Quote Originally Posted by TinCow
Why? If you study Roman battles, cavalry almost always exclusively fought the opposing cavalry until one side one. The winner would then flank.
Because cavalry was the only force that couls make subtle maneuvers. If the other troops could do that too you can be certain that cavalry would have had a very hard time as all commanders would oppose them with their spear units.
Look at Pharsalus, Ceasar was very heavily outnumbered in cavalry (1000 to 7000 or so). What did he do? He blocked the cavalry with spearmen... Cavalry is not the counter, spearmen are, and were.