Quote Originally Posted by AqD View Post
Thanks! So I should just assume they come from Parthians
Indirectly, probably, but yes.

BTW, weren't there already pre-cataphracts (with full horse bardings I read) in Media during Alexander's invasion?
Yes, there the Persians fielded "proto-cataphracts" already from the late fifth and fourth centuries BC. These men were armoured with heavy metal or organic cuirasses, helmets, arm guards, and sometimes also armoured leg guards or saddles that extended into armoured covers for the legs. Their mounts seem to only have been armoured with barding for the breast and face masks or protomes.

Also, I saw the early parthian cataphract pics (like the early bodyguard in EB) and they look very different, nothing like late Parthian or Seleucid cataphracts, and the latter are basically just macedonian-style heavy cavalry with horse barding and persian arm guards, right? @gamegeek2: sorry but I'm busy doing my mod... now I'm making new unit text for the chinese translation, hence the asking here
The armour of the Early Parthian Bodyguard unit is based erroneously on the Orlat battle plaques, which are absolutely not Parthian and which can be dated with certainty to the 1st-2nd c. AD. These men look different because their arms and armour derive from a different cataphract tradition, which is a Central Asian (Saka) one. They wore armour composed of large quadrangular plates which included a long skirt and a sizeable collar as well as arm and leg guards. We know from a few different sources that the Parthians employed different armour, notably scale cuirasses without collars and skirts, which likely derives from the earlier Iranian tradition of armament for heavy cavalrymen. The information which we do have on Armenian cataphracts places them in the Iranian camp.