Illustrations of Sassanid Persian Clibanarii

[Renatus]

I also thought that Palmyran mailed cavalry were called clibanarii. mile:

Not as far as I am aware

Correction: Festus, Breviarium, 24 refers to Palmyrene clibanarii. However, this is the only source that does and I think that it is anacronistic.

I get that cataphracti is a general term - what I have difficulty with is envisioning the Romans being so very nice in their usage of clibanarii.

Clibanarius/clibanarii occurs infrequently in literary sources, much more in official documents such as the Notitia and in papyri. I know of only four sources in which the term is used for non-Roman troops: Eutropius 6.9 and Festus 15, both describing Armenian cavalry at the battle of Tigranocerta and plainly anacronistic; Festus 24 describing Zenobia's Palmyrene cavalry and also, in my opinion, probably anacronistic; and SHA 56.5, mentioned in earlier posts in relation to Persian cavalry, and also probably anacronistic or just plain wrong. I am struck that Ammianus mentions Persian cataphracti or cataphracti equites on seven occasions and never once calls them clibanarii.

Also, Renatus, the existence of the clibanarii units with non-Roman ethnic names such as. Equites Persae Clibanarii is very suggestive of Romans regarding Persians as capable of being clibanarii.

Yes, but these are Roman units, so naturally they have a Roman name, whatever the ethnic origins of their personnel.