Fossil Exhibition
LATER AGES
IRON AGE
BRONZE AGE
MESOLITHIC
UPPER PALEOLITHIC
MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC
LOWER PALEOLITHIC
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World Museum of Man 2004
BYZANTINE ( EASTERN ROMAN) COLLECTION
The Axe
 Since
from the third century AD, the axe, due to the influence of the Germanic
auxiliaries in the army, had become a regular weapon of the Roman Infantryman.
The marching army of Constantine the Great, represented on the frieze of his
arch erected in Rome in about 313 AD, depict Dromedarii
of the Emperor's army equipped with such a weapon. Vegetius, writing at
the end of the 4th century AD, remembers as the securis
was listed among the weapons of the regular infantryman.
From
the Latin word securis the axe was called, in the Greek medieval language of the
Eastern Roman army, tzikourion
or Tzhkourion.
The word could be referred in equal way, to every kind of axe used both from
cavalry or infantry. At the end of ninth century AD, the so called
Constantine tactica (p.15), provides that each cavalryman should be equipped
with a double edged axe. The tactica of the Emperor Leo (VI,11) around
900 AD, insists on the circumstance that every cavalryman should be armed with
a double edge axe, furnished with a long spear-shaped blade and pointed,
hanging from the saddle in a leather case. Always the Emperor Leo The Roman soldiers were trained to use their axes for hand-to-hand combat as well as for throwing. So Const. Tact. p.6 advises to train the soldiers to throw the Javelin, the short missile and the axe. The Eastern Roman warriors used therefore, single edged or double edged axes. |
The
double axes were commonly called
ai pelekeis.
The single-edged were called monopeluka,
and the
Liber of Ceremoniis of Constantine Porphyrogenitus informs us that
they were used by the Macedonians of the Imperial HETAIREIA. In fact
the medieval Greeks called bi-pennis the "...half of
the axe, with the blade only on one side, which they called DISTRALION"
(Salmasius, Interpretes Homeri,p.200). This axe, "dextrale"
in iron, is mentioned under the name DISTRALION MONOPELUKON in notation also to other Imperial Guardsmen, the SPATHAROKANDIDATOI and the SPATHARIOI (De Cer.I, 148: "The spaqarokandidatoi wear their maniakia (wide torques around the neck), their shield and the single-edged axes; the spaqarioi their shields and axes, and both are in Skaramangion (a officer Court dress). These axes were called DISTRALIA just for the reason that they were worn from the bodyguards with the right hand, while the spear was usually worn by the left hand. So the High Imperial officer called the DROUNGARIOS THES VIGHLES wore, in the Ceremonies, his sword (spaqion), his club (maglabion) and his axe (tzikourion), leaning on his right shoulder (De Cer. II, 524). Axes are also called eteropelekeis. This was a shafted axe or a spear armed with an axe in a way still used in the Persian Court of 1708. This last design is different from the Leo description (Tactica VI,11) only because the opposite side to the axe blade is arched, while the Roman axe mentioned in Leo seems to have a straight blade. However, an axe found in the Holy Palace from the fourth century AD, shows a surprising similarity to the Persian axes and confirms one of the three kind of axes described by Leo. The axe, used until the end of the Byzantine Roman Empire, was the main weapon of the famous Varangians, the Nordic bodyguard of the Emperors of Byzantium. Undoubtedly, the axe was one of the more feared weapons to go against in battle during the Byzantine Roman Period. The effects of its use were always severe and gory.
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AXES - Page 1
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