pavisse

Updated: May 4, 2025

There is no need for tactics; the fight is hand to hand; every man, says Procopius, rushing at the man nearest him. For a third of the day Teia fights in front, sheltered by his long pavisse, stabbing with a mighty lance at the mob which makes at him, as dogs at a boar at bay. Procopius is awed by the man. Most probably he saw him with his own eyes.

Charles Kingsley - The Roman and the Teuton : A Series of Lectures delivered before the University of Cambridge