c., who formed, under permission of their Venetian masters, the last guardsmen of the Emperors of Byzantium (Heath 1984, 19).

44 Ardashir battling with Bahman, from The Demotte Shahnamah, Tabriz, folio preserved in the Detroit Institute of Art (inv. no. 35.54). See also the maces represented in folio 105r of the Shahnamah in Topkapi Library, Istanbul, Ms. Haz. 1511, 1371 AD (Nicolle 1990, 6).

Source: pp. 21-22 & 31, "The War-Mace Of Byzantium, 9-15 C. AD. New Evidence From The Balkans In The Collection Of The World Museum Of Man, Florida" by Raffaele D’Amato in Acta Militaria Mediaevalia VII