Western armament and tactics in the writings of Anna Komnene

Abstract

In this work, first we reconstructed and commented the western horseman's armament witch Anna Komnene had known (long spear, cross-bow, chain mail "Norman" shield, solarets). Afterwards, we established that Anne knew four types of western horseman's attack (attack in full gallop, attack from back slow march, attack from flank) and three types of their battle formation (strewn formation, congested formation, formation of two columns). Also, we commented Anna's knowledge of western siege engines (battering-ram, tortoise catapult, siege tower); we established that Anne knew five types of western siege tower. In the end, we commented several fragments witch show Anna Komnene's knowledge of the western siege tactics.