Klivanion

Under a Klibanion one understood a characteristic of the Eastern Roman forces slatted armor in the Byzantine Empire. The name comes from the Latin word for a heavily armored cavalryman Clibanarius, which was expressed with the time on this piece of armor. He was a popular standard used tanks in particular in the Middle Byzantine period.

Description and origin

A Klibanion was composed of elongated to almost square lamellae, which consisted mostly of metal, sometimes made ​​of horn or leather. They were woven with the adjacent plates above and next to them by wire or leather cords led through small holes in the plates, and thus formed a self-supporting and relatively rigid braid. A particular distinguishing feature compared to the ordinary scale armor is the fact that the fins on the Klibanion opening upwards, not downwards. In addition, he lacked the typical for most scale armor leather pad on which the scales are applied. This special type of the slatted armor is often attributed to the Avars, of which the Byzantines in the 6th and 7th centuries numerous pieces of equipment - especially for the cavalry - took over.

Use

The Klibanion is a pretty good compromise between mobility and optimal protection dar. Although it does an attack not so rigid resistance such as a plate armor, but it is stiff enough to offer greater protection than a chain mail. Another advantage is its airiness, especially in the hot climate of Syria and Asia Minor is likely to have had an impact. He was probably also relatively inexpensive to manufacture because of the relatively few parts and simple composition. Because of its relatively low flexibility of this armor locations was usually only worn on the chest and abdomen ( ie, as a cuirass ) and had generally no sleeves, the limbs and head were protected by other equivalent armor. In the Byzantine army seems to protect the limbs the Klibanion a similar tube of metal strips to have been common, which was also held together by wire or similar. Gladly we combined the Klibanion with leather or fabric feeding or with chain mail to the more mobile areas of the body, and often a Klibanion was worn over a chain mail. The tank was apparently widespread in both the heavy infantry as well as the heavy cavalry and belonged to the standard equipment of the Byzantine army. Illustrations suggest that the armored valances for the horses resembled the Byzantine heavy cavalry over ( Kataphrakten and klibanophoroi ) the Klibanion in their style. The Klibanion apparently remained until the late Middle Ages in use.