Esaias van de Velde - ambuscades & attacks

 Salvete  Omnes,

a short entry - Esaias van de Velde (1587-1630AD) - already  I posted one entry on maestro Esaias's drawings last year.

So perhaps a few of his works showing his paintings depicting ambuscades and attacks on the travelers etc in the countryside (he was a master of landscape painting).

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. some details from Esaias van de Velde's paintings 

Valete

The fall of Seleucids and the Raise of Parthia - Nikolaus Overtoom's dissertation

 Salvete Omnes,

I enjoy reading, studying and drawing about the ancient Parthia and their history in the context of the  equestrian history of Eurasia - so a short entry today

  - the entire dissertation of dr Nikolaus Overtoom is available on the LSU website - Challenging Roman Domination: The End of Hellenistic Rule and the Rise of the Parthian State from the Third to the First Centuries BCE (2016)

You could also listen to several Parthian history presentations by dr Overtoom on Yt eg the Lecture on   Parthia,.  On the Parthian Empire.

enjoy 

Enjoy

Tang riding horse harness terminology

 Salvete Omnes,

Tang Dynasty period in Chinese history is famous for the ceramics in shape of horse and horse & rider. 

I have a book - actually an exhibit catalog from  the Kentucky Horse Park (published 2000AD).
Title: The Imperial China, The Art of the Horse in Chinese (review). 
In the Chapter: The Horse in Chinese History by Bill Cooke (director emeritus of the International Museum of the Horse at the Kentucky Horse Park) there is a description of the Chinese terminology around the Tang Dynasty period. 

The author provided information on the horse harness terminology -

Jisheng on the crouper harness

Bridle- 'luotou' and the Bit - 'Youle' with cheek-bars - 'Biao'

Saddle - 'An'

Pommel and cantle saddle with tree bars

High pommel saddle with a saddle cover, saddle pad, saddle mud guard, and stirrups

Behind the saddle, to the saddle tree Tang saddlemakers added 4-6 straps hanging down the saddle pad

horse with a crenellated mane

Saddle-pad - 'cun' and  Saddle mud-screen -  'zhang-ni'

Saddle cover - 'Anfu'

Saddle cinch/girth - 'Fudai'

Breastplate/breast-strap - 'Panxiong'

Crouper/crupper - 'Qiu'

Apricot/peach leaf ornament - 'Xingye'

Cranellated /crenelated mane - 'three flower' 'Sanhua'

Bounded Tail -  'Fuwei'

Crupper saddle adornment -'Jisheng' (parasite), also a version known as 'Fire pearl ' - 'Hounzhu'

enjoy

Valete

Justianian military and wars in books and podcasts 2025

 Salvete Omnes,

Mount Nebo mosaic 

The end of the year is near and there have been some books and podcasts about the military history of the emperor Justinian I. I still have an old book by Roy Boss  Justinian's War - Belisarius, Narses and the Reconquest of the West (1993) from Montvert Publishing.

Podcasts I have listened to within last month or so: 

Historians Adrian Goldsworthy and Geoffrey Greatrex talk about the Justinian I and his commander Belisarius 

and the historian Procopius (his translated books are available on Archive). 

riders without stirrups with long lances - Mount Nebo 

and here Adrian Goldsworthy is talking about the 'The Army that Retook Rome.'

* Osprey Military Publishing just released a book - Armies of Justinian the Great, AD 527-65 - by Raffale D'Amato.
I have not read yet this publication (rahter tiny 48 pages), but I have seen some plates from the book - illustrations done by Catalin Draghici and Giorgio Albertini. 

* Another publisher form UK, Helion Company, published a large (300 pages)  book, - Birth of the Byzantine Army 476-661 CE (sic!). Vol 1. Illustrations by Renato Dalmaso. 

I have not seen this book, but appears rather interesting 

Valete