My Cataphract Weighs a Ton!

[jvrjenivs]

Is Robinson's depiction of a Roman Cataphract outdated now? Aside from the fact that he thought the Italic H was a cavalry helmet, and that he believed that there was thigh guard manica?

Robinson's idea of a Cataphract illustrated by Robert Embleton

The horse armour is based on one of the housings from Dura Europos, as suggested above. This is further completed with a neck-piece. For manicae and sqaumata the sources are okay, as well as for the greaves with loose knee-pieces. However, these could have some more elaborate knee-parts. I would say it's a good drawing overall.

[Gaius Colletti]

Out of curiosity, what is the general consensus on manicae used by Roman Cataphracts? I understand not all cataphract depictions use manicae, but for those that do, should the manicae overlap upwards like known infantry/gladiator examples that would deflect stabs upwards or should they overlap downwards like a segmentata shoulder, deflecting a swinging blade from getting lodged between the plates?

Naturally we have little to no evidence to go on, I'm just asking those of you who do ride, what you feel would be more important?

[jvrjenivs]

The carlisle original had them overlapping upwards and had cavalry nearby. E.g. mine is overlapping upwards.

[daryush]

I am not sure if it is entirely relevant but I have been examining lots of Kushan / Kushano-Sassanian coins which depict banded armour ... I am starting to think that it might have been made of two parts, a forearm section which overlaps upwards (like the manicae) and an upper arm / shoulder section which overlapped downwards. You can clearly see a change in the overlap on some coins as well as an apparent gap at the elbow.

On the other hand, some depictions seem to show a single piece on which it's hard to tell about the overlap.