„Bitwa zrytualizowana” albo dlaczego niewolnicy Herulów walczyli bez tarcz? Pewien rytuał wojenny na tle analizy porównawczej
“Ritualised Battle”, or Why Did the Heruli Slaves Fight Without Shields? A War Ritual in Comparative Analysis

Summary/Abstract: In his De Bellis, the Eastern Roman historian Procopius of Caesarea included an interesting description of a war custom of the Heruli. They were to fi ght without protective armour, except for shields, while their slaves had to go to the battle without even the latter. This description has received little attention in historiog- raphy, except for a hypothesis put forward by Jacek Banaszkiewicz. He claims that going into battle “naked”, i.e. without protective armour, and launching a daring frontal attack is a form of ritual behaviour intended to force fortune to bring about a favourable outcome of the battle. This article supports this hypothesis, pointing out, after an analysis of two battles in which the Heruli took part, that fi ghting “naked” and carrying out a brazen attack were indeed the ideological basis of their belief that such behaviour would bring victory to their warriors. After a compara- tive analysis of the material referring to another group of “naked” warriors — the Scottish Galwegians — the author suggests that the ideological basis for entering battle without armour and shields was rooted in the belief that displaying bravery in battle compensated the warrior for his lack of protective armour and shield, thereby protecting him from enemy blows. Based on philological material, he also points out that fi ghting without armour was the most signifi cant possible manifes- tation of bravery. In addition, the excerpt from a panegyric honouring Theodoric the Great by Ennodius of Pavia illustrates that exposing one’s own body to the enemy’s weapons served as the ideological foundation for achieving victory for one’s own army.

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