TRAPEZUNTINE BYZANTINE CAVALRYMAN, 14th CENTURY

An extract from Armies of the Middle Ages, Volume 2
by Ian Heath

60. TRAPEZUNTINE BYZANTINE CAVALRYMAN, 14th CENTURY

This figure, from an illustrated ‘Labours of the Months’ ms. commissioned in 1346 for the monastery of St Eugenios in Trebizond, demonstrates that conventional Byzantine equipment remained in use in the 14th century even in this far-flung corner of the Greek-speaking world. The illustrations in this ms. appear to have been taken from contemporary rural scenes, so he is fairly certainly one of the strategoi or stratiotoi mentioned on page 24. He wears quilted leather body-armour and coif and still rides with his stirrups long. Note the absence of spurs. Probably such traditional equipment had disappeared by the beginning of the 15th century when, as we have already seen, Clavijo reported the use of Turkish swords, bows and short stirrups.

[Based on March (Aries) as a mounted warrior in Typikon, Byzantine Trebizond, 1346AD. Vatopedi Cod. 1199]

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