This is presumably a reference to Aurelian's use of Palestinians armed with clubs against the Palmyran cataphracts at the battle of Emesa in 272 AD.
"Finding the Palmyrene army drawn up before Emisa, amounting to
seventy thousand men, consisting of Palmyrenes and their allies, he
opposed to them the Dalmatian cavalry, the Moesians and Pannonians,
and the Celtic legions of Noricum and Rhaetia, and besides these the
choicest of the imperial regiments selected man by man, the
Mauritanian horse, the Tyaneans, the Mesopotamians, the Syrians, the
Phoenicians, and the Palestinians, all men of acknowledged valour;
the Palestinians besides other arms wielding clubs and staves
...
The foot had to bear the brunt of the action. Observing that the
Palmyrenes had broken their ranks when the horse commenced their
pursuit, they wheeled about, and attacked them while they were
scattered and out of order. Upon which many were killed, because the
one side fought with the usual weapons, while those of Palestine
brought clubs and staves against coats of mail made of iron and
brass. The Palmyrenes therefore ran away with the utmost
precipitation, and in their flight trod each other to pieces, as if
the enemy did not make sufficient slaughter; the field was filled
with dead men and horses, whilst the few that could escape took
refuge in the city."
(Zosimus Nea Historia 24-27 - this an old 1679 translation as I don't have access to the more recent one by Ridley).
Strangely if this was an effective tactic, there is little evidence of it being used in the dozens of other battles Rome fought against eastern cataphracts.
(I do seem to recall one other reference in Ammianus Marcellinus to clubs being used against Sassanian cavalry, but can't track down the text at the moment).
In fact clubs or maces very rarely feature in this period - off-hand the only Roman examples I can think of are a half-naked barbarian auxilary wielding a club on Trajan's column and the vinewood vitis (variously translated as a cudgel, stick or staff) carried by centurions as a mark of authority.
It is also odd that the Roman army includes Palestinians at all, as after the expulsion of the Jews Palestine was easily one of the least martial provinces of the empire (and was in any case under Palmyran and not Roman control in 272).
However Zosimus has been tentatively identified with the sophist Zosimus of Gaza, in which case the mention of the Palestinians may represent a local tradition (although this might well have been the memory of a single auxilary numerus or cohort that turned up armed with assorted improvised weapons and that found itself in action aginst the cataphracts rather than of Aurelian systematically arming a significant part of his army with clubs specifically to counter them).
The standard later Roman tactic against cataphracts described by Vegetius was pretty much the same as that used by the Saracens against crusader heavy cavary 800 years later - harrass them with light cavalry until they charged, run away and turn back and finish them off when their horses were winded and the riders thoroughly cooked in their armour.
In fact Zosimus describes exactly this tactic being used by Aurelian in another action just before the battle of Emesa outside Antioch:
"He charged his cavalry not to engage immediately with the vigourous cavalry of the Palmyrenians, but to wait for their attack, and then, pretending to fly, to continue so doing until they had wearied both the men and their horses through excess of heat and the weight of their armour; so that they could pursue them no longer. This project succeeded, and as soon as the cavalry of the emperor saw their enemy tired, and that their horses were scarcely able to stand under them, or themselves to move, they drew up the reins of their horses, and, wheeling round, charged them, and trod them under foot as they fell from their horses" (Zosimus, 25)
Interestingly the heaviest armed cataphracts don't appear to have used shields - although this may have been because they needed two hands to wield their long kontoi (Greek slang for barge-poles) effectively, rather than because they were so well armoured they didn't need a shield.
(couching a lance under one arm was while not unknown generally less effective before stirrups gave riders increased stability in a charge).
Dragging this back to Glorantha, the only people to use cataphracts in the Roman sense would be the Lunars - although western knights would pose similar problems to enemies.
One imagines that few Heortlings would be stupid enough to stand and await a charge by imperial heavy cavalry on open ground and that unless they had enough cover to make skirmishing on foot viable, they would be dependent on either Sun Dome mercenaries to hold them off with their pikes (do Sun Domers still have pikes?) or Praxian, Grazer or Pol Joni light cavalry to draw them away in the Roman or Saracen style.
I suppose Bison or Rhino riders could be dumb enough to charge Carmanian cataphracts or Seshnelans knight head-on but I'd hate to see the result.
Roger
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