principate roman catfractii classed cav

[domblas]

catafractii classified cav and clibanarii classified catafractii the line under.
funny isn't it?

[WhiteKnight]

All depends on your understanding/reading of the texts and the received wisdom vs research about later Roman cavalry!

Some people claim clibanarii were heavily armored horse archers with a lance in addition and in the past manufacturers made such models for late Roman and Byzantine armies...in FOG terms these would be Cv(or Ct)/HArm/L/B*/Sw. Others claim they were just copies of Parthian/Sassanid cataphracts, hence their classification in the FOG lists. Others believe that some Roman cavalry were re-eqipped with lance-size spears hence the catafractarii with a Cv classification?

Martin

[nikgaukroger]

Of course ultimatley "catafract" just means protected or covered - hence we have catafract ships and Vegetius using "catafract" to describe infantry armour.

The first Roman cavalry units called "catafractarii" appear to have been equipped as normal equites, however, they used the contus and carried no shileds as opposed to the usual equipment.

Later units of clibanarii were formed that appear to have been copied from the Parthians/Sasanians and were "true catafracts". Ammianus, of course, uses the famous phrase "the catafract cavalry thye call clibanarii".