Download or read book Romano Byzantine Infantry Equipment written by Ian P. Stephenson and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This companion to the author's authoritative survey Roman Infantry Equipment covers the long period from the accession of Diocletian (284) to the death of Heraclius (641), of which the central event is the end of the Western Empire in favor of Byzantium. Systematically, Stephenson looks at the evolution of the different components of armor and weaponry--helmets, shields, body armor, the spear, blades and bludgeons, missile weapons, and artillery. He also examines the tactical uses made of infantry, cavalry, and the shieldwall.

Download or read book Romano Byzantine Armies 4th 9th Centuries written by David Nicolle and published by Osprey Publishing. This book was released on 1992-09-25 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although the Byzantine Empire was a continuation of the Roman Empire and faced similar military problems, its solutions were very different. In North Africa, for example, Rome's large army concentrated on securing main roads and urban centres. Byzantium's smaller army built more fortifications and took a defensive stance. The most striking characteristic of later Byzantine military thinking was, however, the theme or provincial army system, which owed nothing to ancient Roman tradition. With eight superb full colour plates by Angus McBride, and many other illustrations, David Nicolle examines the history of Romano-Byzantine armies from 4th-9th centuries.

Download or read book How Rome Fell written by Adrian Goldsworthy and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2009-05-12 with total page 558 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author discusses how the Roman Empire--an empire without a serious rival--rotted from within, its rulers and institutions putting short-term ambition and personal survival over the wider good of the state.

Download or read book Historical Dictionary of Byzantium written by John Hutchins Rosser and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 643 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Byzantine Empire dates back to Constantine the Great, the first Christian ruler of the Roman Empire, who, in 330 AD, moved the imperial capital from Rome to a port city in modern-day Turkey, which he then renamed Constantinople in his honor. From its founding, the Byzantine Empire was a major anchor of east-west trade, and culture, art, architecture, and the economy all prospered in the newly Christian empire. As Byzantium moved into the middle and late period, Greek became the official language of both church and state and the Empire's cultural and religious influence extended well beyond its boundaries. In the mid-15th century, the Ottoman Turks put an end to 1,100 years of Byzantine history by capturing Constantinople, but the Empire's legacy in art, culture, and religion endured long after its fall. In this revised and updated second edition of the Historical Dictionary of Byzantium, author John H. Rosser introduces both the general reader and the researcher to the history of the Byzantine Empire. This comprehensive dictionary includes detailed, alphabetical entries on key figures, ideas, places, and themes related to Byzantine art, history, and religion, and the second edition contains numerous additional entries on broad topics such as transportation and gender, which were less prominent in the previous edition. An expanded introduction introduces the reader to Byzantium and a guide to further sources and suggested readings can be found in the extensive bibliography that follows the entries. A basic chronology and various maps and illustrations are also included in the dictionary. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Byzantium.

Download or read book Stilicho written by Ian Hughes and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2010-06-19 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A military history of the campaigns of Stilicho, the army general who became one of the most powerful men in the Western Roman Empire. Flavius Stilicho lived in one of the most turbulent periods in European history. The Western Empire was finally giving way under pressure from external threats, especially from Germanic tribes crossing the Rhine and Danube, as well as from seemingly ever-present internal revolts and rebellions. Ian Hughes explains how a Vandal (actually, Stilicho had a Vandal father and Roman mother) came to be given almost total control of the Western Empire and describes his attempts to save both the Western Empire and Rome itself from the attacks of Alaric the Goth and other barbarian invaders. Stilicho is one of the major figures in the history of the Late Roman Empire, and his actions following the death of the emperor Theodosius the Great in 395 may have helped to divide the Western and Eastern halves of the Roman Empire on a permanent basis. Yet he is also the individual who helped maintain the integrity of the West before the rebellion of Constantine III in Britain, and the crossing of the Rhine by a major force of Vandals, Sueves, and Alans—both in A.D. 406—set the scene for both his downfall and execution in 408, and the later disintegration of the West. Despite his role in this fascinating and crucial period of history, there is no other full-length biography of him in print.

Download or read book Technology in Transition A D 300 650 written by Luke Lavan and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2008-03-31 with total page 633 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the first general work to be published on technology in Late Antiquity. It seeks to survey aspects of the technology of the period and to respond to questions about technological continuity, stagnation and decline. The book opens with a comprehensive bibliographic essay that provides an overview of relevant literature. The main section then explores technologies in agriculture, production (metal, ceramics and glass), engineering and building. Papers draw on both archaeological and textual sources, and on analogies with medieval and early modern technologies. Reference is made not only to the periods which preceded it, but to the transition to the Early Middle Ages and to the technological heritage of Late Antiquity to the Islamic world. Several papers focus on Italy, whilst others consider North Africa, Asia Minor, and the Near-East.

Download or read book Eagles in the Dust written by Adrian Coombs-Hoar and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2015-01-30 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In AD376 large groups of Goths, seeking refuge from the Huns, sought admittance to the Eastern Roman Empire. Emperor Valens took the strategic decision to grant them entry, hoping to utilize them as a source of manpower for his campaigns against Persia. The Goths had been providing good warriors to Roman armies for decades. However, mistreatment of the refugees by Roman officials led them to take up arms against their hosts. ?The resultant battle near Adrianopolis in AD378, in which Valens lost his life, is regarded as one of the most significant defeats ever suffered by Roman arms. The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus called it the worst massacre since Cannae, nearly six hundred years previously. Modern historians have accorded it great significance both at a tactical level, due to the success of Gothic cavalry over the vaunted Roman infantry, and in strategic terms, often citing it as the beginning of the end for the Empire. Adrian Coombs-Hoar untangles the debate that still surrounds many aspects such claims with an insightful account that draws on the latest research.

Download or read book Legions in Crisis The Transformation of the Roman Soldier 192 to 284 written by Paul Elliot and published by Fonthill Media. This book was released on 2014-05-10 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The third century AD was a turbulent and testing time for the Roman Empire. A new and powerful foe in the east had risen up to challenge Rome directly. Barbarians on the northern frontiers were now more aggressive and more numerous than before and internally the population of the empire had to contend with rampant inflation and a series of terrible plagues. Unfortunately, the chaos became magnified by a lack of continuity on the imperial throne. The army had real political power in the third century, making and unmaking emperors as it saw fit. It had been aided in this by Septimius Severus, the African emperor who had won out in the civil wars following Commodus' assassination. He increased the army's pay and granted other privileges. While the army gained rapidly in size, stature and political savvy during the reign of Septimius Severus, it also accelerated a material transformation. Armour, shields, helmets, swords and javelins all began to be replaced with new styles. Legions in Crisis looks closely at the new styles of arms and armour, comparing their construction, use and effectiveness to the more familiar types of Roman kit used by soldiers fighting the earlier Dacian and Marcomannic Wars. What did this transformation in military technology mean for the tactical choices used on the battlefield? Although the outcome had looked in doubt, the army and the empire it protected weathered the storm to emerge into the fourth century fully able to tackle the challenges of a new age.

Download or read book Justinian s Plague and the Caliphate written by I. Shafigulin and published by Vladimir Djambov. This book was released on with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Wealth without work Pleasure without conscience Science without humanity Knowledge without character Politics without principle Commerce without morality Worship without sacrifice. https://vidjambov.blogspot.com/2023/01/book-inventory-vladimir-djambov-talmach.html ... I forgot fear. I felt God /// and light embraced me. /// And time stopped for long… /// I came back to myself ... /// The book presents the history of the evolution of mankind over a certain period of time, covering the decline of antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages. It discusses the events taking place in the Mediterranean, southern Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia from the 6th to the 11th century, during the period of plague pandemics. It is shown that it was the plague that became the root cause of the sharp weakening of Byzantium and the Sassanian state, led to the devastation of a significant part of their territories and the complete restructuring of society, affected the demography, economy and even the political system. The book analyzes the reasons for the rise of the Arabs and the success of their campaigns of conquest, proves that the Caliphate as a state could not have emerged and occupied vast territories of its powerful neighbors if they had not been weakened and bled by the plague. The connection of pandemics with the rise and strengthening of the role of the Catholic Church in the West and Islam in the East is considered. It is shown how, with the arrival of the plague in the Caliphate, its gradual decline begins. This allows the author to deviate from the established opinion that the plague played only a secondary role in the fall of Byzantium and the Sassanid states, to conclude that it was the plague that was the real “director” of all events in the period under consideration, and that the Caliphate is the only state that was born "thanks" to the plague and was destroyed by it. The book shows how the search for countering the plague became for the Caliphate in the period from the 8th to the 11th century an impetus to accelerated evolution, comparable to the revolutionary one. This allows the author to deviate from the established opinion that the plague played only a secondary role in the fall of Byzantium and the Sassanid states, to conclude that it was the plague that was the real “director” of all events in the period under consideration, and that the Caliphate is the only state that was born "thanks" to the plague and was destroyed by it. The book shows how the search for countering the plague became for the Caliphate in the period from the 8th to the 11th century an impetus to accelerated evolution, comparable to the revolutionary one. This allows the author to deviate from the established opinion that the plague played only a secondary role in the fall of Byzantium and the Sassanid states, to conclude that it was the plague that was the real “director” of all events in the period under consideration, and that the Caliphate is the only state that was born "thanks" to the plague and was destroyed by it. The book shows how the search for countering the plague became for the Caliphate in the period from the 8th to the 11th century an impetus to accelerated evolution, comparable to the revolutionary one. /// A PANDEMIC is a history of wars against humanity, a struggle where, at the end of the day, human evolution, after initial failures, eventually won out. /// For one and a half thousand years, mankind has not stopped talking, debating and writing about the plague. This is understandable. The plague destroyed empires and forced to change the economic structure of civilizations, under its influence, whether new religions arose and new ethnic groups were formed. /// The book offered to the reader's attention is an attempt to penetrate into the essence of the plague problem, an attempt to comprehend its nature, to dispel the mysteries that envelop it. But my main goal is to raise an issue that goes beyond conventional wisdom. No serious historian denies that the plague has played a role in the history of civilizations. But for them the problem of the epidemic remained in the background for a long time, since all attention was focused on the analysis of the development of states, societies, economies and civilizations. At the same time, epidemics were viewed as some kind of external forces, although capable of causing disorder in the social order, but having nothing to do with the course of world history. The author of these lines is convinced that this is a clear underestimation of pandemics, which occupy the first place in importance in the changes taking place with humanity. /// My book is the history of the evolution of mankind at a certain period of time, the time of the decline of antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages. It has seven main parts. The first is directly based on Greek, Syrian and Muslim sources about the plague. I will have to consider in detail the events in the time frame from the 6th to the 8th centuries, including the rise and fall of Byzantium, the impact of the epidemic, which led to serious devastation in its territories and a complete restructuring of society, as well as the process of the formation of a completely new civilization, which is now commonly called the civilization of the West. In the same period, from the 6th to the 8th century, the rise and spread of the conquest campaigns of the Muslims, the rise and fall of the Umayyad Caliphate (in the 5th part) took place. From the 6th to the 8th century, we see the flourishing of the scientific upsurge of the Muslim Renaissance under the rule of the Abbasids. It must be said that it is the history of the Caliphate that can serve as a brilliant confirmation of the omnipotence of the plague. This empire, most likely, would not have arisen if Byzantium and the Sassanian state were not covered by pandemics. The Caliphate was born "thanks to" the plague, but it also destroyed him. /// In my book, I propose to look at history precisely through such a prism, using facts about epidemics and assigning them a key role in the historical events that happened to our ancestors. The interaction of disease with a species as a kind of test for survival in the face of mass mortality, the consequences of epidemic-induced genetic selection, manifested in the demographic processes of countries that have survived pandemics - this is what catches the eye in an unbiased analysis.

Download or read book Dariali The Caspian Gates in the Caucasus from Antiquity to the Age of the Huns and the Middle Ages written by Eberhard Sauer and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2020-04-30 with total page 1780 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Huns, invading through Dariali Gorge on the modern-day border between Russia and Georgia in AD 395 and 515, spread terror across the late antique world. Was this the prelude to the apocalypse? Prophecies foresaw a future Hunnic onslaught, via the same mountain pass, bringing about the end of the world. Humanity’s fate depended on a gated barrier deep in Europe’s highest and most forbidding mountain chain. Centuries before the emergence of such apocalyptic beliefs, the gorge had reached world fame. It was the target of a planned military expedition by the Emperor Nero. Chained to the dramatic sheer cliffs, framing the narrow passage, the mythical fire-thief Prometheus suffered severe punishment, his liver devoured by an eagle. It was known under multiple names, most commonly the Caspian or Alan Gates. Featuring in the works of literary giants, no other mountain pass in the ancient and medieval world matches Dariali’s fame. Yet little was known about the materiality of this mythical place. A team of archaeologists has now shed much new light on the major gorge-blocking fort and a barrier wall on a steep rocky ridge further north. The walls still standing today were built around the time of the first major Hunnic invasion in the late fourth century – when the Caucasus defences feature increasingly prominently in negotiations between the Great Powers of Persia and Rome. In its endeavour to strongly fortify the strategic mountain pass through the Central Caucasus, the workforce erased most traces of earlier occupation. The Persian-built bastion saw heavy occupation for 600 years. Its multi-faith medieval garrison controlled Trans-Caucasian traffic. Everyday objects and human remains reveal harsh living conditions and close connections to the Muslim South, as well as the steppe world of the north. The Caspian Gates explains how a highly strategic rock has played a pivotal role in world history from Classical Antiquity into the twentieth century.

Download or read book Decorated Roman Armour written by Raffaele D'Amato and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2017-03-30 with total page 708 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the time of the Bronze Age, the warriors of all tribes and nations sought to emblazon their arms and armour with items and images to impress upon the enemy the wealth and power of the wearer. Magnificently decorated shields were as much a defensive necessity as a symbol of social status. Equally, decorative symbols on shields and armour defined the collective ideals and the self-conceived important of the village or city-state its warriors represented.Such items were therefore of great significance to the wearers, and the authors of this astounding detailed and extensively research book, have brought together years of research and the latest archaeological discoveries, to produce a work of undeniable importance.Shining Under the Eagles is richly decorated throughout, and as well as battlefield armour, details the tournament and parade armour from Rome's the earliest days.Dr Andrey Negin is candidate of historical sciences (Russian PhD), member of the department of history of the Ancient World and Classical Languages of Nizhny Novgorod State University named after N.I. Lobachevsky (Russian Federation). He has carried out fieldwork on ancient Roman armour and has published books and numerous articles on Roman military equipment.Dr Raffaele D'Amato is an experienced Turin-based researcher of the ancient and medieval military worlds. After achieving his first PhD in Romano-Byzantine Law, and having collaborated with the University of Athens, he gained a second doctorate in Roman military archaeology. He spent the last year in Turkey as visiting professor at the Fatih University of Istanbul, teaching there and working on a project about the army of Byzantium. He currently work as part-time researcher at the Laboratory of the Danubian Provinces at the University of Ferrara, under Professor Livio Zerbini.

Download or read book Byzantine Armies 886 1118 written by Ian Heath and published by Osprey Publishing. This book was released on 1979-07-05 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Byzantines had a remarkably sophisticated approach to politics and military strategy. Unlike most of their contemporaries, they learnt very early in their history that winning a battle did not necessarily win a war, and they frequently bought off their enemies with treaties and bribes rather than squander men and matériel in potentially fruitless campaigns. The Byzantine army of the 10th and early 11th centuries, at the height of its power and efficiency, was the best-organised, best-trained, best-equipped and highest-paid in the known world. This splendid book by Ian Heath examines the Byzantine Armies from 886-1118, including the lusty, hard-fighting, hard-drinking 'barbarian' Varangian guard.

Download or read book Journal of Medieval Military History written by John France and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2021-06-18 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The leading academic vehicle for scholarly publication in the field of medieval warfare. Medieval Warfare

Download or read book Roman Military Dress written by Graham Sumner and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite the great interest in the Roman Army, particularly in the many re-enactment societies, up until now it has been surprisingly difficult to find out information about the uniforms they wore and the textiles that were used in those uniforms. Graham Sumner’s book redresses this balance, presenting in an informative and accessible way the evidence for the types of clothing utilized by the Roman soldier. With full scale color illustrations drawn by the author, who is an experienced historical illustrator, along with patterns and diagrams of clothing finds and information on the latest archaeological studies, this book provides a comprehensive insight into the development of the Roman soldier’s uniform from the Late Republic to the advent of the Byzantine Empire.

Download or read book A Cumulative Bibliography of Medieval Military History and Technology Update 2003 2006 written by Kelly DeVries and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2008-01-31 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the second update of A Cumulative Bibliography of Medieval Military History and Technology, which appeared in 2002. It is meant to do two things: to present references to works on medieval military history and technology not included in the first two volumes; and to present references to all books and articles published on medieval military history and technology from 2003 to 2006. These references are divided into the same categories as in the first two volumes and cover a chronological period of the same length, from late antiquity to 1648, again in order to present a more complete picture of influences on and from the Middle Ages. It also continues to cover the same geographical area as the first and second volume, in essence Europe and the Middle East, or, again, influences on and from this area. The languages of these bibliographical references reflect this geography.

Download or read book Warriors and their Weapons around the Time of the Crusades written by David Nicolle and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-10-28 with total page 727 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The technological relationship between the three main civilizations of the Western world - Byzantium, the Islamic world and the West - most particularly in the area of arms, armour and military technology is a field of research for which Dr Nicolle is noted. This volume deals principally with Western Europe and Byzantium, which for many centuries learnt from the Muslims in these matters; several articles also focus on military interactions in the Crusader states. The work draws upon both written and archaeological sources, but above all makes use of the depictions of war and military equipment in contemporary art to examine the interconnections across the medieval world.

Download or read book Osprey Men At Arms written by Martin Windrow and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-01-20 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Osprey Men-at-Arms: A Celebration is a very special volume detailing some of the wonderful artwork that has graced Osprey's renowned Men-at-Arms series over the last forty years. Beautifully presented in luxurious cloth, embossed and foil blocked, with head and tails bands and a ribbon bookmark, the collection contains the most treasured illustrations from the vast archives of this respected series and is a classic, collectable item for all military history enthusiasts.