Gallienus mobile heavy cavalry - Mid 3rd century

[Garys152]

Hello, can anyone shed some light on the composition of the heavy cavalry that made up this mobile force, in particular the cataphracts. Were they armoured similar to the Sassanid Clibanari for both man and horse or was only the Roman cavalryman armoured at this time?

Also were there any catapharcts units operating or based in the western half of the empire or were they only in the eastern half to counter similar adversaries?

[Flavivs Aetivs]

Clibanarii is a term only applicable to the Roman military. The Sassanids did not have Clibanarii, their cavalry can only be referred to generically as "Cataphracts."

The first Catafractarii units appear in the mid-2nd century but I don't know much more than that. As far as I know most of Gallienus' cavalry was taken from Legionary cavalry detachments.

[Nathan Ross]

The idea that Gallienus formed a mobile cavalry force has been challenged recently as a modern myth. You can read Duncan Campbell's article 'Coinage and Cavalry: the source for Gallienus and his Equites', from Ancient Warfare magazine, online here. I think he makes a good case.

Aside from the lack of evidence, moving large numbers of cavalry over long distances at speed is not easy: the horses need regular rest stops and use up massive amounts of fodder. So the effectiveness of massed cavalry as a sort of long-range 'rapid reaction force' is doubtful.

The new cavalry units that appear towards the end of the third century - the Equites Dalmatae, Equites Promoti, Equites Mauri and Equites Stablesiani seem to have been among the earliest - are rather obscure, but were probably not heavy cavalry. The Mauri were possibly light horsemen, and the Promoti, as Evan says, seem originally to have been legionary cavalry.

There were units of catafractarii in the west though: there are two tombstones from Amiens mentioning a numerus catafractoriorum, probably tetrarchic, and another from Lyons of a man from the numerus catafractariorum seniorum - this was probably the same unit in the mid 4th century. One of the Amiens tombstones shows a man riding unarmoured, so we can't tell how he would have appeared in battle. The Lyons one shows the rider in a helmet, perhaps mail, with a lance and riding an unarmoured horse:



Roman clibanarii first appear in Maxentius's army at the battle of Turin in AD312, but (perhaps because of their poor showing in that battle?) weren't developed further until the reign of Constantius II, who allegedy (re)introduced them as a regular part of his army.

[Renatus]

Hello, can anyone shed some light on the composition of the heavy cavalry that made up this mobile force, in particular the cataphracts. Were they armoured similar to the Sassanid Clibanari for both man and horse or was only the Roman cavalryman armoured at this time?

Also were there any catapharcts units operating or based in the western half of the empire or were they only in the eastern half to counter similar adversaries?

You may find this post interesting:

http://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/thread-...#pid249623