In the twilight of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th 6th centuries, the elite of the field armies was the heavy armoured cavalry the cataphracts, clad in lamellar, scale, mail and padded fabric armour. After the fall of the West, the Greek-speaking Eastern or Byzantine Empire survived for nearly a thousand years, and cavalry remained predominant in its armies, with the heaviest armoured regiments continuing to provide the ultimate shock-force in battle.Accounts from Muslim chroniclers show that the ironclad cataphract on his armoured horse was an awe- inspiring enemy: ‘…they advanced against you, iron -covered one would have said that they advanced on horses which seemed to have no legs’. This new study, replete with stunning full-colour illustrations of the various units, offers an engaging insight into the fearsome heavy cavalry units that battled against the enemies of Rome’s Eastern Empire.
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