The army of Tocco, a late medieval Greek state

[Erpingham]

Thrown up at random by academia.edu, another obscure piece of medieval military history.  Italian mercenaries, Greek militia and Albanian tribesmen - an interesting combination.

[Duncan Head]

I've got Nicol's The Despotate of Epirus, but haven't read further into the area so this is interesting, thanks. The DBM/MM/A "Epeirote Byzantine" list presumably covers this army, though I have little idea how accurately.

When the author refers to garrisons including bowmen (tzakratoroi), I would presume he actually means crossbowmen since it sounds like tzaggra, the common Byzantine Greek word for crossbow; and "loumpardes", lombards/bombards, are cannons rather than canons!

[Erpingham]

When the author refers to garrisons including bowmen (tzakratoroi), I would presume he actually means crossbowmen since it sounds like tzaggra, the common Byzantine Greek word for crossbow

Thanks for that Duncan.  When I read it, I did think that I would expect at least some crossbowmen and whether his "bowmen" was hiding them,  but didn't have your language skills to spot the reference.

[Jim Webster]

Thanks for the link, fascinating

[Tim]

...

When the author refers to ... I would presume he actually means ... cannons rather than canons!

So you don't think that this was some obscure schismatic weapon...?

[Erpingham]

For more in the same vein, the author's look at the Chronicles of Ioannina is even more obscure, but has a great section on naval battles on a lake giving plenty of excuse for those who like wargames rules with naval landings to assemble some amphibious capability.

[Justin Swanton]

When the author refers to garrisons including bowmen (tzakratoroi), I would presume he actually means crossbowmen since it sounds like tzaggra, the common Byzantine Greek word for crossbow; and "loumpardes", lombards/bombards, are cannons rather than canons!

Canons can be quite effective, especially the Interdiction and Excommunication ones. Psychological warfare was much more effective then. Nowadays it's propaganda, but a TV commentator doesn't quite have the gravitas of a Pope sitting on the Chair of St Peter.

[Anton]

By the time of Cortez's invasion of Mexico the Lombard was a specific sort of light cannon.  It came with a number of pre- loaded breaches and so could fire quite rapidly until they were used up.  I don't know if this applied to the Tocco ones.

[Swampster]

For more in the same vein, the author's look at the Chronicles of Ioannina is even more obscure, but has a great section on naval battles on a lake giving plenty of excuse for those who like wargames rules with naval landings to assemble some amphibious capability.

I had a quick read of the lake battles. The monoxyla are assumed to be small canoes, and this might well be the case, though it seems this can also refer to 'expanded dugouts'. Ros monoxyla were sea-going and could hold a few dozen men, and the later Cossack chailka was a dugoat but could be 20 metres long with a crew of 30-50. The core of the boat was a single dugout trunk but the sides were built up with additional planks.