The substance was probably a mix of saltpeter and petroleum. It was the invention of a Greek architect and alchemist from Heliopolis in Syria, who secretly broke through the siege ring, that ensured Byzantium’s survival: Greek fire.Īs a state secret, the exact ingredients of this “ pyr thalassion” (sea fire) or “ pyr hygron” (liquid fire) remain unknown. Compared to the first time an Arab force tried to lay siege to the city in 678, the fortifications and weapons were in much better shape. On August 15, 717, Meslama, brother of the Caliph, arrived in front of Constantinople with 80,000 men. Bringing Greek Fire to Byzantium Use of a handsiphon, which shoots Greek fire.Įverything that was hoped for from Leo was realized. However, Theodosius cleared the field and withdrew to a monastery after hearing that the citizens and soldiers of the capital had made it obvious that they would prefer to put the defense of the city in Leo’s hands. Theodosius, however, foresaw the impending threat and had adequate facilities constructed. Sulaiman’s plan, no doubt, was to capitalize on the country’s seemingly endless internal problems. He was the sixth rebel leader in the 20 years before. Leo led a successful revolt against Theodosius III from his district in Asia Minor. These were military districts under a general (strategos) and home to stratiotes, peasant soldiers who managed their farms in peacetime but could be quickly mobilized in case of conflict. 740.ĭuring the troubled decades before, this “ theme” structure kept Byzantium alive in world history. On the military front, he’d demonstrated himself to be the “strategos” of Anatolic (Anatolic Theme). Constantinople’s warehouses had been restocked, and the city’s fortifications had been repaired. 680–741), the new ruler often called the “Isaurian”, did have two aces up his sleeve.
Having already destroyed the Visigoth Kingdom in Spain with the help of his brother and predecessor al-Walid I, Caliph Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik hoped to complete the conquest of eastern Rome with this fleet. It was reported that an Arab armada numbering around 1800 ships was battling its way along the shores of Asia Minor. But there was hardly any time to celebrate. In March of 717, the new emperor finally used the Golden Gate to enter Constantinople, the capital city he had inherited. End of the Arab Dream of Constantinople.and now you can know how numerous and extensive is that group of swords. This design became popular more and more to finally, with plenty variations, turned into classic longswords of well known types. This amount of examples of almost exactly the same length means it was not 'a try' but very good, versatile, functional and needed solution. Some will say now: 'Ok, let's treat it as a transitional stage'. All later longswords are succesors of this idea. This is very important moment of evolution. However, it is the precursor of longsword, its ancestor, so-called by me: an 'Early Longsword', and now you can fight with one hand or both hands. It is not designed to be a longsword with its fencing techniques and proportions, but simply to be able to keep it with both hands if you need more: So, they added same extention range to both, roughly. In fact, that would be the same extension range as about the grip: means some 30-60mm, roughly. Notice both hands are close here, touching each other.Īlso, length of the blade is just a bit longer. This allows you to place second hand half on the grip and half on the pommel. Grip length became a bit longer, for 1/3 roughly - now between 125 and 165mm, for the most of these.
General look of the sword parts and types reveals nothing new, but the proportions are different. It seems that we can say the whole 13th century they were used in this simple form and with these parameters.Īpparently, in late 13th century, medieval knights needed a different sword. The earliest swords in this group are dated to early 13th century, around 1200-1210 and are present in manuscripts to the end of this century and later. I checked what swords type they are, what period, what proportions. And then one thing immediately caught my attention: plenty of my marks was placed at range 1050-1090mm. I made a labels and put all these swords data in many variations.įor example: I put every sword`s Total Length on the measure with mm wanted to find most common length for each type / period, etc. All of them dated between 11th and 15th century. Once I was making a research from some few old catalogs published in Poland, where was over 500 examples of swords from European museums (mostly central and eastern Eur. It is worth to notice something about the length 1050-1090mm swords.
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