ABSTRACT
Traditional historiography highlights discontinuity in military matters between Roman and post-Roman Western Europe. An equine military culture among the sedentary states of medieval Eurasia gave birth to a homogeneous military ethos among the cavalrymen. Instead of military divergence, we have convergence as regards matters military in medieval Eurasia – cavalry and not infantry dominated medieval Eurasian warfare. The Byzantine Empire probably learnt these siege techniques from West Asia. Further, the Huns may have learnt the style of siege warfare from the Chinese. Historian Peter Heather writes that the Huns exacerbated the politico-military crisis of the Roman Empire by pushing the German tribes inside the Roman boundaries. The Arabs emerged from the desert of Arabia and defeated the two superpowers of that time: the Sasanian Empire and the Byzantine Empire. The Turks were at the forefront of expanding Islamic power in Asia, Africa and Europe. Many more Turks migrated to this region during the Mongol period.
