Seleucid cataphract

[Renatus]

Several of the items of equipment in the illustration of Seleucid warriors derive from the Pergamum reliefs, namely, the face-mask helmet, cuirass and arm armour of the standing cavalryman, the frontlet of the cataphract's horse and the chamfron of the Companion cavalryman's horse. The standing cavalryman's armoured boots are, so far as I am aware, purely conjectural. However, the Pergamum reliefs include greaves which could constitute the Seleucid cataphract's leg armour. This would tie in with Plutarch's description of the battle of Tigranocerta in which he has Lucullus ordering his men to strike at the legs and thighs of the Armenian kataphraktoi, which were the only parts of their bodies left exposed. This could relate to their thighs being protected only by pteruges and the backs of their calves left unprotected by the greaves.