[Antoninus]

This article is a ridiculous perversion of history. A Lombard or an Avar was not likely to be "guarding against an invasion from the Byzantine people." The so-called Byzantine people were the Romans who lived in Italy until they were slaughtered or driven out by the barbaric Avars and Lombards.

They also identify the weapons which injured or killed these people as being a Byzantine mace or battle axe. Neither of these weapons were common to the Romans of the time who more often used the sword, javelin, bow, or throwing darts. A battle-axe injury immediately suggests the Franks to me.

[Argus]

This find dates from the period following the Byzantine re-conquest of Italy under the generals Belisarius and Narses, whose armies were made up of levies from a number of different ethnic groups ranging from Anatolians to Huns.

[TigersEye]

Here is a collection of Byzantine maces and war axes.

Byzantine Roman Collection

The war mace, already used from the Late Roman Army at least since the 3rd century AD, composed by a wooden shaft and a metallic head, was transformed in the middle age of Byzantium as the favorite weapon of the heavy armed cavalryman, used with devastating effects on the battlefields.