How a Byzantine Emperor Rode Away With Lances in His Coat?

In the tenth century, the most heavily armoured rider of his time looked like he was wearing a quilted coat. Every piece of iron sat underneath it. The general and later emperor Nikephoros Phokas listed his kit in his military manual, the Praecepta Militaria, around 965. A padded jacket, greaves, padded skirts faced with mail, and a cuirass of iron plates riveted to leather and laced together. 📖 Source: Timothy Dawson, Byzantine Cavalryman c.900-1204, Osprey Warrior 139 Then splinted upper sleeves, and a helmet with a mail veil two layers thick that left only the eyes. Over all of it went a padded coat. The forearm guards went on last, laced by the man he shared a tent with. He carried two swords on shoulder straps, one hanging straight down and one sideways, so he could draw either, plus up to three maces. His horse wore an iron headpiece, ox hide lamellar on its chest, and covers under its hooves against caltrops. Phokas required an estate worth sixteen pounds of gold to keep one of these riders, land probably worked by around thirty families. The proof comes from Anna Komnene's Alexiad. At Dyrrachium in 1081, Norman knights speared her father, Emperor Alexios I, from one side and then the other. They only pushed him back into his saddle, and he rode away with their lances still caught in his coat. This channel is made on musayko.com, a platform I built for creating and managing content. Timeline History runs entirely on it. If you make videos, it's open to you too. Which warrior should we reconstruct next?