Download or read book The Varangians of Byzantium written by Sigfús Blöndal and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2007-04-16 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines how the Norsemen came to be drawn into the Imperial service.
Download or read book Varangian Guard written by Jay W. Inman and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-09-09 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Trans-Human Augmentation through DARPA's Super-Soldier program begins the process of taking humanity to a scientifically driven caste system. Liberty fades but Men of the Varangian Guard Legion step into the fight. Yet, this is war beyond Land, Air, Sea, and Space. It extends into Cyber and Quantum - The Unknowable Spaces.
Download or read book The Varangian Guard 988 1453 written by Raffaele D’Amato and published by Osprey Publishing. This book was released on 2010-06-22 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Varangian Guards were Viking mercenaries who operated far beyond their native shores as an elite force within the Byzantine Armies. Descendants from a legendary line of warriors, the Varangian Guard was formed after a group of Viking mercenaries made a major contribution to the Byzantine Emperor Basil II's victory over rebel forces in 988 AD. These 5,000 men were then retained as Basil's personal guard and would provide loyal service to many successive occupants of the imperial throne. Commonly referred to as 'foreigners' (Etaireia), they were nonetheless absorbed into a new Palatine regiment under command of an officer termed the Akolouthos, who was either a Norsemen or a Rus (Norsemen colonizers of Russia). The Varangians wore mixtures of their native clothing and armor together with a splendid formal Byzantine uniform. But most famously, they always wielded their own traditional battle-axes; this became a sign that the emperor was on the battlefield in person. This is an insightful look of one of the legendary guard units of the medieval world, complete with a dazzling array of artwork plates showing the Varangian Guard in an array of settings from court ceremonies to the battlefield.
Download or read book The Varangians written by Sverrir Jakobsson and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-10-14 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the history of the Eastern Vikings, the Rus and the Varangians, from their earliest mentions in the narrative sources to the late medieval period, when the Eastern Vikings had become stock figures in Old Norse Romances. A comparison is made between sources emanating from different cultures, such as the Roman Empire, the Abbasid Caliphate and its successor states, the early kingdoms of the Rus and the high medieval Scandinavian kingdoms. A key element in the history of the Rus and the Varangians is the fashioning of identities and how different cultures define themselves in comparison and contrast with the other. This book offers a fresh and engaging view of these medieval sources, and a thorough reassessment of established historiographical grand narratives on Scandinavian peoples in the East.
Download or read book Byzantine Narrative written by John Burke and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 650 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Byzantine Narrative: Papers in Honour of Roger Scott"--"Copyright"--"Dedication" -- "Contents" -- "Introduction" -- "Roger Scott" -- "List of Illustrations" -- "KEYNOTE PAPERS" -- "Novelisation in Byzantium: Narrative after the Revival of Fiction" -- "Narrating Justinian: From Malalas to Manasses" -- "NARRATIVE IN HISTORIANS, CHRONICLES & FICTION" -- "To Narrate the Events of the Past: On Byzantine Historians, and Historians on Byzantium" -- "Tradition and Originality in Photius' Historical Reading" -- "Narrating the Trials and Death in Exile of Pope Martin I and Maximus the Confessor" -- "The Use of Metaphor in Michael Psellos' Chronographia" -- "War and Peace in the Alexiad" -- "Moralising History: the Synopsis Historiarum of John Skylitzes" -- "The Representation of Augustae in John Skylitzes' Synopsis Historiarum" -- "The Madrid Skylitzes as an Audio-Visual Experiment" -- "The Goths and the Bees in Jordanes: A Narrative of No Return" -- "From 'Fallen Woman' to Theotokos: Music, Women's Voices and Byzantine Narratives of Gender Identity" -- "How the Entertaining Tale of Quadrupeds became a Tale: Grafting Narrative" -- "Lamenting the Fall or Disguising a Manifesto? The Poem Conquest of Constantinople" -- "A Probable Solution to the Problem of the Chronicle of the Turkish Sultans" -- "NARRATIVE IN BYZANTINE ART" -- "The Narration of Christ' s Passion in Early Christian Art" -- "Observations on the Paintings of the Exodus Chapel, Bagawat Necropolis, Kharga Oasis, Egypt" -- "The Column of Arcadius: Retlections of a Roman Narrative Tradition" -- "Biblical Narrative in the Mosaics of Bishop Theodore's Cathedral, Aquileia" -- "Plato, Plutarch and the Sibyl in the Fresco Decoration of the Episcopal Church of the Virgin Ljeviška in Prizren" -- "Narrativity in Armenian Manuscript Illustration
Download or read book The Varangian Guard written by Charles River and published by . This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes a bibliography for further reading The Byzantine Empire was the heir to two great cultures that cradled and nurtured European civilization: Greece and Rome. Constantinople, now called Istanbul, became a center of power, culture, trade, and technology poised on the edges of Europe and Asia, and its influence was felt not only throughout Europe but the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia, and the Far East. Coins dating from the reign of Emperor Justinian I (r.527-565) have been found in southern India, and Chinese records show that the "Fulin," as the Chinese named the Byzantines, were received at court as early as 643 CE. For a thousand years, the Byzantine Empire protected Europe from the Islamic Arab Empire, allowing it to pursue its own destiny. Finally, Byzantium was a polyglot society in which a multitude of ethnic groups lived under the emperor prizing peace above war, an inspiration surely for the modern age when divisive nationalism threatens to dominate society once more. Despite all this, the Byzantine Empire is often treated as a medieval oddity, an absolute state stunted by a myopic religion, a corrupt, labyrinthine bureaucracy, and an inability to adapt to change. In truth, none of these judgments bear any serious scrutiny - Byzantium was a strong, organized, highly effective and adaptable civilization for most of its long history. It owed its success in no small part to its military, which, in contrast to the feudal armies of Western Europe and the tribally based forces of the Middle East, operated with a high level of discipline, strategic prowess, efficiency, and organization. At the same time, the Byzantines relied heavily on mercenaries, and the Hetairoi or foreign soldiers formed an important and often vital component of the army. The ability to call upon warriors from many nations demonstrated the power and wealth of the emperor, so they were recruited as much for prestige as for military utility. The most famous of the foreign units was without question the Varangian Guard. The Varangians came from the land in Eastern Europe known in the Middle Ages as Rus, which is now part of modern Russia and Ukraine. They were descendants of Viking warriors from Sweden who came to rule the waterways and population of Russia. Varangian mercenaries were fighting for the Byzantines by the 10th century, and in 988 they formed a permanent elite guard for the emperor. They took an oath of allegiance to him and served directly under the Acolyte or Akolouthos, who was usually of Byzantine origin. They also assumed responsibilities for the security of Constantinople. They served in battles outside the capital, but usually only when necessity called for it. The Varangian Guard's primary duty was always to protect the emperor, and inevitably, the Varangians became a political force, taking part in the numerous palace coups. They displayed a fierce devotion not necessarily to the emperor but to the throne itself - for example, when Emperor Nicephorus II was murdered by John I Tzimiskes in 969, the Varangian Guard immediately pledged its allegiance to the usurper. The Varangian Guard consisted of heavily armored infantry bearing shields, heavy swords, and Norse battle axes, either single-bladed or double-bladed. They were amongst the fiercest and most feared military units in Christendom, which made the unit an attractive station for many soldiers of fortune came to Constantinople hoping to pursue lucrative military careers in the service of the Byzantine emperors. Those from the West were called at various times Frankoi, (Franks), Latinoi (Latins, i.e. Latin Rite Christians), or Normans. Frankish knights were often hired to combat the Turks in the 11th century.
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 The Vikings written by René Chartrand and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-09-22 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of the Vikings is bloody and eventful, and Viking warriors capture the popular imagination to this day. They made history, establishing the dukedom of Normandy, providing the Byzantine Emperors' bodyguard and landing on the shores of America 500 years before Columbus. Beautifully illustrated with colour photographs and original Osprey artwork, this book presents a new window into their way of life including detailed studies of the Hersir, the raiding warrior of the Viking world, and the legendary Viking longship.
Download or read book Blood Feud written by Rosemary Sutcliff and published by Random House. This book was released on 2013-10-30 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jestyn the Englishman had once been Thormod the Viking's slave, but after saving Thormod's life he became his shoulder to shoulder man and sworn brother in the deadly blood feud to avenge Thormod's murdered father, a feud that would take them all the way to Constantinople.
Download or read book The Late Byzantine Army written by Mark C. Bartusis and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2015-12-22 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The late Byzantine period was a time characterized by both civil strife and foreign invasion, framed by two cataclysmic events: the fall of Constantinople to the western Europeans in 1204 and again to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. Mark C. Bartusis here opens an extraordinary window on the Byzantine Empire during its last centuries by providing the first comprehensive treatment of the dying empire's military. Although the Byzantine army was highly visible, it was increasingly ineffective in preventing the incursion of western European crusaders into the Aegean, the advance of the Ottoman Turks into Europe, and the slow decline and eventual fall of the thousand-year Byzantine Empire. Using all the available Greek, western European, Slavic, and Turkish sources, Bartusis describes the evolution of the army both as an institution and as an instrument of imperial policy. He considers the army's size, organization, administration, and the varieties of soldiers, and he examines Byzantine feudalism and the army's impact on society and the economy. In its extensive use of soldier companies composed of foreign mercenaries, the Byzantine army had many parallels with those of western Europe; in the final analysis, Bartusis contends, the death of Byzantium was attributable more to a shrinking fiscal base than to any lack of creative military thinking on the part of its leaders.
Download or read book The Last Viking written by Don Hollway and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-02-07 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now available in paperback, this is a rich and compelling account of the life of King Harald Hardrada of Norway, one of the greatest Viking warriors to have ever lived.
Download or read book The Varangian Guard at Constantinople written by Richard McGillivray Dawkins and published by . This book was released on 1929 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Byzantine Armies AD 1118 1461 written by Ian Heath and published by Osprey Publishing. This book was released on 1995-11-13 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Byzantine Empire's disastrous defeat by the Seljuk Turks at Manzikert in 1071 effectively marked the end of what is often described as the 'middle' period of Byzantine history. Thereafter, surrounded on all sides by younger, more vigorous nations, the once all-powerful Empire slipped into a steady decline which, ultimately, was to prove terminal. However, the Empire's demise was anything but peaceful, and, one way or another, for much of the last four centuries of its existence it was to find itself in a state of virtually constant war. This book examines the fascinating history of the Byzantine Empire and its armies from 1118-1461 AD.
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 Varangian written by Griff Hosker and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-04-13 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of the last two Housecarls from Harold Godwinson's army who, forced from England by the Normans, journey down the Russian rivers to join the Varangian Guard where they fight, once more the Normans from Italy. The two men have to fight not only barbarians and the Empire's enemies but treachery from within the complex world of Byzantine politics. Culminating in the battle which finally drove the Normans back to Italy, the historically accurate book paints a picture of the dying world of the Saxon warriors.
Download or read book God s City written by Nic Fields and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes Constantinople, Capital of the East Roman (Byzantine) Empire from its Foundation to its Fall, Explains How Constantinople Came to Be the Greatest City of Europe, Discusses the Byzantine Identity (They Still Considered Themselves 'Romans'), Religion, Culture and Politics, Describs how the emperors sustained their Eastern Part of the Roman Empire Against Numerous Enemies Through Political and Diplomatic Astuteness Backed by Armed Vigilance and Military Action, Particular Mention Is Made of the Varangian Guard, Viking Mercenaries in Imperial Pay, as Well as the Normans of Southern Italy Who Fought Both for and Against the Empire
Download or read book The Later History of the Varangian Guard written by Richard McGillivray Dawkins and published by . This book was released on 1947 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
