BYZANTINE MACES

The Mace

The war mace, already used from the Late Roman Army at least since the 3rd century AD, composed by a wooden shaft and a metallic head, was transformed in the middle age of Byzantium as the favorite weapon of the heavy armed cavalryman, used with devastating effects on the battlefields. In the hands of military commanders it assumed a particular role as command rank and received, in this way, a symbolic meaning.
The war mace was employed not only as a striking weapon as it was principally used, but it was also used as an effective throwing weapon. In the 10^th century, the Tactica of Leo shows as the tzikourion (the throwing axe), the bardoukion and the matzoukion (the maces) were employed as throwing weapons instead of the late Roman javelin known as martzobarboulon.

The denomination bardoukion presents itself in the Sylloge Tacticorum with the meaning of “...iron clubs...”. In the life of the Emperor Basil I (867-886) reported by Theophanes Continuatus and the Emperor Constantine VII, an imperial hunt is described in which the future Emperor Basil, grandfather of Constantine, had taken part. “He rode, as prescribed, before the Emperor, and wore at the belt the war imperial mace, ( Then suddenly a wolf appeared : Basil rode against him and threw on the back the imperial vardoukion, which hit the animal in the middle of the head and divided it in two parts”. The illuminated code Skilitzès Matritensis, in which the scene is represented, shows the shape of the weapon. The bardoukion was then a fighting mace, which could be also thrown. The same can be said for the matzoukion, which presented a strong similarity. Bardoukia and matzoukia were maces thrown against the enemy from both infantrymen and cavalrymen, at certain distances.

Other words were used in the Greek medieval military language to indicate respectively the fighting mace and the club : korunh, rabdion/rabdos, ropalon, saliba e sidhrorabdion.

Regarding shape and nature of the fighting maces, the Emperor Leo speaks on the cavalry mace, saying that it should have a spiked head. However, for the double function of throwing and striking, the mace could not be too heavy, to avoid prejudice to the practical use as a throwing weapon. The many representations and the rare descriptions of the written sources allow us, as observed by the Professor Kolias, to calculate the shaft length between 60 and 80 cm. Rarely, we found a length of one meter or more. The “head” was usually a spherical shape, whose dimension varies. The shaft was typically of wood and of a balanced weight, ideal for throwing. The shaft was also reinforced with iron near the end entering the mace. The head featured spiked projections adapted to provoke serious wounds.

The shape of the fighting mace of hexagonal type, furnished of beaten iron plaques, and with the head in massive iron, is mentioned in the Praecepta Militaria of the Emperor Nikephoros Phokas. These “iron staffs” (sidhrorabdia) are prescribed for the heavy cavalry: "they should have iron staffs with iron massive heads. These heads should have acute sides" (i.e. they were of hexagonal, squared or hexagonal shape). Also, the shaft was (as the name sidhrorabdia suggests = iron staffs) probably entirely of iron, so it is highly probable that such maces were only thrusting and not throwing weapons.

In the images of illuminated manuscripts we can observe a distinction of the fighting maces on the basis of their shape. One type had spherical heads that were simply round and polished, for which the shaft continues through the head (see for example many miniatures of the Menologion of the Emperor Basil II and also the Miniature of the Oppianus Codex in the Biblioteca Marciana of Venise). Another type of fighting mace had heads with a toothed surface, similar to the previously mentioned spiked type.

by Raffaele D'Amato

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