ARMS and ARMOUR. The history of arms and armour forms one of the most suggestive chapters in the history of civilisation. The use of stone weapons appears to have been universally characteristic of the earlier, as it is still distinctive of the ruder races of mankind. The forms of the weapons fabricated in this intractable material were of necessity few and simple. The commonest and most widely distributed type is that of the imperforate axe, varying from the roughly-dressed wedge of flint, to the finely-shaped and highly-polished lenticular “celt.” They were fabricated of flint, diorite, greenstone, serpentine, indurated clay-slate, in short, of almost every material capable of being worked into the desired form, and of retaining the requisite sharpness of edge. Spear-heads and arrow-pointe were chipped in flint with such surprising dexterity and skill, that they were nearly as effective as those subsequently fabricated in metals, and not much inferior in form and finish. The highest efforts of the ancient stone-workere culminated in the short leaf-shaped knife-dagger of flint, suggestive of the form which afterwards became the characteristic weapon of the Bronze Age, the leaf-shaped sword. These knife-daggers of flint exhibit considerable variety of form, though always of the same type. They vary also in size, but seldom exceed about 12 inches in length. They are never ground or polished, but delicately chipped to a straight edge, while the flakes are so regularly removed from the convex portions of the blade as to give a rippled or wavy surface, and the corners of the handle are delicately crimped, thus producing an appearance of great beauty and finish....
The Bronze Age.— In the earliest interments in which the weapons deposited with the dead are of other materials than stone, a peculiar form of bronze dagger occurs It consists of a well-finished, thin, knife-like blade, usually about 6 inches in length, broad at the hilt and tapering to the point, and always riveted to the handle by massive rivets of bronze. It has been found associated with stone celts, both of the roughly-chipped and the highly-polished kind, showing that these had not been entirely disused when bronze became available. A later type of bronze dagger is a broad, heavy, curved weapon, usually from 9 to 15 inches in length, with massive rivets for attachment to an equally massive handle. The leaf-shaped sword, however, is the characteristic weapon of the Bronze Period. It is found all over Europe, from Lapland to the Mediterranean. No warlike weapon of any period is more graceful in form or more beautifully finished. The finish seems to have been given in the mould without the aid of hammer or file, the edge being formed by suddenly reducing the thickness of the metal, so as to produce a narrow border of extreme thinness along both sides of the blade from hilt to point. The handle-plate and blade were cast in one piece, and the handle itself was formed by side plates of bone, horn, or wood, riveted through the handle-plate. There was no guard, and the weapon, though short, was well balanced, but more fitted, however, for stabbing and thrusting than for cutting with the edge. The Scandinavian variety is not so decidedly leaf-shaped, and is longer and heavier than the common British form; and instead of a handle-plate, it was furnished with a tang on which a round, flat-topped handle was fastened, like that of the modern Highland dirk, sometimes surmounted by a crescent-like ornament of bronze. A narrow, rapier-shaped variety, tapering from hilt to point, was made without a handleplate, and attached to the hilt by rivets like the bronze daggers already mentioned. This form is more common in the British Isles than in Scandinavia, and is most abundant in Ireland. The spear-heads of the Bronze eriod present a considerable variety of form, though the leaf-shaped predominates, and barbed examples are extremely rare. Some British forms of this weapon are of great size, occasionally reaching a length of 27 inches. The larger varieties are often beautifully designed, having segmental openings on both sides of the central ridge of the blade, and elaborately ornamented with chevrony patterns of chased or inlaid work both on the socket and blade. Arrow-points are much rarer in bronze than in flint. In all probability the flint arrow-point (which was equally effective and much more easily replaced when lost) continued to be used throughout the Bronze Period. Shields of bronze, circular, with hammered-up bosses, concentric ridges, and rows of studs, were held in the hand by a central handle underneath the boss. The transition period between the Bronze and Iron Ages in Central Europe is well defined by the occurrence of iron swords, which are simple copies of the leafshaped weapon, with flat handle-plate previously fabricated in bronze. These have been found associated with articles assigned to the 3d or 4th century B.c.
The Greek Heroic Age.— The Greek sword of the heroic age is described by Homer as double-edged, long, sharp, and trenchant, the blade of bronze, and the hilt and scabbard adorned with gold or silver studs. In the Homeric combats, however, the spear, lance, or javelin always plays the principal part, and the sword is only used when the combatants meet at close quarters, the spear having failed to decide the contest. Both sword and spear appear to have been of the forms which are characteristic of these weapons in the Bronze Age of Central and Northern Europe. The bow of Pandarus is described as made of ibex-horn and strung with sinews. The arrow-head is the only part of the warrior’s equipment which Homer expressly describes as of iron, and the mode of its insertion in a split in the head of the shaft, where it was made fast by a ligature of sinew, is precisely that which is still adopted by modern savages with their arrow-points of flint. The defensive armour of the heroic ages was also entirely of bronze. In consisted of helmet, cuirass, greaves, and shield. The helm was sometimes a simple casque, or closefitting headpiece, but more frequently adorned with crest and plumes. The cuirass of bronze was often elaborately engraved and adorned with gold. The greaves covered the leg to the instep, and were either of bronze or some similar compound metal of great toughness and flexibility. The shield, round or oval in form, is described as of bronze, backed or covered with hide, and decorated with bosses and concentric rings of metal. We have a gauge of the size of Hector’s shield in the lines—
“Hector of the gleaming helm
Turned to depart; and as he moved along
The black hull ’ s-hide his neck and ancles smote,
The outer circle of his bossy shield.”
Ik vi. 116-118.
Greek Historic Age.— In the early historic ages the characteristic weapons of the Greek armies were determined by the military tactics of the period. The mode of fighting in heavy phalanx necessitated the use of long, heavy spears. The Hoplites when massed in phalanx stood sixteen deép, the men of each rank close together, shield touching shield, the pikes of each line, 21 to 24 feet long, projecting from 2 to 13 feet in front of the foremost rank at equal distances. The shield of the early monuments, though still large, is not nearly so large as that of Hector, usually reaching from the shoulder to the knee, and still retaining its round or oval form and bold convexity. On the early vases the shields are represented as adorned with a great variety of devices. We now find the helm having a lengthened neck-guard, side-guards for the face, frontlet, and prolonged crest, sweeping gracefully over the rounded top of the head-piece and falling down the back. At the time of the Peloponnesian war the linen corselet, so much in favour among the Egyptians, Assyrians, and Asiatics generally, was introduced instead of the heavy cuirass of the Hoplites, and a smaller shield substituted for the larger and heavier one previously in use, while the length of the sword was considerably increased. The light-armed troops were furnished with a light javelin provided with a strap orthong attached to the middle to assist in hurling it. The mounted troops were similarly equipped as to their defensive armour, and furnished with a longer sword, a javelin, and a short dagger.
Egyptian. —The strength of the Egyptian armies in the earliest times consisted of archers, who fought either on foot or from chariots. The Egyptian bow was somewhat shorter than the height of a man. The string was of hide, catgut, or cord. The arrows varied from 24 to 34 inches in length, and were usually of reed, winged with three feathers and pointed with heads of bronze. These were sometimes cast with sockets and sometimes with tangs. Arrow-heads of flint are occasionally found in the tombs along with those of bronze, and Sir Gardner Wilkinson remarks on this, that “flint arrow-heads were not confined to an ancient era, nor were they peculiar to Egypt alone; the Persians and other Eastern peoples frequently used them even in war.” The Egyptian archers were provided with a falchion, dagger, mace, or battle-axe, for close combat; their defensive armour consisted of a quilted headpiece and coat, but they carried no shield, which would have been an impediment to the free use of the bow The infantry were classified according to the weapons with which they fought, a3 spearmen, swordsmen, clubmen, and slingers. The spears were 5 or 6 fee long, with large triangular or leaf-shaped heads of bronze, socketed and fastened to the shaft by a single rivet through the socket. The spearmen fought in close phalanx, and were furnished with shields of a peculiar form, rectangular below and semicircular above, like a round-headed door, about half the height of a man. Their shields were covered with bull’s hide, having the hair outwards, strengthened by rims and studs of metal, and furnished with a round sighthole in the middle of the semicircular upper part. They had quilted helmets, and cuirasses of bronze scales or quilted with bands of metal, but no greaves. The early Egyptian sword was of bronze, straight, double-edged, tapering from hilt to point, and varying from 30 to 36 inches in length. Axes, with short handle and an oblong or crescentic blade, with segmental openings, fastened to the handle and unsocketed, maces and clubs of various forms, and short, leaf-shaped daggers of bronze, were also used.
Assyrian.— The Assyrian sword, as represented on the monuments, resembled the Egyptian, but was worn on the left side, slung in a nearly horizontal position by the waistbelt. The bow was also a favourite weapon with the Assyrians, and lances, spears, and javehns, with oblong, leaf-shaped and unbarbed heads, constantly appear upon the sculptures. The shield was round and convex; the helm frequently conical, truncated or curved forward, and with pieces to protect the neck at the back and sides. Their cuirasses were close-fitting tunics made of many layers of flax, plaited or interwoven, and hardened and cemented with glue,—a species of linen corselet frequently referred to as in use also among the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans.
Etruscan.— The arms and armour of the Etruscans were in the main similar to those of the Greeks. Their cuirasses, however, were provided with overlapping shoulderguards, a peculiarity not observed in Greek armour. The shields were round and exceedingly convex, the helmets of very various forms, with a general tendency to a deep, bellshaped contour, adorned with an excessively elevated and elongated crest, and sometimes with alated projections of considerable height rising from opposite sides near the apex of the helm.
liοman.— The early Roman sword, like that of the Greeks, Egyptians, and Etruscans, was of bronze. We have no direct statement as to its form, but in all probability it was of the leaf-shaped form so universally characteristic of this weapon in bronze. We gather from the monuments that, in the 1st century b.c., the Roman sword was short, worn on the right side, suspended from a shoulder-belt, and reaching from the hollow of the back to the middle of. the thigh, thus representing a length of from 22 inches to 2 feet. The blade was straight, double-edged, and obtusely pointed. On the Trajan column (114 a.d.) it is considerably longer, and under the Flavian emperors the long, single-edged spatha appears frequently along with the short sword. The characteristic weapon peculiar to the Romans, however, was the pilum. The form of this weapon and the mode of using it have been minutely described by Polybius, but his description has been much misunderstood ⅛ consequence of the rarity of representations or remains of the pilum. It is shown on a monument at St Remi, in Provence, assigned to the age of the first emperors, and in a bas-relief at Mayence, on the grave-stone of Quintus Petilius Secundus, a soldier of the 15th legion.. A specimen of the actual weapon is in the museum at Weisbaden. It is a pike with a stout iron head, carried on an iron rod, about 20 inches in length, which terminates in a socket for the insertion of the wooden shaft. As represented on the monuments, the iron part of the weapon is about one-third of its entire length, and its junction with the wooden part of the shaft is fortified by a knob or swelling which is peculiar to this weapon. When used as a javelin at short distances it had a most embarrassing effect. Piercing the shield, the slender iron neck of the weapon bent with the weight of the shaft, which then dragged along the ground, so that the shield was rendered useless for defence. When used at close quarters it not only answered all the purposes of the modern bayonet, but when firmly wielded in both hands it was . equally efficient to ward off sword-strokes, which fell harmless upon the long and strong iron neck of the weapon. Polybius states that the legionary receiving the sword-strokes, with cool steadiness, upon his pilum, soon turned the swords of the enemy into mere hacked and blunted strigils or skin-scrapers. Vegetius also describes the püum in a modified form as used in the armies of the Lower Empire, and in a still more modified form it reappears as the angon of the Franks, to be noticed further on. The defensive armour of the Romans in earlier times resembled that of the Greeks as previously described, and was chiefly of bronze, consisting usually of helmet with crest and cheek-pieces, cuirass of breast and back plates, modelled «ο the form of the bust, and having a border of leather bands or straps, falling vertically so as to protect the lower part of the body. On the columns of Trajan and Antonine the cuirass proper is given to the chiefs only, the legionaries having their cuirasses of leather or linen, on which are sewn circular plates of metal, with shoulder-pieces and oblong plates descending vertically from the lower border of the cuirass. There are two varieties of shield on the Trajan column,—an oblong, rectangular, and highly convex form, peculiar to the legionaries, and an oval, flattened form borne by the knights and velites. In later times the oval shield was assumed by the legionaries. The Roman helmets in the time of the early emperors were simple skull-caps with a hollowed neck-guard, a small bar acting as a visor, and hinged cheek-pieces which fastened under the chin. In the declining days of the empire the helmet became deeper, the shield larger and more varied in form, the length of the sword was greatly increased, and uniformity of weapons and equipment was no longer observed.
Frankish.— The characteristic weapon of the Franks of the Merovingian epoch (450-760 a.d.) was the francisca or battle-axe, which they used as a missile. Procopius describes it as having a broad blade and a short haft, and it is said that the blow of an axe when hurled would pierce a shield or kill a man, and that the Franks rarely missed their aim. Agathias, the continuator of Procopius (535 a.d.), says they wear no body armour, few of them even having helmets, but they carry round shields, swords of the length of a man’s thigh, axes having double edges, and darts which are used either for throwing or for thrusting. These darts had barbed iron heads, and were used as the pilum was used by the Romans. When the angon was fixed in the enemy’s shield the custom of the Frank was to bound forward, place his foot on the end of the dart as it trailed along the ground, thus compelling the enemy to lower his shield, when he killed him with his axe or sword. The Frankish sword was a short, straight, broad-bladed, double-edged weapon, somewhat obtusely pointed, and usually about 30 to 32 inches in length. The sword and francisca of Childeric, one of the first of the Merovingian kings (457-481), were discovered in his tomb at Tournay in 1653, and are now in the museum of the Louvre. The sword has a short, straight cross-piece at the lower end of the hilt, and the pommel is of the same form, but smaller. The Carlovingian epoch, though almost devoid of distinctive characteristics as regards the arms in use, is remarkable for the gradual change from infantry to cavalry, and represents the transition to the period of chivalry. The development of the two military orders of the knights or men-at-arms and the common infantry soldiers, serfs or peasants, may be said to have begun in the armies of Charlemagne, and the superior class of fighting men in his time had added to the ordinary equipment of the earlier Franks the helm and coat of mail.
Scandinavian.— The swords of the early Iron Age in Scandinavia are frequently found in the mosses of Schleswig, associated with objects bearing a strongly-marked analogy to those recovered from the graves of our own Pagan Anglo-Saxon ancestors, of the period dating approximately from the 5th to the 7th centuries of the Christian era. They are long, straight, double-edged, and often richly damascened. On the tangs of several of those found at Nydam are the names of the armourers, some of which are of the Roman form. The grip of the hilt was circular, usually narrow in the middle, and the cross-pieces above and below were similar in shape. The sheaths were of wooden laths, adorned with tastefully-executed mountings in bronze. On one of the chapes an inscription in the earlier Runic alphabet occurred. Associated with these swords were flat, circular wooden shields, of 22∣ to 44 inches diameter, having a single handle under the central boss, and bosses and mountings sometimes of iron, but more frequently of bronze. Helmets were rare, but chain-armour of interlinked iron rings, of alternate rows of riveted and welded rings, was in use. The sword of the early Viking time in Scandinavia was long and heavy, usually double-edged, with strong rectangular crosspiece, narrow grip, and massive square or triangular pommel. In the later Viking time single-edged swords were more common, and the pommel was frequently tri-lobed, and the cross-piece elongated so as to form a decided guard. The shields were usually circular or oval, often painted and adorned with devices, and conical helmets and coats of mail were common.
Anglo-Saxon. —The early Anglo-Saxon sword was usually about 3 feet long, straight, double-edged, broad in the blade, and rounded at the point, with hilt and grip and cross-piece like those of the early Scandinavian swords previously described. As the sword was not carried by any man under the rank of thane, it is not often met with in Anglo-Saxon interments. With them, as with the Franks, it was a horseman’s weapon, and the common accoutrement of the infantry was a spear, an axe, a shield, and a scramasax, or heavy single-edged knife. The Saxon spear was a narrow, long-bladed weapon, varying greatly in form and dimensions, but generally characterised by the socket being slit or unclosed throughout its length. The axe was narrow-bladed and single-edged, and sometimes peaked at the back. The shield, which was circular or oval in form, was of wood, covered with leather, and furnished with a high conical boss, often terminating in a pipe or a button. Anglo-Saxon warriors of the 10th century are represented in the manuscripts as wearing hauberks of mail and rounded casques. The Aelfric manuscript, of the end of the 11th century, shows the tri-lobed sword-hilt and round shield.
Norman.— The arms and armour of the Normans at the period of the conquest of Normandy were, of course, Scandinavian. The Norman arms of the period of the conquest of England are portrayed on the Bayeux tapestry. The sword is still of the Scandinavian type, long, straight, double-edged, and somewhat tapering, and round or obtusely pointed with cross piece and pommel. The horsemen are armed with long lances as well...
