Le frecce di Puglia. Tattiche di combattimento degli arcieri saraceni di Lucera

Abstract

The aim of this pages is to shed light on a medieval military unit, very pecurial and fascinating: the Saracen archers of Lucera. Indeed, starting from famous scenarios such as the battles of Cortenuova and Benevento, the sieges of Brescia, Viterbo and Parma, the author will try to reconstruct - as far as the sources and studies allow us - the formations, tactics and maneuvers of this particular group. However, it’s hard to find a lot of informations about those soldiers in the contemporary sources even because of the lack of fortune that infantry – and above all military throwers – has within the chronicles of the time, just by mentioning their participation, often exaggerating their numbers and focusing only on the milites and commanders. Sources and historiography agree that these archers were indeed present in the Swabian armies, yet many doubts and hypotheses still remain: how did they fight? Were they in specific formations? If so, how big? Who were they coordinated by? When did they enter battle? What kind of bow and arrow did they use? Did they fight only on foot or did they also use horses? And if they used horses, can we talk about real archers on horseback? The author will try to answer most of these questions by always referring only to sources and historiography.