What did Romans eat? Food from Pompeii and Herculaneum

In 79 AD a deadly eruptions ended the history of small but wealthy Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Tons of falling debris filled the streets until nothing remained to be seen of the once thriving communities. At least one thousand casts made from impressions of bodies in the ash deposits had been recovered from this magnificent city of Pompeii. But what was a doom for Romans living, gave archaeologist an wonderful insight into the Roman world. 

We have found jeweler, mosaics, gladiator helmets, medical equipment. But one thing is even more amazing - food. Food carbonized and preserved for almost 2000 years. 

The most known example of Vesuvius eruption food (and also something that Romans used every day) was bread. In 79 AD some bakers left their loafs in the oven. They were left unattended when the volcano exploded. Round and plump, like a cake, and divided into eight wedges. Pompeians ate bread with most meals — with fruit at breakfast, at lunch and dinner dipped in olive oil or used to sop up sauces and stews. It was hard bread, made from coarse flour. The poor couldn’t afford raised, they ate unleavened bread, similar to pita bread. The one loaf of bread (top photo) was even more special than others - it has a stamp ‘Property of Celer, Slave of Q. Granius Verus’. We do not know if the slave survived the cataclysm, but we do know that he was a baker, a good one - with a quality stamp. [right photo: half-eaten bread found in Herculaneum]

Bakeries (one on the left) were very popular -  about 35 have been found in Pompeii, each supplying their local area: selling directly from the window or delivering. Dough was prepared in a different area. This was not always by hand. In the bakery of Popidius Priscus, an industrial scale bread making machine was discovered with the dough mixed with large paddles. Machinery was common in Roman baking. Special kneading machines existed. Dough was wound around a horizontal shaft in the bottom of a basin and then pressed between wooden slats in the basin’s sides. Only the  shaping and stamping with the mark of the bakery was done by hand. In one bakery, 85 loaves were found left  in an oven at the time of the eruption showing the demand for shop brought bread was high.

Generally people ate outside [remember that Romans invented hamburger: sicia omentata] - they didn't usually eat at home. In most of the kitchens excavated at Pompeii (like the one on the left), the only permanent feature left is a masonry hearth with a tiled top and arched recesses at the bottom for storing fuel. Cooking was done on this open hearth, with pots set on iron tripods over burning charcoal or wood. Some houses also boasted a small oven, much like a modern woodfired pizza oven, at the corner of the bench, with a vent near the stove for the smoke to escape. The only other furnishings in the Pompeian kitchen were a basin to hold water for cooking and washing up, and sometimes supports for tables to prepare the food. Texts of the time use the word cacabus to mean pans in general, while the fretale or sartago seems to have been a bronze or iron frying pan. The pultarius was a saucepan, and the testa or clibanus a small portable oven for roasting or baking bread. Iron choppers, knives, cleavers and spoons, as well as strainers, ladles and mortars, were used to prepare the food, which was served on a large circular platter called a discus.

What else did they eat? Archaeologists discovered (food scraps found in the drains) remains of food that would have been widely available and inexpensive in ancient Italy, like grains, fruits (like this figs), olives, lentils, local fish, nuts and chicken eggs (real photo). They also uncovered evidence that really wealthy Pompeiians enjoyed a variety of exotic foods, some of which would have been imported from outside Italy, including sea urchins, flamingos and even the butchered leg joint of a giraffe. 

Famous fish sauce - garum helped establish the precise dating of Pompeii's destruction. Garum, made from fermenting fish in saltwater, was basically the ketchup of the ancient Romans. It boasted a much appreciated sweet and sour taste, and was used on almost on every dish, often substituting expensive salt. The last Pompeian garum was made entirely with bogues (known as boops boops), a Mediterranean fish species. The eruption froze the sauce right at the moment when the fish was left to macerate. No batches of finished garum were found, since the liquid evaporated in the heat from the eruption. Since bogues abounded in July and early August and ancient Roman recipes recommend leaving the fish to macerate for no longer than a month, we can say that the eruption occurred in late August-early September, a date which is totally compatible with Pliny's account. [left: broken amphora with almost finished garum found in factory in Pompeii]

What's not surprising ancient romans (studies made on the victims of eruption) had perfect teeth' thanks to healthy low-sugar diet. The inhabitants of Pompeii ate a lot of fruit and vegetables but very little sugar. They were strangers to toothbrushes or toothpaste, but their healthy diet meant that few of the Romans suffered from cavities. 

Romans loved to eat outside, small taverns (called Thermopolium) where it was possible to purchase ready-to-eat food. A typical thermopolium would consist of a small room with a distinctive masonry counter in the front. Embedded in this counter were earthenware jars (called dolia) used to store dried food like nuts (hot food would have required the dolia to be cleaned out after use, and because they are embedded in the counter, it is believed that they were not used to store hot food, but rather dried food where cleaning wouldn't be necessary). In Pompeii we have found 150 of them

In the months after Vesuvius’ eruption, a lot of Pompeiians came back to dig through the ash and see what they could recover. The Emperor Titus declared Pompeii an emergency zone and offered financial assistance for cleanup and recovery. But the buried towns were beyond salvaging. “When this wasteland regains its green,” wrote the Roman poet Statius not long after the eruption, “will men believe that cities and peoples lie beneath?” Eventually, the towns were dropped from local maps. Within a few centuries, settlers had repopulated the empty terrain, unconcerned with what lay below. They planted grapevines and olive trees in the fertile black soil.

Sale of bread at market stall, Roman fresco from Pompeii

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Joyeuse -Charlemagne sword that made Europe.

Charlemagne—or Charles the Great—is one of the most important figures in European history. He was king of the Franks, a people living in what is known as France today. He was born in 742 AD, the son of the Frankish king Pepin the Short. He inherited the crown together with his brother Carloman in 768, but when Carloman passed away in 771, Charles became the sole ruler. His successes in defeating the Lombards and Saxons made the Pope declare Charles the first champion of the Catholic Church in 774. The next 20 years were full of warfare against Saxons, Lombard insurgents and the Moors of Spain. In the latter conflict, there was a Frankish campaign against the Moors in 778, where the legendary battle in the Pass of Roncevalles took place. In this battle, Charles' paladin Roland fell, breaking his sword "Durandal" and entered legend in the "Song of Roland". After the fall of the Roman Empire, he was the first to reunite Western Europe. He ruled a vast kingdom that encompassed what is now France, Germany, Italy, Austria, and the Low Countries, consolidating Christianity through his vast empire through forced conversions. His military ‘accomplishments’ frequently involved extreme brutality, such as the beheading of more than 2,500 Frankish and Saxon village chiefs.

Many things about Charlemagne's reign as King and as Emperor are memorable; among them is the legend of his sword - Joyeuse or "Joyful. Legend states that the sword of Joyeuse, meaning “joyful” in French, was forged by the famous blacksmith Galas, and took three years to complete.  The sword was described as having magical powers associated with it.  It was said to have been so bright that it could outshine the sun and blind its wielder's enemies in battle, and any person who wielded the legendary sword could not be poisoned.  The Emperor Charlemagne, coming back from Spain was said to have set up camp in the region and acquired the sword.

Beginning in the 13th Century, the ancient blade featured prominently in coronation rites of France’s rulers — a tradition that continued right up to the 1825 crowning of Charles X. There’s even a town in the south of the country named for the weapon. Over the years, Joyeuse underwent a series of restorations and upgrades. According to the Louvre, the pommel, cross guard and grip were all completely replaced between the 10th and 13th centuries. The steel itself was refurbished in the 19th Century, although portions of the original 3.6-pound, three-foot sword reportedly date back to the Early Medieval period.

There are other amazing artifacts of Charlemagne - talisman with a parts of True Cross in it. The talisman had two large cabochon sapphires. One was oval and the other was square. They were set into a remnant of the wood from the Holy Cross (the Cross of Jesus) and a small piece of the Virgin's hair. This talisman was buried with him at Aix-la-Chapelle, in 814, and re-discovered when the tomb was opened by Otto III in 1000. The talisman was then preserved in the treasury of the Cathedral until it was given, by the canons, to Empress Josephine in 1804, to wear at her coronation. 





Surprisingly, the real throne of Charlemagne looks quiet poor. Erected in the 790s, until 1531, it served as the coronation throne of the Kings of Germany, being used at a total of thirty-one coronations. The throne is very plain and simple and entirely free of elaboration. Six steps lead up to the seat, which is on a podium. The seat itself consists of four marble plates held together with bronze clamps. According to the modern theory, the marble and the steps were taken from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem around 800. 

In the same Aachen Cathedral lies his grave. It was exhumed few times and what's rather unusal his bones survived to our times.  In 1000, Otto III, keen to present himself as the successor of the great man, had the burial vault opened. According to German chronicler and bishop Thietmar of Merseburg who was a contemporary of Otto’s, when the vault was opened they found Charlemagne’s uncorrupt body seated upon a marble throne wearing a crown with a scepter in his hand and the gospels open in his lap. Otto reportedly Helped himself to some of the relics and brought them to Rome. Frederick I Barbarossa was the next to disinter Charlemagne. In 1165, he had the remains exhumed and displayed as holy relics at the Aachen Court festival. In 1215, Frederick II had Charlemagne exhumed yet again. He commissioned local goldsmiths to make a rich gold casket to hold the bones. That’s the Karlsschrein originally in the placed in the center of the Palatine Chapel underneath a chandelier donated by Frederick Barbarossa in 1168. In 1349, some of his bones were removed to individual reliquaries by Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV. He had a gold reliquary made to contain a thigh bone, and the Bust of Charlemagne to contain the skullcap. Louis XI of France contributed to the trend in 1481 by commissioning the Arm Reliquary, a golden arm that contains the ulna and radius from Charlemagne’s right arm. It was scientists who took over from the emperors and kings. In 1861, Charlemagne’s remains were exhumed again so they could be studied. His skeleton was reconstructed and a very generous estimate (1.92 meters, or 6’4″) made of his height. In 1988, scientists exhumed his remains one more time, this time in secret. This study covered the bones in the reliquaries as well, a total of 94 bones and bone fragments, and they spent years meticulously examining and testing the collection. At 1.84 metres (six feet), he was unusually tall for his time. It's also estimated that his weight was at around 78 kilograms, giving him a slim body mass index of around 23. The average height for an adult male in the 9th century was 1.69 meters or 5’6″

Arm reliquary

Photo of Charlemagne bones from 1988 exhumation

Burial Shroud of Charlemagne. Made with murex snail dye, the famed purple favored by Roman emperors.

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Caligula's Nemi ships - floating palaces containing quantities of marble, mosaic floors, heating, and plumbing.

This bronze Medusa fitting is one of the most important remains of Caligula Nemi ships - floating palaces made with exceptional richness: the ships were clearly ostentatious luxury vessels used as an expression of power. The larger ship was essentially an elaborate floating palace, which contained quantities of marble, mosaic floors and even baths.

Before finding the ships local fishermen had always been aware of the existence of the wrecks, and had explored them and removed small artifacts, often using grappling hooks to pull up pieces, which they sold to tourists. In 1446, Cardinal Prospero Colonna and Leon Battista Alberti followed up on the stories regarding the remains and discovered them lying at a depth of 18.3 meters (60 ft), which at that time was too deep for effective salvage. In 1895, with the support of the Ministry of Education, Eliseo Borghi began a systematic study of the wreck site and discovered the site contained two wrecks instead of the one expected. In 1927, the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini ordered Guido Ucelli to drain the lake and recover the ships. With the help of the navy, army, industry, and private individuals, an ancient Roman underground water conduit linking the lake to farms outside the crater was reactivated. The ships come to surface after 2000 years underwater. 

As one of his royal passions, Emperor Caligula ordered several large barges to be built to use on Lake Nemi. For centuries scholars and historians have debated Caligua’s reason for building the barges. Some contend that Caligula built the barges to show the rulers of Syracuse, Sicily, and the Ptolemaic rulers in Egypt that Rome could match any luxurious pleasure barges that they built. Caligula bragged that his ships were the most luxurious in the Hellenistic world. The discovery proved that the Romans were capable of building large ships. Before the recovery of the Nemi ships, scholars often ridiculed the idea that the Romans were capable of building a ship as big as some ancient sources reported the Roman grain carriers were.

Two vessels, which were designated in modern times as Prima Nave and Seconda Nave, (First Ship and Second Ship), had dimensions of 67m x 19m and 71m x 24m respectively.  Placed together, they would have taken up much of the area of a football pitch. It is generally agreed that one of the ships was designed to be a floating temple to Diana, or others of the many deities that were then in vogue, while the other vessel may have been used as a palace afloat for the Emperor and his court where he undoubtedly would have indulged in many of the depravities that are attributed to him.  It is apparent that both ships were originally built using the standard sea-going shipbuilding techniques and materials of the day and that they were fitted out to an extremely high standard of luxury and decoration. Nothing is known of the circumstances in which the ships sank.  There is speculation that they simply floated on the lake until they leaked and became waterlogged.  Other commentators have conjectured that Caligula’s successor, Claudius, a more benign and prudent ruler, may have had them sunk to help obliterate the memory of his decadent predecessor. 

Seutonius, the Roman historian described the two biggest barges as being built of cedar wood adorned with jeweled prows, rich sculpture, vessels of gold and silver, sails of purple silk, and bathrooms of alabaster and bronze. The floors were paved with glass mosaic, the windows and door frames were made of bronze, and many of the decorations were priceless. The Romans made ball bearings out of lead and they probably used the ball bearings on the Nemi ships to make the statues of the gods rotate or to move the windlasses.

These floating palaces were attached to the shore by chains, and bridges were built across the water to link with the ships. According to some historical accounts, Caligula’s ships were the scenes of orgies, murder, cruelty, music, and sport and he supposedly spent much of his inheritance from his Uncle Tiberius to create his Nemi Ship retreat.

Many people concluded that the Nemi Ships were pleasure barges, but Pliny the Younger disagreed. He said that since Lake Nemi was sacred, Roman law prohibited ships from sailing on it. Pliny argued that Caligula had received a religious exemption for his ships.

Both ships had several hand operated bilge pumps that worked like a modern bucket dredge, the oldest example of this type of bilge pump ever found. The pumps were also operated by what may have been the oldest crank handles yet discovered; the reconstruction of the cranked pump which was assembled from fragments, including a wooden disk and an eccentric peg, has been dismissed as "archaeological fantasy". Piston pumps supplied the two ships with hot and cold running water via lead pipes. The hot water supplied baths while the cold operated fountains and supplied drinking water. This plumbing technology was later lost and only re-discovered in the Middle Ages.

Each ship contained a rotating statue platform. One platform was mounted on caged bronze balls and is the earliest example of the thrust ball bearing previously believed to have been first envisioned by Leonardo da Vinci but only developed much later. Previous Roman ball bearing finds (used for water wheel axles in thermal baths) had a lenticular shape. The second platform was almost identical in design but used cylindrical bearings. Although consensus is that the platforms were meant for displaying statues, it has also been suggested that they may have been platforms for deck cranes used to load supplies

Unfortunately the ships were destroyed by fire in World War II on the night of May 31, 1944. Several US army shells hit the Museum around 8 pm, causing little damage but forcing the German artillery to leave the area. Around two hours later, smoke was seen coming from the Museum.

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To protect in afterlife - Qin Terracota Army

After 2200 years an armored archer still guards the horizon for enemies of first Chinese emperor, Qin. The life-size statue belongs to a garrison of few thousands pieces: archers, cavalry troops, charioteers and horses. They are a part - of still not excavated- army from the emperors.

Surrounded by a collapsed roof of ancient timbers 8000 clay soldiers stands there to protect it's emperor in the afterlife. The roof collapse may have been caused by a fire set by rebels shortly after the emperor death. Remains of a palace and secondary pits contain bronze chariots and skeletons of horses have been discovered as well. All of this was a manifestation of Qin's quest for immortality and eternal power.

Qin declared himself emperor in 221 BC after victory in war with six warring states. He was the first ruler to unify China. He quashed the power of feudal nobility and recruited competent administrators to successfully manage the system. Qin standardized weights and measures, written language and currency. His road network likely exceeded 4,000 miles, including 40-foot-wide speedways with a central lane reserved for the imperial family. On the northern frontier, the emperor dispatched his most trusted general to reinforce and connect existing border barriers, creating a bulwark against nomadic marauders. Made of rammed earth and rubble, these fortifications became the basis for the Great Wall, most of which would be rebuilt in stone and brick during the 15th century A.D. under the Ming dynasty. He wanted his great army with him after he died. His underground empire was a miniature of his real one. More than 700 000 laborers toiled 36 years building his monument,

At the age of 49, after and 11 years of reign he died while on a journey of the elixir of life. Qin  died due to ingesting mercury pills, made by his alchemists and court physicians. Ironically, these pills were meant to make Qin Shi Huang immortal. To conceal Qin Shi Huangdi's death—and disguise the stench of a decomposing corpse—until the travelers returned to the capital, Zhao Gao took on a cargo of salted fish.

To gain insight into ancient techniques the Terracota Army museum launched a workshop to recreate terracotta troops. A worker loops coils of wet clay to form the body and arms, Placing a hand in the body for support they join arms and body and legs together with a paddle. Fingerprints and paddle marks found in broken ancient statues confirm the techniques authenticity. Ancient craftsmen also used molds to mass produce heads and ears. Armor details were sculpted manually. A half inch of clay was laid over molded head and hand-worked to give each warrior its own character. In the last part, heads were fired separately and attached to bodies. In 1000C statues are baked for several days until they glow red.

Some archaeologist think that the real soldiers of Qin served as models - each face is distinctive and unique. The terracotta figures are life-sized. They vary in height, uniform, and hairstyle in accordance with rank. Originally, the figures were also painted with bright pigments, variously colored pink, red, green, blue, black, brown, white and lilac. Most of the figures originally held real weapons such as spears, swords, or crossbows, and the use of actual weapons would have increased the figures' realism. Most of the original weapons however were looted shortly after the creation of the army, or have rotted away. Nevertheless many weapons such as swords, spears, battle-axes, scimitars, shields, crossbows, and arrowheads were found in the pits.

The best is still to come. Chinese still didn't decide to excavate his tomb. According to a description written a century after the emperor's death, the tomb contains a wealth of wonders, including man-made streambeds contoured to resemble the Yellow and Yangtze rivers, flowing with shimmering, quicksilver mercury that mimics coursing water. (Analysis of soil in the mound has indeed revealed a high level of mercury) Witings say the emperor created an entire underground kingdom and palace, complete with a ceiling mimicking the night sky, set with pearls as stars. Sima Qian's description of the tomb includes replicas of palaces and scenic towers, "rare utensils and wonderful objects", 100 rivers made with mercury, representations of "the heavenly bodies", and crossbows rigged to shoot anyone who tried to break in.Modern archaeologists have located the tomb, and have inserted probes deep into it. The probes revealed abnormally high quantities of mercury, some 100 times the naturally occurring rate, suggesting that some parts of the legend are credible. Hundred of skeletons have been uncovered near the tomb, many of them believed to be artisans and workers who helped build the grave. According to Sima, these laborers were put to death to preserve secrecy of the location and its treasures: “After the burial and sealing up of the treasures, the middle gate was shut and the outer gate closed to imprison all the artisans and laborers, so that not one came out. Trees and grass were planted over the mausoleum to make it seem like a hill,” he wrote.

Qin era gold sword.

Terracota army armour made from tiny wire-linked limestone plaques

Rare terracota army soldier with preserved painted face

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World largest warship graveyard - Chuuck Lagoon

It may look like a tropical paradise, but this stunning lagoon masks a dark secret... under the clear blue waters lies the biggest graveyard of ships in the world. In the Second World War Chuuk Lagoon (also known as Truk Lagoon) was Japan's main base in the South Pacific, but in 1944, Americans launched Operation Hailstone, which has been called the Japanese Pearl Harbor, and the bombardment lasted for three days. The attack wiped out 60 ships and 275 airplanes, sinking them to the bottom of the lagoon.

Most of the wrecks were left untouched for nearly 25 years since people feared setting off the thousands of sunken bombs. Many of the shipwrecks in the scuba diving paradise have full cargo holds full of fighter aircraft, tanks, bulldozers, railroad cars, motorcycles, torpedoes, mines, bombs, boxes of munitions, radios, thousands of various weapons, human remains, and other artifacts. More than 3,000 people were thought to have been killed.

The attacks for the most part ended Truk as a major threat to Allied operations in the central Pacific. The Japanese garrison on Eniwetok was denied any realistic hope of reinforcement and support during the invasion that began on February 18, 1944, greatly assisting U.S. forces in their conquest of that island. Truk was isolated by Allied (primarily U.S.) forces, as they continued their advance towards Japan, by invading other Pacific islands, such as Guam, Saipan, Palau, and Iwo Jima.

In 1969, French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau and his team explored Truk Lagoon. Following Cousteau's 1971 television documentary about the lagoon and its ghostly remains, the place became a scuba diving paradise, drawing wreck diving enthusiasts from around the world to see its numerous, virtually intact sunken ships.

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Teutoburg Forest - battle that stopped Roman Empire

Three Legions were marching thru German dark forest. 20 000 soldiers accompanied by 10 000 mostly women, but also traders, medicians, slaves. Roman General Varus as a representative of Romans hoped to expand Roman power, Roman law, and Roman culture on the north of Europe.

He felt safe and sure, as he trusted advises of his Germanic friend, Arminius. Arminius, born in 18 or 17 BC, was son of the Cheruscan chief Segimerus and trained as a Roman military commander. He had lived in Rome as a hostage in his youth, where he had received a military education, and obtained Roman citizenship as well as the status of equestrian (petty noble), he knew Latin.

The forest was dark, Roman convoy had to change it's formation, The line of march was now stretched out perilously long – between 15 and 20 kilometers. The Germanic warriors waited in grim silence. Meanwhile, a violent rain and wind came up that separated them still further, while the ground, that had become slippery around the roots and logs, made walking very treacherous for them, and the tops of the trees kept breaking off and falling down, causing much confusion. While the Romans were in such difficulties, the barbarians suddenly surrounded them on all sides at once. At one moment 20 000 spears were in the air aiming at Romans. Arminius set an ambush.

Cache of silver dinarii discovered in 1987 on the site of the Battle of Teutoburg Forest

Marching units disintegrated into chaos. The attacked soldiers stopped walking, in order to try to defend themselves. Since they were marching in close formation and few could see much beyond the men immediately around them, those behind kept marching forward and crashed into their fellows. At first, soldiers farther back in the column were unaware of what was happening toward the front, and they kept pressing on.… Like a chain-reaction highway crash, men piled into one another.

Wounded, dying, and already dead men quickly covered the track, making movement increasingly difficult for the others. The scene was one of complete chaos — spears falling like hail, men collapsing and gasping, even those not yet wounded struggling to remain on their feet, and occasionally frenzied horses and mules crashing through the swarm of troops. Within minutes, thousands of Roman soldiers lay dead or dying, pierced by spears, while others struggled to stay on their feet and to use their shields for shelter.

Iron roman keys found in Kalkriese

Varus understood that there was no escape. Rather than face certain torture at the hands of the Germans, he chose suicide, falling on his sword as Roman tradition prescribed. Most of his commanders followed suit, leaving their troops leaderless in what had become a killing field. Of the 15,000-20,000 Roman soldiers, fewer than 1,000 survived. An army unexcelled in bravery, the first of Roman armies in discipline, in energy, and in experience in the field, through the negligence of its general, the perfidy of the enemy, and the unkindness of fortune was exterminated almost to a man by the very enemy whom it has always slaughtered like cattle. Tacitus wrote that many officers were sacrificed by the Germanic forces as part of their indigenous religious ceremonies, cooked in pots and their bones used for rituals. Others were ransomed, and some common soldiers appear to have been enslaved. Three Legions Legio XVII, Legio XVIII, and Legio XIX were wiped out. These legion numbers were never used again. 

When the news of the battle reached Rome, Emperor Augustus banged his head against the palace walls, shouting Quintili Vare, legions redde! (“Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions!”)

Six years would pass before a Roman army would return to the battle site. The scene the soldiers found was horrific. Heaped across the field at Kalkriese lay the whitening bones of dead men and animals, amid fragments of their shattered weapons. In nearby groves they found “barbarous altars” upon which the Germans had sacrificed the legionnaires who surrendered. Human heads were nailed everywhere to trees. The battle of Teutoborg forests ended Roman expansion in Northern Europe. 

For almost 2,000 years, the site of the battle was unidentified. Late-20th-century research and excavations found that a small village of Kalkriese. Archeologist firstly found a roman coin from the times of Augustus. More complex excavations found other artifacts like spears, sling projectiles, bones broken by the swords an finally, beautiful silver mask of Roman officer. 

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Polish winged hussars - the best cavalry in the world.

The early Polish Hussars wore no armour and were armed only with the lance, sabre and shield. It gave them greater maneuverability and speed in battle - unlike that of the heavy, lumbering knights. By the mid-16th-century, the Polish King and Lithuanian Grand Duke, Stefan Batory reorganized the Polish and Lithuanian cavalry. He included armor, yet ensured that the Hussars would remain a fast, albeit heavy cavalry.  They were made the standard of the Polish army, and were very-well trained and well-equipped.

Just 18 months after the reform 1400 winged hussars stood in the front of 12 000 rebelling soldiers of Gdansk (3100 landsknechts, 400 mercenary reiter cavalry, 400 city cavalry, and 6,000–8,000 militiamen). Hussars charge in the flank crushed rebelling forces. That night Danzig's losses amounted to 4400 dead and 5000 taken prisoner, while the Polish's army suffered 88 deaths.

Few years later, the battle of Kircholm was decided in 20 minutes by the devastating charge of polish cavalry. The Swedish defeat was utter and complete. The army of Charles IX had lost at least half, perhaps as much as two-thirds, of its original strength (8000-9000 dead). The Polish-Lithuanian losses numbered only about 100 dead.

In 1610 five thousand hussars fought with 30 000 russian accompanied with 5000 mercenaries from western Europe. Russians retreated after losing 5000 men ( Poles lost 100 hussars). That allowed polish king Władysław IV Waza became the new Tsar of Russia. Napoleon and Hitler tried that too, but without success. Do not forget the Battle of Khotyn, when the charge of 600 cavalry crushed advancing 10 000 Ottoman troops. When sultan Osman II saw that he bursted into tears.

The battle of Vienna ended expansion of Ottomans, it saved Europe. Some say that the ending of Tolkien's battle of Helms Deep was inspired by their charge.

A typical charge was staged at gradually accelerated intervals; for the first 75 meters, the hussar, mounted on his steed, would advance at a normal walk, the next 150 meters would be at a trot, then a canter, breaking into a gallop.  The charge would be completed by a canter for the last 30 meters. This method was imperative in order to preserve the horse's stamina, especially in the event that the hussars had to engage in multiple charges, or final pursuit of the enemy. Incidentally, a trot is a two-beat gait with averages of about 8 mph (13 kph). A canter is a three-beat gait that averages 10-17 mph (16-27 kph).  A gallop is like a canter but much faster at a four-beat gait averaging 25-30 mph (40-48 kph).

The most distinctive feature of the Polish Hussars were the pair of huge wings attached to their backs, each constructed of high wooden frames upon which eagle feathers were attached, although ostrich, swan and goose feathers had also been used. It is believed that the Polish Hussars wore these wings for the purposes intimidating the enemy,  and they have often been depicted in battle wearing wings. This is the image that has long promoted by painters through the ages and more recently by film productions. The reality however may be that the Polish Hussars donned these wings only for the ceremonial purposes and victory parades.

The most deadly part of Hussars equipment was a 4.5m to 6.2m lance. Because of its length the lance had to be considerably light and easy to maneuver.  They were constructed from fir-wood, though aspen was used in the fore part of the lance to make it lighter. The lance point was made of steel and reinforced with additional metal straps around the shaft. This also protected the wood just below from any saber cuts. It was often richly gilded.

The armour of the Polish Hussar consisted of breast and backplates, a pair of pauldrons and a pair of arm-guards, and was a splendid example of decorative design and superb craftsmanship. Many of the designs were inspired by earlier Roman armoury. But until 1570 the armour consisted only of mail coat, helmet, shield, lance and saber, although many had implemented breastplates.  King Stefan Batory (1576-1586) had specific ideas about the type of armour worn by his men and insisted that they follow the Hungarian style. By 1600 the Hussars breastplates had been modified to take on the "half-lobster" design with several bands or lames from the lower chest to the bottom. he armour was much lighter, about 15kg, and permitted the hussar to ride quickly. The lighter, Turkish-style saddle allowed for more armour to be used by both the horses and the warriors. Moreover, the horses were bred to run very fast with a heavy load and to recover quickly. These were hybrids of old, Polish equine lineage and eastern horses, usually from Tatar tribes. As a result, a horse could walk hundreds of kilometres loaded with over 100 kilograms (warrior plus armour and weaponry) and instantly charge.

Polish King Sobieski battle armour from the battle of Vienna. 

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