what ? a Sunday with two free hours, without having to take the kids to a sports competition, check their homework, visit grandparents or work to prepare for next week?
So quickly, a new post!
The army of Belisarius or Narses, during the conquest of Italy, had to face more than once in pitched battle their opponents Goths, Franks or Allamans.
To tell the truth, the Roman successes rested on three elements: the extraordinary tactical acumen of the Byzantine generals (Belisarius, in the opinion of many historians, is on the level of Hannibal or Caesar, and Narses proved to be particularly capable) , their heavy cavalry equipped with a bow which I have already spoken about in previous previews concerning theboukellaroiand the kavallaroi ... and their archers.
Indeed, the barbarian adversaries of the West, whether the Vandals, the Goths or the Franks, relied on heavy contact cavalry and medium infantry whose tactical agility was close to zero. Also, the Roman generals had plenty of time to choose places and battle plans allowing their archery to decimate their opponents from afar before actually engaging in combat. The Batalle de Taginae, of which I will speak again here, is moreover a model which prefigured centuries before the battles of Crécy and Agincourt!








MORE HERE !!

Sir, you are one of my inspirations. Excellent work.

Years ago, I read Robert Graves' Belisarius. I thought it a great tale but obviously exaggerated until I did some research. It was mostly accurate!
One of the tragedies of history is that even Belisarius couldn't put the Roman empire back together.

donald

You are absolutely right Donald !

in fact, we are very fortunate about our knowledge of this period: contemporary writers are numerous, and above all remarkably informed. Thus Procopius, who describes so precisely for example the conquest of the vandal kingdom, was quite simply the private secretary of Belisarius!

and thank you for your kind words, I am also curious to see your Byzantines if you have already made some!

Sorry, I've got Late Roman- Western empire.

TBH, these differ little from Late Roman -Eastern empire which, of course, morphed into Byzantines.

C4th & C5th is the time frame I want to cover.

However, you will be pleased to know I've just bought a unit of LR heavy mounted archers.
When I've painted them (they're next in the queue) I'll try them out brigaded with cataphracts to see how they perform in a miniature battle.

donald