In the postclassical period there were many developments to weapons around the world, two

empires stood out in their development of weapons Byzantine and the Mongols. While the Mongols
mainly wielded weapons are most effective on horseback, the Byzantines focused on hand to hand
combat and developed weapons that mainly focused on that.

In the Mongol Empire the composite bow became a popular weapon with it the Mongols were
able to effectively cut through an enemy rank. If there is one weapon that the Mongol’s were famous for
it would have to be the bow (composite). They were able to develop techniques that allowed them to
better hit an enemy that was fortified, camped together, or massed in one place all on horse-back.
Arrow heads were usually made of bronze or bone their shape depended on what it was being used for
(hunting, war, piercing through armor) and were sometimes poisoned. For this reason Mongol warriors
also had multiple quivers (things that hold arrows) with different sets of arrows, they also had different
bows one for close range and one for long range. Besides the mastery of archery that the Mongol’s
calvary had they also used a curved blade called the sabre. The sabre was light and easy to use on horse-
back and was so extremely effective that it spawned many different adaptations such as the Turkish kilij,
the Arabian saif and the Mamluk scimitar those are only proof of its effectiveness. Wielded by the
Mongols heavy calvary, the Mongol lance was shorter than other lances and usually had a hook near the
head so that they could knock an enemy off their horse. Very surprising (to me at least) lassos were also
used as weapons to drag riders off their horses and of course the Mongols were experts at using lassos
due to the fact that nearly all their army used horses and lassos were needed to round up horses. For
close combat Mongols utilized maces that may or may not have been adapted from the Turks and
Persians version of the mace. Later on Mongol’s got a hold of heavy artillery such as ballistas (basically a
giant crossbow) that could shoot giant arrows causing devastating damage and trebuchet-like catapults
which launched giant rocks. Each Mongol warrior was expected to be self sufficient and was usually
equipped with a set of tools and replacement parts for their weapons. It is very apparent that archery
and calvary had the biggest impact on the Mongols weapon choice.

Byzantine also had a variety of devastating and awesome weapons. One such weapon was
“Greek fire” which is like a modern flame thrower. This devastated enemy’s of the Byzantine Empire not
only by burning them with a fire that couldn’t be put out but also causing fear within enemy’s ranks who
had never seen something like it. Anyways “Greek fire” is probably the most famous weapon of the
Byzantine Empire not only because of devastating effects but also because the use of this type of
weapon was unheard of at the time. Other weapons include a variety of sword types such as long,
short, curved, one-handed, two handed sword. The Roman gladius had been abandoned in favor for the
sapathion a two -edged sword used by both infantry and calvary. Later on however the paramerion a
curved one-edged sword was preferred over the sapathion by the calvary. Axes and maces were carried
by infantry. Six, four, or three cornered maces were used to break through enemy infantry. The two
handed axe was preferred by mercenaries from Rus’ and Varangian Guard. As for long range weapons
the sling and bow were used. The sling wasn’t used as much and the bows they used were of Roman
origin. The bows of the infantry could shoot about 300 meters where as the calvary bows shot about
130 meters but had greater accuracy and easier to handle. As you can clearly see the Byzantines
focused a lot less on their archery and calvary and more on their foot soldiers. In fact there was one
emperor named Tactica Leo VI who tried to improve the archery, but sadly he failed.