Prow-shaped Towers and Siege Equipment in Early Byzantine Period

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Pages: -
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54664/XPKY8535

Abstract:

Early Byzantine era is a period of massive fortress construction. Undoubtedly its distinctive feature is the towers of pentagonal and triangular shape. Today the number of prow-shaped towers which have an early-Byzantine context is significant. At the latest at the beginning of the 5th century they entered the fortification of the Eastern Roman Empire, but the majority of the examples date back to the middle of the 5th century, mainly during the reign of Emperor Anastasius (491–518) to Emperor Justinian (527–565) and are known mainly by the Balkan provinces of the Empire. Of all the authors who have written to one degree or another about the theory of warfare and whose treatises are preserved, evidence of the use of prow-shaped towers, we find in the treatises of Philo of Byzantium and the so-called Byzantine Anonymous only with regard to the pentagonal towers. It is on the basis of their reports that many researchers believe that the development of the siege warfare in late antiquity is the reason for their appearance in early Byzantine fortification. However, the data available does not support these statements, which impose rethinking of the role that siege engines, and in particular artillery, has in siege warfare, as it is often overexposed only on the basis of written sources.

Keywords:

pentagonal towers, triangular towers, prow-shaped towers, fortification, fortress, siege warfare, siege engines, artillery, treatise, Philo of Byzantium, Byzantine Anonymous, Late Antiquity, Early Byzantine period.

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