Face mask or face guard in late roman period

[Renatus]

I would guess this approach is intended to address the idea, sometimes expressed in Roman literature, that cataphract cavalrymen looked like 'statues'. If not just hyperbole, that might at least suggest that they wore some sort of mask or other facial covering. What that might have been, though...

It's Ammianus Marcellinus (Amm. 16.10.8):

. . . sparsique cataphracti equites (quos clibanarios dictitant) personati thoracum muniti tegminibus, et limbis ferreis cincti, ut Praxitelis manu polita crederes simulacra, non viros . . .

' . . . and scattered among them were the full-armoured cavalry (whom they call clibanarii), all masked, furnished with protecting breastplates and girt with iron belts, so that you might have supposed them statues polished by the hand of Praxiteles, not men.' (Loeb translation)

EDIT: Forget the smiley; it's supposed to be an 8! Why does it do that? It's bloody annoying!