Sub-Roman Britain (Cavalry etc)

[Agraes]

Vortigern,

I have already said that I don't know much about horses, and I've also said that this was a particular translation I was going off. In this case the book was John Moris' "The Age of Arthur", which despite the name is an acurate history of Britain from Magnus Maximus to the Seventh century Saxon dynasties. And I read that arabian horses were used for cataphracts in the late roman section of "Rome and her enemies". Also, the Saxon grave came from "The Age of Arthur." Oh, and I also read in "The Age of Arthur" that a Roman living in Gaul raised a band of eighteen cavalrymen armed as cataphracts to fight against the Goths. Aparantly they fought a huge battle in AD471 and the cavalry won against an army of a couple thousand Goths because of sneak attacks and javelin fire. Sounds a lot like British tacitcs to me, anyone heard of it? I think it's a little fishy but if it's ture imagine what the same amount of british cataphracts could do to a much smaller Saxon force.

As Matt and Robert pointed out, The Age of Arthur is not a good source at all even if an enjoyable read. It is however a good exemple of what you should not do when writing or discussing about sub-roman/early medieval Britain.

Now pick up a serious read, such as Ken Dark's Britain and the End of the Roman Empire or Chris Snyder's An Age of Tyrants, which is a bit older but still an excellent introduction. Just study the matter the other way round. Start reading about evidence of the period, both textual and archaeological, scholar's theories, and then you can propose your own views. Just don't pick up any text or find to bolster your very own theories. That way you can speculate everything you want.

I can just speculate wireless connections was known to the 9th century Bretons as no cable was found in the excavations of their settlements!