The Late Roman Army

[tlclark]

The thing about cavalry is that it is tactically fast, not necessarily strategically fast. Horses are finicky creatures and don't like being pushed to their limits. UNless you have strings of remounts for every manm, you can't spend the entire time in the saddle, and unless you have prepared fodder dumps, you need to spend much time and effort finding stuff for the mounts to eat that could otherwise be spent marching. Once the first few days are over and the horses bneed regular rest periods, a well-organised infantry column with a working supply train can actually outpace a cavalry unit.

True, but the Parthian and Sassanian horse archers had all of these problems and they still made it work. The reason was that they had effectively mastered all of these difficulties through superior logistics. There are 'Caravanserai' and 'lodges' all over the Parthian empire that seemed to do nothing but house and feed horses. Also nearly every rider had a spare horse or two and several squires to manage it all. They would even change horses several times a battle! It must have been a logistical nightmare, but the superior speed and strength of armored calvary must have made the hassle worth it.

The increase in calvary of the Late Empire, was an attempt to respond to the Parthian and Sassanian armored calvary, as a way of matching force and speed with the Parthians. In the east, they compensate for the superior cavlary persian logistics a great deal with increased naval power.

If I had to guess, I would suggest that the generals had made a risk assessment of all the trouble areas, and stragetically placed the cavalry units within a few days run of any potential trouble spot.