[106] _Descripciones de las Islas Pithiusas y Baleares._ Madrid, 1787.
The Visigoths continued using many of the Roman or Ibero-Roman arms. Nevertheless, the solid armour of the Romans, such as their greaves and thigh-pieces and breastplates, was now replaced by primitive chain-mail resembling scales of fishes. According to Saint Isidore, Procopius, and other writers, the favourite weapons of the Spanish Visigoths were the sword or _spatha_, long, broad-bladed, with a double edge; the hatchet, the bow, the sling, the lance, the scythe, the mace, the _pilum_ or javelin (used extensively in Spain throughout the Middle Ages),[107] the _dolon_, a dagger which concealed itself within a wooden staff, and took the name of "treacherous" or "wily" from this circumstance; and the _conto_, a keenly pointed pike. We also find among the military engines of the Visigoths the _balista_, for hurling stones and darts of large size, and the _ariete_ or battering-ram, constructed from a gnarled and powerful tree-trunk braced with iron and suspended by a cable. Their defensive body-armour consisted of a coat of mail composed of bronze or iron scales, and called the _lóriga_ or _perpunte_. This was worn above the _thorachomachus_, a kind of tunic made of felt, in order to shield the body from the roughness of the mail. Upon their heads they wore an ample helmet.
[107] A javelin made throughout of iron was found in Spain some years ago, completely doubled up, so as to admit of its being thrust into a burial urn. The javelin in question is now in the Madrid museum, and a similar weapon may be seen in the provincial museum of Granada.
A fragment of stone carving preserved in Seville museum shows us two Visigothic Spanish warriors who wear a tunic and helmet of a simple pattern, and carry a two-edged sword and a large shield. García Llansó says, however, that the nobles of this people wore close-fitting mail tunics covered with steel scales, a kind of bronze bassinet, tight breeches, and high boots, and carried, besides the sword which was slung from their belts, a large, oval shield.[108]
[108] _Historia General del Arte_: García Llansó; _Armas_, pp. 439, 440.
[Illustration: XL SPANISH CROSSBOWMAN (_Late 15th Century. Royal Armoury, Madrid_)]