Cavalry in near east?

[Stycks]

First of all, mind the language please.

Secondly, the Romans encountered a lot of good heavy cavalry during their expansion phase (including the cavalry equivalent of the Carthagian Sacred Band), yet they waited until well into the empire before adopting similar shock cavalry, so things are not clear-cut as you suggest.

Thirdly, you are probably right that the Semitic states of EB's time-frame did not possess good cavalry corpses, but keep in mind that the powers that (tried to) control Judea and the Phoenician cities possessed some of the best cavalry of the time, so the Semites were bound to look bad.

ooops....
sorry...
talk like that to my history teacher....
i guess it carries.....

but anyways....
your last point was the one i'm trying to make...
Semitic cavalry was much too overshadowed by its neighbors to actually have been noted as a fighting force.

And on your point that the Romans never adopted similar shock cavalry. I think that is because the Romans IMO had no need for shock cavalry (using infantry for almost all roles) so i would hazard a guess that yes, Rome did encounter them and yes at hindsight, it would have helped them a lot in their campaigns, but I think in their time, they saw little need for a dedicated shock cavalry force (they hire mercs if they *really* need it)....

Back to topic though, the diadochi for sure would have wanted splendid cavalry and if there was cavalry of good quality in the Semitic region, they would have integrated it into their army. But instead they saw that the Semites (?) didn't have a good cav force (or were overshadowed) and prob brought their own cavalry traditions so much so that by the time frame EB starts, their native cav traditions didn't survive....
(all speculation but too me seems logical )

The Sacred Band was destroyed by the Syrakousai before the Punic Wars, not Rome.

Gosh...
Always thought it was the Romans who smashed them....
well...
I was thinking it happened in Sicily so I'm guessing that right (right?)