Page:Destruction of the Greek Empire.djvu/291

 DEFENDEBS' AEMS AND EQUIPMENT 251 The emperor and Justiniani had collected arms and various kinds of missiles, shot and arrows, and all sorts of machines. 1 Each army was equipped in much the same manner. Modern, mediaeval and ancient arms and equipment were employed side by side with each other. We read of dolabras, of wooden turrets, and of the Turks raising their shields above their heads and making a testudo. 2 Stone shot are thrown by the great slings, or catapults, known as mangonels or trebuchets, as well as by cannon. While each side relied largely on the bow, each side also discharged missiles at the other from arquebuses and culverins. Long-bows were so numerous in the Turkish army that the discharge of arrows from them is described by more than one author as darkening the sky. Cross-bows appear also in the description of the siege under the names of balistae and spingards. 1 The archers,' says La Brocquiere, ' were the best troops the Turks possessed.' 3 The ordinary soldier in the Turkish army was armed with a wooden shield and a scimitar. A few, among both the besiegers and the besieged, were armed with lances. Uniformity in equipment or dress was not even attempted. Tetaldi says that in the Turkish army less than a fourth were armed with hauberks and wore jacques — that is, quilted tunics of cotton or leather, well padded ; 4 that some were well armed in French, some in Hungarian, fashion, some in other modes ; some had iron helmets, and others long-bows or cross-bows. The J anissaries were trained to act either as cavalry or infantry. They carried bows and small wooden shields, and were further armed with a long lance or with a scimitar. The Anatolian division was composed mostly of cavalry. 1 Crit. xvii. The word machine is usually used by contemporary writers to designate a cannon, though here, as elsewhere, it may be employed in a general sense. What is certain is that such cannon as the Greeks possessed were few in number and of small value. 2 Isidori Lamentatio, p. 676 ; also Christoforo Eiccherio, Sansovin, p. 957 : both in Dethier's Siege. 3 P. 369. 4 P. 145. Boutell's Arms and Armour.