Any pics of a cataphract reenactor ?

[russia almighty]

Hell has anyone actually done fully cataphract get up for a re-enactment fair ? Just curious cause I wouldn't mind seeing the tank of the EB era in there real life glory .

[Sakkura]

This guy is supposed to be a late Roman cataphract:
https://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b242/peronis/e014a.jpg

[russia almighty]

DAMN


DAMN


dang that dude is armed to the teeth . Thanks for the pic dude . I've been looking but never could find one .

[Landwalker]

DAMN


DAMN


dang that dude is armed to the teeth . Thanks for the pic dude . I've been looking but never could find one .

Technically, he's only armored to the teeth. Armswise, all he's got is a spear (and maybe a sword on his left hip). ~;)

Cheers.

[Elthore]

did the persians armour the neck of the horse as well?

that pic is pretty sweet by the way

[EdwardL]

all you have to do to bring him down is slice at his ankles. he's only got socks on

[Sir Edward]

How would you even begin to aim a sword thrust at the ankles of a fully armored man charging on top of a horse...

[PershsNhpios]

Ha ha ha, pity the horse wasn't feeling up to playing the part as much as his rider..

Yeah, I like the socks!
And the loosely tied horse rug with tin shingles!!

(Notably he did put effort into his disguise though, but the look on his face and the attitude of his horse are laughable!)

[bovi]

I think I'd aim my pike into the horse's throat.

[Dooz]

Poor horse, dragged into foolish human wars and sacrificed for another species' glory. :charge:

[Pharnakes]

Is it true that the heaviest catas had special plates under the main barding, to protect the horse's hamstrings?

Also to what extent was such a technique used? Obviously it would only be efective once the Catas were bogged down in mele, but if I was a roman with a gladius, I would be very tempted to try such an atack, I can't really see where else a gladius is going to do much damage.

[Watchman]

AFAIK barded horses' legs were only rarely armoured, as that screwed their already restricted mobility but good. And when they were, never to below the... knee-equivalent I guess it is.

Although a sufficiently long armour trapper pretty much protects the legs as well anyway. Weighs a ton of course.

Cavalry rendered static always tended to suffer a bit if infantry, especially one with short swords, got in among it. AFAIK that's one reason why heavy cavalry attacked in tight formations, and cumbersome "sledgehammer" types like catas up to knee-behind-knee close - it's damn hard to penetrate the ranks of order that close, making the problem with the horses' legs and bellies something of a nonissue.

Flanking is of course a different thing entirely.

I think more or less the same applies to the horses' necks; after all, the riders' weapons could easily enough be used to ward off blows from the sides against that region most of the time, and the chamfron (head armour) mostly protected it from the front. I suspect trying to duck under the animal's head to deliver an upwards attack against the neck was mostly a fine way to get trampled...

[russia almighty]

It makes ye wonder how things would have been different in the West if they were used in large numbers against the Germans and such .

[Kampfkrebs]

It makes ye wonder how things would have been different in the West if they were used in large numbers against the Germans and such .

Try a cavalry charge in a dense germanic forest....

[Tellos Athenaios]

Yep. In fact, try to get your nice horse from your Cataphract-country to Germania = impossible. Well, not really impossible but as nigh-impossible as to think twice about it. And maybe count the particles of the dust cloud before you reach a descision too.

[konny]

Cataphracts in NW Europe weren't anything unusual in the later periode. AFAIK, there was an enitre corps of them stationed in Mediolanum. And certainly the Germanics of the Migration had their own Catapharcts, who later became the class of the knights.

[The Persian Cataphract]

That guy could easily pass for a late Parthian or an early Sassanian cataphract as well, considering the similarity of the equipment; He is not armoured to the max, there are some "cheats" with that armour, that actually cuts him some slack, but some others did have some form of laminated sabaton (Parthians and Sassanians by the southern frontier usually covered their leggings with baggy trousers and a shoe of cotton or a boot; This practice later paved way for decorative rânbân-type greaves.), and later Sassanian cataphracts, presumably by the 4th century further equipped themselves with armoured gloves (Bâzpân) and elaborate masks, veils, aventails, gorgets and later on combined browed-masks with veils... This guy wears a Romano-Sassanian helmet, and surprisingly what actually determined the Middle Persian word, grîvpân (Meaning gorget) is what this guy lacks; He doesn't have an aventail.

His horse is quite heavily armoured, beautiful baskets for the eyes, and a lovely coat, but like some have pointed out, the horse doesn't have a crinet/criniere (Usually of scale or lamellar, however obviously a stand-alone lest we speak of felt bardings; This problem was alleviated with the rising popularity of the Armenio-Byzantine style frontal barding). Some have spoken of laminated "cheires" for horses, in order to protect the cannon and the thigh in the hind-legs. All of this could've been very possible, and has been reconstructed in Dr. Kaveh Farrokh's "Elite Sassanian Cavalry", in the supposed battle of Maranga, however that was during a highly experimental age when Sassanian heavy cataphracts practically outdid their Parthian predecessors in excess. Other personalities such as David Nicolle translated this kind of legging differently in his portrayal of a cataphract from Ahvâz; A type of heavy felt legging which was possibly more apt in the desert environment, in the same veneer as the warriors of Hatra, further west.

Also, this re-enactor is surprisingly "spartan" in his paraphernalia; There were many ways to "pimp" up the gear, all the way from mantles/surcoats, Persian-style robes, cloth covers for helmet and/or corselet, or soft vests/decorated tabards, and sometimes even cuirasses in single-piece configurations.

I still enjoy this picture immensely though. I've never seen a real-life cataphract before, mostly because I had for long thought no one was up for the task due to all this heavy equipment and required ability in horsemanship. I'd easily give away half of my fortune for his horse :smash:

[russia almighty]

Ehh you'd be surprised TPC . Its fairly easy to learn basic maneuvering for a horse(advanced stuff is for when you go all out running) . What would have been a bitch would have been training the horse not to freak out with the armor on .


Why you don't see them is probably the cost . Excluding the horse I bet there is 3000+ dollars worth of armor on them.

[abou]

Why you don't see them is probably the cost . Excluding the horse I bet there is 3000+ dollars worth of armor on them.
I assure you, it would be much more than that.

[Cyclops]

It makes ye wonder how things would have been different in the West if they were used in large numbers against the Germans and such .

In the late Empire the Germans were the Roman army.

[Long lost Caesar]

more than how much armour costs, or the effects of heavy cavalry on the germanics (which was done as far as i know: sarmatians!) theres one thing that weighs down on my mind: how did a horse's back not break?! i mean i suppose getting used to the weight of armour is one thing, but imagine having all of that metal heaped onto your back, and then youre expected to RUN?! props to all the eastern peoples who mastered this technique, they were sadistic geniuses!