Quote Originally Posted by Stycks View Post
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)....
They probably did realize the value of quality cavalry (they hired it, after all), but were unable to set up such a corps themselves. Ordinary horses are expensive enough, never mind well-trained war horses. Combine this with the lack of equestrian tradition and good horse-country in Italy, and it becomes infeasible for the Romans to create a home-made cavalry corps that rivals the Macedonians. Nor could they rely on conquered nations to provide them with it: the heaviest cavalry is extremely expensive and after Roman conquest it is unlikely that the local aristocracy was still wealthy enough to patronize the expensive horse-breeders that could produce proper shock cavalry.

Quote Originally Posted by Stycks View Post
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 )
Nothing wrong with speculation. As long as it fits the known facts, of course. I know nothing of Judean or Phoenician (apart from Carthaginian) cavalry, so I am guessing you are right and they weren't very notable. But whether their overlords would have recruited such cavalry is not just determined by their quality, but also whether such recruitment is politically possible, and yields sufficient numbers.

Quote Originally Posted by moonburn View Post
so please be carefull when making such statements because the semitic people didn´t had the wealth to field such forçes doesn´t mean they didn´t had the hability to do so if circumstances where diferent
The kingdom of Judea may not have been particularly rich, but the Phoenician cities were major trade centres. They would have had the wealth to do equip heavy cavalry, but may simply have lacked good horses and an equestrian tradition (like Rome and many Greek city states). Of course, I am not sure if they were still wealthy after Alexander and his successors had finished with them.