Illustrations of Sassanid Persian Clibanarii

[Urselius]

I get that cataphracti is a general term - what I have difficulty with is envisioning the Romans being so very nice in their usage of clibanarii.

For example, we know that Persian officers and princes sometimes defected to Rome and served in or commanded Roman units. I cannot imagine that such a person would, in the Roman mind, have changed from being a cataphractus into a clibanarius. Also, Renatus, the existence of the clibanarii units with non-Roman ethnic names such as. Equites Persae Clibanarii is very suggestive of Romans regarding Persians as capable of being clibanarii.