How Effective were Spears Against Cavalry?

[Macedon]

Well... I admit that your new strategy is interesting... I, however, do not have the time or the will to discuss with you the sources, methods and reliability of Plutarch, mostly because I do not think that there is any point. You have an obvious problem to focus your arguments as well as your actual points. I hope it is a linguistic problem but I doubt it. Did you ask for any primary sources? Did I, or anyone else, say that Plutarch was a primary source? Since when can a source not be quoted regarding "things that cannot be measured"? How come "firmness" is Roman propaganda and "depth" is not? How come the whole battle is not Roman propaganda to make Crassus look bad...? And what the heck are you proposing? What are your objections?

-Reconnaissance en force?????? you must be kidding... An army of 10,000, with 9,000 light cavalry, makes a reconnaissance en force with its cataphracts... And by the way, the Parthians did not retreat, they galloped around the Roman formation... and what is your source for any of this? How do you know that there were cataphracts in that battle? Maybe Plutarch wanted to make the Parthians look more fierce, so that Crassus' failure would be somewhat rationalized... Maybe, what truly happened was that the Parthians taunted the Romans to death, Monty Python are a primary source on that being a realistic approach...

Anyway, I have no interest in further debating this issue with you, Peter. Have fun with those who do.