Modern reconstruction of a Byzantine klivanion (Κλιβάνιον).
The klivanion or klibanion (Greek: κλιβάνιον)[1] was a Byzantinelamellarcuirass made of metal plates (scales or lamellae) sewn on leather or cloth, with plates protecting the shoulders and the back. It is said that the name derives from the Greek klivanos (κλίβανος), meaning "oven", because this cuirass tended to get unbearably hot when worn in the sun. It was part of the armour of the Byzantine heavy cavalry.[2][3][4] This cavalry called the kataphraktoi also wore this with a thickly padded surcoatepilorikion as added covering.[5] Considered one of the three best armors together the thorax and zava-lorikion, it was also worn by the Taghmatics and the Byzantine Imperial Guards.[6]
Klivanion was also made for horses and this armor was made from bison hide.[7]
^Dawson Timothy, Klivanion revisited: an evolutionary typology and catalogue of middle Byzantine lamellar’, Journal of Roman Military Equipment Studies, 12/13 (2001/2)
^Negin, Andrey Evgenevich; D’Amato, Raffaele (2020). Roman Heavy Cavalry (2): AD 500–1450. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN978-1-4728-3951-0.
^D’Amato, Raffaele (2012). Byzantine Imperial Guardsmen 925–1025: The Tághmata and Imperial Guard. Oxford, UK: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 55. ISBN978-1-84908-851-0.
^Theotokis, Georgios; Meško, Marek (2020). War in Eleventh-Century Byzantium. Oxon: Routledge. ISBN978-0-429-57477-1.
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