the hilt from the typical ‘sword of war’ found in Western Europe, and the paramērion which appears to have been a form of single-edged, perhaps slightly curved, sabre. Most Byzantine soldiers would have worn swords as secondary weapons, usually suspended from a baldric rather than a waist belt. Heavy cavalry are described (in slightly earlier writings) as being doubly equipped with both the spathion and paramērion. Some missile-armed skirmish infantry used a relatively light axe (tzikourion) as a secondary weapon, whilst the Varangians were known as the “Axe-bearing Guard” because of their use of the double-handed Danish axe. The rhomphaia, a visually distinctive edged weapon, was carried by guardsmen in close attendance on the emperor. It was carried on the shoulder, but the primary sources are inconsistent as to whether it was single- or double-edged. Heavy cavalry made use of maces. Byzantine maces were given a variety of names including: mantzoukion, apelatikion and siderorabdion, suggesting that the weapons themselves were of varied construction. Missile weapons included a javelin, riptarion, used by light infantry, and powerful composite bows used by both infantry and cavalry. The earlier Byzantine bow was of Hunnic origin, but by the Komnenian period bows of Turkish form were in widespread use. Such bows could be used to fire short bolts (myai, "flies") with the use of an ‘arrow guide’ called the sōlēnarion. Slings and staff-slings are also mentioned on occasion. Shields Shields, skoutaria, were usually of the long “kite” shape, though round shields are still shown in pictorial sources. Whatever their overall shape, all shields were strongly convex. A large pavise-like infantry shield may also have been used. Body armour The Byzantines made great use of ‘soft armour’ of quilted, padded textile construction identical to the “jack” or aketon found later in the Latin West. Such a garment, called the kavadion, usually reaching to just above the knees with elbow or full-length sleeves, was often the sole body protection for lighter troops, both infantry and cavalry. Alternatively the kavadion could provide the base garment (like an arming doublet) worn under metallic armour by more heavily protected troops. Another form of padded armour, the epilōrikion, could be worn over a metal cuirass. The repertoire of metal body armour included mail (lōrikion alysidōton), scale (lōrikion folidōton) and lamellar (klivanion). Both mail and scale armours were similar to equivalent armours found in Western Europe, a pull-on “shirt” reaching to the