BYZANTINE IRON MACE

Comments: The war mace illustrated here is very akin to an iron specimen coming from the archaeological site of Vielki Preslav and dated by Vitlianov to the 11th - 12th century A.D. when Bulgaria was under Roman rule after the victorious wars of Basil II. It presents a squared body with four wide spikes on all sides. This kind of weapon could be well used both by cavalry and infantry. A peculiarity of East-Roman warriors was their use of the iron
war-mace (korrhin~), which was especially a favorite weapon of the cavalry. 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 I. Nic. Chon. VI, 203-204 reads "... but the Romans attacked with iron maces in their hands (they were used to carrying such a weapon anytime they should go into battle) and inflicted deadly injury on the Pannonians...".

This kind of mace was provided with an iron body and sometimes leather lined. In the body of the mace the hole is larger, probably to permit cast lead to be poured around the shaft. The shaft's length
was about 60 cm. Sometimes however, the maces were mounted on a pole, to be used against the cavalry by the infantry. In this instance, the shaft length could reach also 1 meter as can be seen in many paintings representing the Gospel episode of the betrayal by Judas. The miniatures of Skylitzès Matritensis show a medium reddish-brown shaft for maces.