Oфанзивно наоружање нордијских и других западних најамника у комнинској Византији
The Offensive Armament of Nordic and other Western Mercenaries in Comnenian Byzantium

Summary/Abstract: The work is an attempt to reconstruct arsenal of offensive weaponry of westeuropean, especially scandinavian mercenaries in Byzantium of Comnenian epoch. The work is based on Byzantine and western written sources (esp. Byzantine narrative sources of Comnenian epoch, Nordic and Latin narrative works likewise). It deals with main components of offensive weaponry (axe, spear, lance, sword, and hypothetically bow and mace), and tries to identify the exact type of each of them. The most attention is dedicated to the questions of these mercenaries` usage of „Danish“ axe, one- and two-edged swords and lance. This work concludes that the Latin mercenaries in Comnenian Byzantium, like in previous and subsequent epochs, retained the most of their offensive armament, thus reflecting the fact that they played their original tactical role in Byzantine army – the role of heavy cavalry (the Normans, French, Lombards, etc.) and heavy infantry (the Nordmen and Anglosaxons).

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