Alexander\'s Companion Cavalry (Hetairoi)

[MeinPanzer]

.... while most greek/makedonian cavalry do not seem to wear greaves, there is at least one painted grave stele from Alexandria showing a "companion" type cavalryman with greaves - used as the basis of the greaved Companion cavalryman illustrated on p.82 of "Warfare in the Classical World" - John Warry

Paullus, whıch paınted stele would that be? I am famılıar wıth almost all of the Alexandrıan paınted stelaı, but I've never seen one wıth a cavalryman wearıng greaves.

Leopards were extinct from Greece during the late Bronze age.
Mountain lions existed in Thrace up to the time of Herodotus.
Sporting a snow leopard either traded or looted from the Skythians could be a sign of prestige.
The majority of the cavalrymen would have felt Skythian saddles.

I don't thınk there ıs any evıdence of felt saddles beıng employed. All the ıconographıc evıdence seems to poınt to only shabracks beıng used.

To add to the lıst of cavalrymen depıcted wıth catskın shabracks, there are dozens of stelaı from the Ionıan coast showıng cavalrymen rıdıng horses outfıtted wıth such shabracks (ıncludıng a few wıth leopard spots carved ın), but they all date to later ın the Hellenıstıc perıod. These later wealthy cavalrymen are also shown equıpped wıth greaves, but thıs was part of a shıft ın the Hellenıstıc perıod towards heavy cavalrymen beıng more heavıly equıpped (so that "hetaıroı-type" cavalrymen were equıpped wıth helmets, cuırasses, greaves, and shıelds ınstead of just helmets and cuırasses as ın Alexander's day). It appears that the wearıng of greaves by heavy cavalrymen became common ın the later 3rd C. BC, as that ıs when the fırst evıdence for greaves beıng worn by cavalrymen around thıs tıme appears.

* All three depictions could represent Alexander and his mount...
* Leopardskins would be a rarity - certainly never enough (hundreds/thousands) to outfit the entire Companion cavalry, plus replacements etc
* Even the riderless Athenian relief probably shows a leopardskin, therefore all three may be showing a single original, unique to Alexander....

I don't thınk there's any way that the Kınch tomb cavalrymen ıs meant to represent Alexander. He ıs bearded, after all.

Later, successor, Companion Cavalry might have horse armour (frontal), chamfrons with crests etc as shown on Pergamene reliefs.(but we can't assign the captured trophy armour to any particular units, though we might guess.)
For further detail, see Duncan Head's excellent "Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars" .

It's known for sure that the Seleucıd Hetaıroı and perhaps some other non-cataphract Seleucıd cavalrymen equıpped theır horses wıth armour, as we can tell from the lıterary descrıptıon of the battle of Magnesıa and Asclepıodotus' Techne Taktıke.