Battle of Sirmium 1167 AD Part I

Medieval total war. First part of a two-part video of the historical battle of Sirmium, July 1167 AD. Based on the histories of Ioannes Kinnamos and Niketas Choniates. The second part of the battle is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO_uqHvG_mY

The Hungarians had in their army allies among the nations that live around them. Germans are mentioned explicitly but almost certainly there would have been some Slavs and Szekely.

The Byzantine army was a multinational army, including the Imperial Guard, mostly foreigners, Italian mercenaries, German heavy cavalry, Turks and other Asiatics especially fighting as mounted archers and also a body of Serb spearmen.

The Hungarian army had about 15000 cavalry. On both sides there were spearment and archers. The Byzantine infantry was as ever armed with long spears and swords but additionally at this period the Byzantine melee infantry and cavalry were armed with a third weapon, maces. These were needed to deal with the heavy armour that was becoming common in the battlefields at the time. They were useful at the end of teh battle when the spears had been broken and the swords had been blunted. The Hungarians, unfortunately, had no maces and were at a loss how to continue to fight once their main weapons had been rendered useless.

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