Boeotian horsemen 4th century BC

[PMBardunias]

Paul,i don't believe there existed such cavalry in Greece,and anywhere else for that matter...boeotian helmet with iranian cataphract equipment...

I see no reason to assume that his depiction is fantasy- as we might in his Education of Cyrus. He is describing the best equipement one might wear, but there is no reason to expect that the reader would consider this panoply unattainable. In fact he is basically describing the Persian cavalry of his day, who were much heavier than generally known, with some Greek elements. He may have actually seen this in when Agiselaos brought over cavalry that may have picked up local bits of kit. IN fact if they needed resupply it presumably would have been Greek models. As far as I know we have no images of this justly famous contingent of foreign cavalry- from whom sparta's "fame for their cavalry" derived.

For those reading who have not seen them, here is an example of contemporary persian cavalry. They are not far from what Xenophon suggests.