08-27-2009, 01:15 AM
Quote:I'm afraid that is about it - although Zosimus and Libanius may have a few bits, but Ammianus is really the source.
Thanks a lot for the response.
Funny how there are so many ancient historians who repeat so much of the same information about Caesar and the earlier Republican period, but once we get into the 4th century CE, it's hard to find any good historian who wrote about anything, aside from Ammianus.
Quote:Catafracts (or clibanarii) - as in fully armoured men on armoured horses - first appear, IIRC, around the time of Alexander Severus possibly being Parthian refugees after the Sasanid take over. Julian, in a panegyric, credits Constantius II with the expansion of this arm of the cavalry and so it is most likely that Roman armies in the east at least (where they will have been most use) will have featured them as standard.
I would note that such cavalry were not "the heart and soul" of the later eastern Roman armies as Prokopios' description of Roman cavalry at the time of Belisarios shows. The cavalry at that time whilst armoured were not as heavily equipped as catafracts - although many modern books seem to use the term for such cavalry for some reason. "True" catafracts returned in the C10th as a specialised force - the best description being in the Praecpta of Nikeforos Fokas.
I'll be honest, my knowledge of eastern Roman armies after the fall of the West is somewhat limited.
I just know that tactically speaking, Belisarius liked to use his heavy cavalrymen to deliver the decisive strike in most of his battles, whereas the earlier Roman tactics emphasized the use of infantry, and from what I understand the eastern Roman cavalry after 476 was better trained and better equipped than earlier Roman cavalry.
Quote:I believe most of his force was the regular Roman army - although IIRC Ammianus mentions Goths being present (referred to as Skythians perhaps?) who may have been allied (under the treaty with Constantine).
Do you know if the Armenians provided troops? I know Julian had some contact with the Armenian king at the time, Arsaces II, but I can't find anything definitive on whether the Armenians did or did not provide troops.
Seems to me that Julian would have found that good Armenian cavalry quite useful if he was campaigning in Mesopotamia.
