John Dandoulakis ©
(BA War Studies, MA European and International Politics)
The inspiration
The idea to reconstruct a byzantine spathion was borne out of my engagement in Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA). I was training in sword and buckler techniques so the idea of working and experimenting on it from a byzantine perspective was too strong to resist. The main goal was twofold: a) to make an as historically accurate as possible sword and b) to make an infantry sword, not a cavalry one as the western european arming sword is. Making a byzantine round medium shield was the easy part. Making the spathion was the hard part.
