Peltast the late 11th and 12th centuries. Although the peltasts of Antiquity were light skirmish infantry armed with javelins, it is not safe to assume that the troops given this name in the Byzantine period were identical in function. Byzantine peltasts were sometimes described as “assault troops”. Byzantine peltasts appear to have been relatively lightly equipped soldiers capable of great battlefield mobility, who could skirmish but who were equally capable of close combat. Their arms may have included a shorter version of the "kontarion" spear employed by contemporary Byzantine heavy infantry. Peltast A peltast (Ancient Greek: πελταστής "peltastes") was a type
Thracian language (meaning "up") and based on several Thracic items, would have meant "upon", "up", and "Utaspios" is theorized to have meant "On horse(back)", parallel to ancient Greek "ephippos (epi-hippos)". The early Indo-European languages had more than one word for horse; for example Latin had "equus" from PIE "*ekwo-" and "mannus" ("a pony") from another IE root, later receiving "cabalus" as a loanword. In many cases in current Thracology, there is more than one etymology for a Thracian lexical item. For example, Thracian "Diana Germetitha" ("Diana" is from Latin while the epithet "Germetitha" is from Thracian) has two different proposed etymologies, "Diana