Thought I'd add a few pics from my own collection. There are several from photos I took in the
"Dovecote" church, which is carved into the side of a volcanic rock cliff in Chavushin in the Go"reme valley in Kappadokia, when I visited there in 1990. These are military saints from a
frieze on the church wall of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, dating to the reign of
Nikephoros II Ouranos 963-969 AD, many with names written on the wall next to them, as follows:
St Akakios,
St Bebianos (or Vevianos),
St Eliakos,
St Esukhios,
St Eunoikos,
St Kapiklarios,
St Mikalos (Michael),
unknown saint,
unknown saint,
3 unknown saints,
unknown saint, and a
detail from one of the two mounted figures in the frieze, showing scale armour over mail.
There are others in this group which are not in these links and I will add them as attachments when I get the chance.
The great value of these pictures produced in regional areas is that they are far enough away from Constantinople to be relatively free of the "classicising" tendency of the capital in particular, where artists simply copied old examples, so they got progressively more and more out of date and unrealistic. The regional ones are more likely to reflect what was actually being worn. And have a look at the variety or types of armour in even this relatively small group - scale, lamellar, different configurations of armour, different leg protection and waist protection. Byzantine armour wasn't all the same, by any means, and this example in particular shows how wide the variation could be, even in the same time and place.
There are also an 11th century ikon of
St George carved from steatite rock, and another of
St Theodore which has had the shield mutilated by a western owner (perhaps the ikon was stolen by the soldiers of the Fourth Crusade) to show his own coat of arms.
I believe the best way to get historical accuracy in one's portrayal is to make it as close an approximation to the originals as one can, based on contemporary representations and archaeological finds (which are sadly rather thin on the ground when it comes to Byzantine arms and armour). So here's some contemporary representations for you to help with your portrayal.
Hope these are of interest and of use.
