BYZANTINE IRON AXE

Comments: The use of the axe by the Roman army is attested from many finds, which begin to increase from the sixth century AD onwards. This is the time of the first Slav raids and invasions of the Balkans, under the pressure of nomadic peoples like Kutrigurs and Avars. The archaeological relics of the Balkan wars of the Emperor Maurice (582-603) against the Avars and their allies or subject Slavs, who spread out in Greece and Thracia to Peloponnese and Corinth, show a widespread use of this weapon. Borrowed by the Slavs and the Germans, its use by Roman garrisons is widely attested by the archaeological finds in the Roman Danubian fortresses.

This axe finds an almost similar correspondent in a late-antique specimen found in Knin, modern Croatia, in a Roman context, dated in about 6th - 7th century AD. Its broad blade suggests a use for crashing and devastating blows directed to the head and the arms, with the intention to break helmets and shields. The Strategikon of the Emperor Maurice (B, XII, 6) remembers, among the essential equipment to be kept ready for the infantrymen, that "... each wagon should carry a hand mill, an ax, hatchets (pelekus), an adz, a saw, two picks, a hammer, two shovels, a basket, some coarse cloth, a scythe, lead-pointed darts, caltrops...". It is clear that in this period the axe was used both as a weapon, as well as a tool for everyday, non-warfare duties.