03-27-2014, 04:34 AM
Nothing to do with mail, which was also abundant in the East, along with other forms of armor. Other than a preference for stallions, there wasn't a difference in horse sizes, and anyone who'd read the manuals would note that the Romans employed superior shock tactics.
As for Alexios emphasizing shooting horses over riders, he'd have said something similar regarding enemy kataphraktoi and these would've had barded horses.
Alexios was in a position where he had to cobble together forces mostly consisting of crap, as the civil wars had depleted the treasury and experienced manpower was in short supply, mentioned in the Alexiad, plus he wasn't that great a general. At Dyrrhachium, those invincible Norman horsemen were impotent facing a phalanx of Varangians and if they hadn't over-extended themselves, Alexios wouldn't have had a reoccurring ulcer.
If I might ask, how much of the Alexiad have you read or are you just cut and pasting cherry-picked passages? The Alexiad is about as reliable as the Bible and shouldn't be taken at face value, unless one's a fundamentalist .
As for Alexios emphasizing shooting horses over riders, he'd have said something similar regarding enemy kataphraktoi and these would've had barded horses.
Alexios was in a position where he had to cobble together forces mostly consisting of crap, as the civil wars had depleted the treasury and experienced manpower was in short supply, mentioned in the Alexiad, plus he wasn't that great a general. At Dyrrhachium, those invincible Norman horsemen were impotent facing a phalanx of Varangians and if they hadn't over-extended themselves, Alexios wouldn't have had a reoccurring ulcer.
If I might ask, how much of the Alexiad have you read or are you just cut and pasting cherry-picked passages? The Alexiad is about as reliable as the Bible and shouldn't be taken at face value, unless one's a fundamentalist .
aka T*O*N*G*A*R
