Historical cataphracts

From: Andrew Barton <AndrewBarton_at_compuserve.com>
Date: Sun, 2 Apr 2000 18:33:46 -0400


Jose gives a useful account of heavy armoured cavalry in our world, but leaves out one type. The first such cavalry in Roman service (and this is in the Western empire) were Sarmatian auxiliaries from the steppes, who served using their native equipment. This included mail armour for both horse and man, kontos and bow. I'm not aware of evidence whether they had stirrups, but they were serving in Britain earlier than Adrianople,. which is often stated to be the first appearance of heavy cavalry with stirrups.

Andrew


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