Cavalry and chariots against infantry

[Nathan Ross]

In the Roman era, the majority of urban population also lived in poverty. In the city of Rome, there was no constant hunger only because the State was sharing out free bread to the poor masses. But eating almost only bread (and almost no meat or vegetables) is not healthy... during times of the Roman Republic before Augustus and before the 1st century AD, there was also extreme poverty in Roman provinces.

Do you have any evidence for this? There were both meat and vegetable markets in central Rome, and I've never heard of 'extreme poverty' in the provinces during the late republic.

Such a video as an example of what horses can do in battle

Not the most accurate reconstruction, I suggest! But I do like the man leaping over the Roman lines and then attacking them with his bare hands, and later breaking up a testudo single-handed ;-)

According to the book, it shows the scene of Constantine's shock cavalry smashing Maxentius' heavy infantry (namely - the Praetorian Guard) in the battle of the Milvian Bridge (312 AD)

This scene actually shows Constantine's light cavalry and archers (including Moorish troops with arrows in their headbands) pursuing Maxentius' army across the broken bridge and driving them into the river. The Maxentian soldiers have horses in the water with them, and so probably represent the Equites Domini Nostri of the imperial guard.

It does not, therefore, represent a clash on the battlefield itself but during the rout that followed. However, the note from the panegyric I quoted earlier suggests that clibanarii were indeed trained to attack and break infantry formations.