01-06-2007, 05:34 PM
Quote:MeinPanzer:1af98j9l Wrote:Well, the statements "archers and cataphracts who fought on camels" and "the kataphraktoi on horses and camels" seem to indicate to me that these were kataphraktoi (armoured) camels.
In your original question you said you had never heard of a camel cataphract, and yet this passage clearly mentions camel cataphracts using long spears.
I misread the question. With a 'camel cataphract I was thinking of the animal'. There seems to be a misunderstanding that cataphracts (heavy armoured riders) also ride on armoured animals. That is by no means the case, it's a modern simplification (I blame RTW and other games) that is by no means backup up by evidence. So if someone tells me a cataphract rides on a camel I can't see that as evidence for the animal also being armoured.
Oh, okay, then it was just a misunderstanding. If you can get a hold of Mielczarek's "Cataphracti i Clibinarii," he goes over the question of "what makes a cataphract" quite thoroughly and arrives at the conclusion that the mount need not be armoured.
Ruben
He had with him the selfsame rifle you see with him now, all mounted in german silver and the name that he\'d give it set with silver wire under the checkpiece in latin: Et In Arcadia Ego. Common enough for a man to name his gun. His is the first and only ever I seen with an inscription from the classics. - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
He had with him the selfsame rifle you see with him now, all mounted in german silver and the name that he\'d give it set with silver wire under the checkpiece in latin: Et In Arcadia Ego. Common enough for a man to name his gun. His is the first and only ever I seen with an inscription from the classics. - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
