Did the Byzantines forget using the caltrops?
Upvote:3
The Byzantines did know about Caltrops.
A Companion to Byzantine Illustrated Manuscripts, Page 111
The so-called "Heron of Byzantium" is a name used to refer to an anonymous Byzantine compiler and commentator of two treatises: the De strategematibus, an instructional manual on the fabrication of siege machines and Geodesia, a manual on the use of a diopter, a kind of surveyor's theodolite. According to T.H. Martin, they were written in 938 or slightly later.
...
Indeed, the stated aim of the author is to simplify the works of ancient mechanics to make them "accessible to all". It is addressed particularly to generals responsible for besieging cities held by the Arabs and beginners who are new to mathematics. The book is therefore intended as a practical manual and not intended for engineers.
....
The two treatises are illustrated in "Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vatican, Vat. gr. 1605. It is a richly illustrated manuscript dated on paleographical grounds to the 11th century. In fold. 7v and 8r different tortoises and also two different kinds of caltrops are drawn: (wood caltrops) and (iron caltrops). Heron recommended against the iron caltrops to place wooden supports under the boots or to clear these away with farm rakes with large tine which some also called griphanai. As we may see in Fol. 8r (Fig.35), a man disperses the icon caltrop in front of a plaited laisa.
It would have taken a lot more than Caltrops to save the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine Empire fell to the Ottomans in 1453 when Europe was just entering the Renaissance, 1000 years after the Western Empire fell. When it fell it was just the capitol of Constantinople that was sacked. That was the culmination of 700 years of loosing ground to Islamic armies. During the rule of the Byzantium Emperor Justinian (527AD-565AD) the Byzantine Empire included most of the land surrounding the Mediterranean Sea including North Africa.
By 700AD Byzantine had lost the entire middle east and North Africa. By 1373 Byzantium was economically shattered and relegated as a vassal to the Turks. When the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II sacked Constantinople the once vast empire was little more than a city state and the Byzantium Empire had been at war with the Muslims for 700 years.. (634 AD - 1458).
At the end their population was exhausted, their wealth was spent, their economy was shattered and perhaps worst of all they were mostly alienated from Western Europe who had come to their aid in the previous centuries. A few competent rulers in a row would have helped them more than caltrops, maybe just a few competent diplomats.
Source:
More post
- 📝 Who standardized the Roman measurements?
- 📝 Are there cases where a civil war divided a country unevenly but stably, like China and Taiwan?
- 📝 Is there an example of a civil rights movement supporter with a record of being against it?
- 📝 What type of people were most likely to be suspected of witchcraft in Salem?
- 📝 Venezuelan crisis of 1902–03: Why is there a Russian flag on the cover of the prominent newspaper 'Le Petit Parisien'?
- 📝 Did Ali give his allegiance to the three first caliphs?
- 📝 Do we know who graduated from the University of Mexico in the 1700s?
- 📝 Did marriage ever end a war?
- 📝 Is there any evidence that the book of Isaiah was written before Cyrus?
- 📝 Are there sources that record ancient women in patriarchal societies' thoughts about patriarchy?
- 📝 How much did Pan Am tickets to the moon cost?
- 📝 Did the Eastern Romans also use Roman concrete?
- 📝 Purple in Roman History
- 📝 Would Plutarch be considered a historian by modern standards?
- 📝 Which is the oldest, still current, government debt?
- 📝 Is there contemporary evidence for the Roman Kingdom?
- 📝 How does the "conspiracy theory" work in China and for what purpose?
- 📝 What is this "d-mac" device?
- 📝 Why didn't America "rent" parts of China?
- 📝 Have the Arabs ever conquered Kayseri?
- 📝 What was the death toll of Plague of Justinian?
- 📝 What are the origins and history of shaking, trembling, jerking, contorting, collapsing, fainting and similar manifestations in Christianity?
- 📝 Battle of Seattle
- 📝 Is there any evidence that Assyrian or Babylonian kings ate their enemies?
- 📝 Who is the author of Romanoff's theorem?
- 📝 post slavery segregation outside of the US
- 📝 Why did India release all Pakistani Soldiers captured during Indo Pak War 1965
- 📝 Has feudalism been a programmed event for nations in the past?
- 📝 Who was the architect of Uraniborg and Stjerneborg?
- 📝 To what extent were practitioners of Judaism persecuted during the Soviet Union?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Did the Byzantines forget using the caltrops?
- 📝 When did the Romans begin using the sword, as opposed to the axe, for decapitation?
- 📝 Did the Byzantines ever attempt to move their capital to Rome?
- 📝 What was the first instance of native Americans using gunpowder weapons in battle and did they ever make their own powder?
- 📝 Why did not the Byzantines attempt to recapture the holy land from the Arabs?
- 📝 Why did the Byzantines not try to recover Syria during the war between Ali and Muawiya?
- 📝 When did the Chinese begin using night soil as fertilizer?
- 📝 When did the first electronic money transfer / digital transaction happen using computers?
- 📝 When did the Catholic Inquisition stop using torture?
- 📝 When did the US start using sniper + spotter teams, rather than solo snipers?
- 📝 Why did Hitler attack the Soviet Union when he was still busy fighting the United Kingdom?
- 📝 When did people decide that all caps means the writer is shouting?
- 📝 Did the ancients or other pre-industrial civilisations engage in unsustainable practices?
- 📝 Why did Native Americans die from European diseases while Europeans didn't catch serious diseases from the New World?
- 📝 When did the allies find out about the killing of Jews during WW2
- 📝 Did Adolf Hitler ever address the fact that his own appearance was almost an exact opposite of what he considered the ideal Aryan appearance?
- 📝 Why did the Confederacy think they could win the American Civil War?
- 📝 Why did archery not make a comeback when armor was phased out in the 18th century?
- 📝 Did medieval scholars believe the Earth was round?
- 📝 Did the ancient Greeks ever climb Mt. Olympus?
- 📝 Why does the United States keep using "old" date representations and imperial system, while being in the minority?
- 📝 Did Bill Gates steal the GUI concept from Steve Jobs?
- 📝 Why did the British scuttle the u-boats surrendered after WWII?
- 📝 Did Russian winter seriously contribute to German defeat on the Eastern Front in WWII?
- 📝 Why did Canada not join the American Revolution?
- 📝 Why did Churchill order the destruction of the bombes?
- 📝 Why did the USSR give Crimea to Ukraine?
- 📝 How and when did the word "nuclear" replace the word "atomic"?
- 📝 Why did the Western Roman Empire collapse but not the Eastern Roman Empire?
- 📝 How did Israel win the Six-Day War?