Roman Imperial Cavalry - Armies and Tactics DOCUMENTARY

[Music] some of the worst setbacks Rome's legionary infantry faced as it expanded the eternal city's Dominion throughout the Mediterranean were inflicted by armies skilled in the traditions of cavalry warfare such as the light Numidian riders of Hannibal and the horse archers of the Parthian Empire the always adaptable Romans took these defeats into account and throughout the Imperial period gradually began to decrease their one-dimensional focus on heavy infantry and Roman cavalry grew into one of the deadliest most elite strike forces that the ancient world had to offer in our video discussing the Augustine reforms we described the way cavalry units in the very early príncipe talked Xillia were organized auxilary units made up of purely cavalry were known as aller or wings and comprised a total of either 512 or 768 horsemen split into Terme squadrons of 32 men each these mounted legions were the pride of the Roman auxiliar however more numerous than the elite aller were the various cohort T's equity at a 608 or 1056 strong mixed units of both infantry and cavalry a step down in quality from their counterparts in the aller men of the cohort ease equity at a were therefore not as well paid armed or mounted their duties differed just as their quality did the various aller were intended as front-line battle ready crack cavalry units who spent peacetime undergoing training exercises which would keep them prepared for times of war in which they would be expected to serve as the Empire's highly mobile strike force in contrast their comrades in the inferior cohort ease equity at a functioned partly as military units as partially in a support role they would take on duties such as patrolling to ensure all was in order policing the provinces and performing escort duties if a roman tax Elector needed a bit of muscle an area commander might send a detachment of cohort ease equity a day with him however if a military situation became desperate the cavalry in each mixed unit would be extracted and then merged together to form a makeshift a lay of their own to supplement the superior quality troops much like their counterparts in the infantry wings of auxiliary cavalry men also possessed their own distinctive numbers and honorifics drawn from their origin history and achievements a brilliant example of this is the cumulative Lee titled alle colorimetric am classy anna in victor bist toccata sevilla Romanorum this mouthful of a name in effect tells us part of the unit's own collective story it was raised in Gaul to quell a revolt there during the reign of emperor Tiberius and thus goals made up much of its strength however at some point a large enough contingent of Thracians was added that its name gained the edge Rackham phrase this particular cavalry units first commander was classiest hence classy Anna and it was clearly an incredibly prestigious and battle-hardened force having gained the title of Invicta the invincible to medal like golden stalks and the honour of Roman citizenship such a force would have been one of the most revered in its local area and we can picture the ambitious men aspiring to be part of the allerg lorem for the prestige honor and material benefits such a move would bring because the Romans themselves were an infantry focused people Horsemen of the auxiliar were instead drawn from former enemies who had been nurtured in the saddle such as Germans Kotov Aryans Thracians and especially goals who made up a massive 44.5% of auxilary cavalry man by the Flavian period despite being formally considered supplemental to the legions mounted units were in fact becoming ever more important as the military's role changed from expansion to the from the start to the end of the first century AD Rome's legionary infantry strength grew only by 28% from 300,000 to 385,000 while the cavalry forces more than doubled from 30,000 to 65,000 the equipment used by Roman cavalry units is difficult to pinpoint due to its diverse origins especially in the early principle a lightly armored new midian would bring different gear to the battle than a heavily clad Gallic nobleman however Rome's tendency towards standardization along with the Roman people's lack of interest in horsemanship meant both FET cavalry equipment gradually became more uniform but that much of it was based on the ethnic origins of the auxiliary units such as Celtic helmets said pieces of headgear were created especially to deal with the problems that mounted troops had to face in battle possessing a large nape guard to deflect blows aimed at the neck and cheek guards to protect the sights of a face as Roman cavalry gained more experience of the threats it faced and how to counter them the crown of Rome's Celtic inspired cavalry helmet was reinforced with rivets secured cross braces which gradually rose until in time it formed a pointed peak as their main protection a smaller lighter variety of shield made of plywood and covered with leather known as the Clippers was used which was either oval or hexagonal in shape most cavalry would also clad themselves in one of three types of armor depending on preference and the situation scale lorica mater male lorica himoto or the famous segmented lorica segment Tata as their primary offensive armament 1st century Roman auxiliary horsemen would carry up to three lankier the dimensions of these light spears probably weren't completely uniform but a benchmark was around 1.8 metres or 6 feet long suitable for either thrusting over arm or throwing like a javelin because Arian tells us in his tactic air cavalry might be expected to throw as many as 15 to 20 Latvia in their training exercises it could also be the case that grooms would accompany a lay in battle carrying additional Spears to rearm the cavalry units when their javelins were exhausted a lay troops would draw their 65 291 centimeter long double-edged broadsword called a swather it had a parallel edge but tapered to a sharp point meaning that though as a cavalry sword it was mainly a slashing weapon the point could also be used to thrust if needed for their ideal mount roman horsemen did not require especially quick horses instead it was far more important for the prospective steed to be short stocky and compact thereby increasing its load-bearing capacity and the riders comfort analysis of nine horse remains found at the new stage Tremonti m archaeological site in southern scotland showed that roman horses were similar in their bills to be relatively small modern Welsh mountain pony so it is clear that these were certainly not the massive destroyers of medieval Europe on these mounts roman allied troopers would sit in a so-called four horned saddle which had been introduced into the cavalry by the time of Julius Caesar to the Germans on the other bank of the Rhine such equipment was considered weak and ineffective but it undoubtedly benefitted the Romans when the riders weight was lowered onto this saddle hits four horns would close and lightly grip his thighs to give balance without being so tight as to inhibit movement this gave the horseman the ability to fight in melee with shield and spear or to throw missiles effectively whilst controlling the horse with the legs as the 1st century AD progressed the Roman Empire began to experiment with new types of exotic Eastern cavalry most prominently the extremely heavily armoured mounted unit known as cataphract REE a word derived from Greek meaning completely enclosed or totally armoured these units were not new to the Romans who encountered very potent cataracts of the Seleucid Empire in 190 BC at the Battle of magnesia and then 147 years later came up against them again at Calais where the Parthians used heavily armored Lancers to great effect after pompous conquest of the eastern Mediterranean Rome acquired a number of oriental client kingdoms who employed various contingents of cataphract REE over a century later in the Imperial period Eastern style armored horsemen are noted among the numerous Roman Allied forces during the Jewish revolt in 69 AD but at this point they were only allied forces rather than official units of the imperial military however continuing pressure from the formerly nomadic parthian empire in the east and the summation threat beyond the Danube e'en frontier both of which employed cataphracts made the acquisition of Roman units of the same kind increasingly appealing if for no other reason than to counter enemy heavy cavalry it was the sarmatians particularly a tribal grouping among them known as the roxolani who influenced the first Roman cataphract REE they covered their entire bodies along with the bodies of their horses in iron scale lamella or male armor using a heavy lance known as the cantos arm Atticus as their main weapon it was this relatively unwieldy mass charge weapon which gave the first Roman cataphracts their designation Conte REE it is possible that official Roman cataphract ree-ally were utilized before the 2nd century but the first time we see definitive proof of their existence is during the reign of Emperor Hadrian from 117 to 138 an inscription from the Italian city of camara gnam describes how the cataphract re of ala Wonga lorem and paniyaram served in Neesha against the increasing summation threat interestingly it is possible that this unit was created by reorganizing retraining and merging two previously depleted cavalry units ala 1 Claudia gal Orem and ala Juan paniyaram together as kin frats since the troopers in these units were recruited in Gaul and the Balkans it is clear that even from such an early date Roman emperors were keen on universalizing such a formidable force throughout the empire as much as they could despite the fact that these units were now integrated into the official Roman military however they were almost never granted citizenship because of this we can infer that early Imperial cataphract ree units were still mostly made up of foreigners such as some nations who accepted service in the Empire's borders half a century after the exploits of Hadrian's new heavy cavalry a unit of around 5,500 summation I as a Keyes tribesmen were sent to the town of RIP Chester in Britannia after being defeated by Marcus Aurelius but not all of this group was made up of armored cavalry many being infantry or even non-combatants the increasing importance of fully armored cavalry as the Roman Empire progressed makes it necessary that we qualify the difference between two ambiguous phrases relating to them cataphract ree and cleburn ree the latter being translated as metallic furnace we are never informed in the ancient sources as to what the difference between them was but we can nevertheless make a few educated guesses based on unit structure equipment and tactics the first possibility is that units of Cleburne REE and cataphract re were synonymous that's they had the same equipment and origin the only difference being their names other scholars believe that kleben REE were more extreme in terms of their heavy equipment possibly serving as the fully clad horse and rider combination which made them almost unassailable in the right circumstances whereas ordinary cataphracts may have had lighter armor or a none armored horse it is also possible that it was the battlefield formations rather than equipment which served as the clippin re cataphract REE distinction author marius Milch erich argued that the cataphract was a heavy mounted spearmen fighting in extremely close banks filing in column order while the kleben REE were employed in shock based wedge formations it seems that units of super heavy cavalry were not all focused on charging on mass into enemy formations with the lance many of them particularly those raised in areas with a nomadic tradition combined their cataphract arias armored and mounted archery to create a unique force of totally armored heavy horse archers known as the equities sanket ree kleban ree a contingent of these troops were recruited from the eastern regions of austria and armenia by alexander severus during his campaign against Sassanid Persia in 234 after that war concluded the eastern cavalry accompanied their Emperor to the western provinces and fought for years against the Germanic tribes with lethal effectiveness just to illustrate that holder styles of cavalry were indeed still in use alongside the new heavier units however mounted archers fought against the Germans together with contingents made up of light Mauritania and javelin ears from the 3rd century onward usage of cataphracts of all kinds became more common until they eventually emerged as one of the foremost elite troop types of the entire Roman military even serving as units of the Scolari's Imperial Guard contingents created by Constantine after he disbanded the Praetorians their distinctive protection and weaponry gave Roman cataphracts a reputation of almost invincibility which comes down to as in the sources even today but what exactly were they equipped with like significant amounts of cavalry armament in the history of the Roman Empire cataphract re equipment was either directly looted from or inspired by the equipment of enemy mounted units from people such as the sarmatians or Persians as described before the main weapon of most cataphracts was the contest Sam Atticus a 13 to 15 foot or four to four point five meter long heavy lance for scale this size made it only a small degree shorter than the famous cerissa used by Alexander's falen Jets in contrast to the vast majority of mounted unit types of the age who usually used a weapon in one hand and a shield in the other cataphract REE used the Cantus as a two-handed weapon holding it as the horses flank during a charge the smaller secondary weapon of individual cataphracts probably depended on personal preference for the judgment of a unit commander a variety of swords were used including longer summation pieces and even an exotic weapon all the way from China which was found in a famous burial site of a Romano Thracian cavalry man at Tatanka in modern Bulgaria other Roman cataphract secondary weapons included spiked maces adapted from the Persians and heavy axes which the noticia dignity a tongue tells us the Imperial Guard cavalry of the 4th century used in battle the early use by heavy cavalry men of missile weapons such as bows depended almost entirely on whether the cavalry men were trained in its use by origin on Trajan's column for example heavily armored nomadic sarmatians are shown to be pivoting in the saddle in a Parthian shot position as mentioned earlier a bow was also the main weapon of alexander severus 'as oscar own e'en heavy cavalry such a weapon had a composite wooden shaft with a glued layer of sinew covering the outside while bone knock plates were applied on the tips in the late empire it seems that most units of heavy cavalry Sagat re kleben REE were equipped much like the mounted Archer of the steppe able to shoot from horseback whilst also retaining the impact of a charging Lancer for their defensive equipment the general trend is that over time cataphract REE armour gradually expanded to shield as much of the Horseman's body as possible almost totally enclosing the rider from the outside world and creating what was considered to be an ancient tank to protect their head and neck Roman cataphracts wore an improved version of the egg-shaped Sarmatian helmet these were the prototype for a subsequent variant of conical helmet known the spanking helm which also took inspiration from pieces of Parthian equipment the headgear of an ordinary Roman cataphract could be worn with a male section covering the cavalryman's face for extra protection however it was also common for officers standard bearers and other high-ranking soldiers to adorn their helmets with the masks appearing like a face a famous example of the mask helmet once again comes from the Romano Thracian cavalry man burial at Chu Talca to mark their prestige helmets were also adorned with crests feathers of bright colors and other decorations that the soldier or officer might be able to afford such displays might also have had the effect of intimidating enemy troops facing off against them amia s mark al Ennis articulates the reputation of the cataphracts and gives us a vivid image of their body and limb Armour when he says the equities cataphract re were so protected by armored coverings and belts of steel that you might think them statues chiseled by the hand of prax a ladies not men Fraxel ATS was the greatest athenian sculptor of the 4th century bc from his description we can distinguish a sense of inhumanity about the cataphracts that these elite horsemen ceased being human and were instead a kind of gola upon donning their armor and helmet purely focused on war our series on the Roman armies will continue all the way to 1453 so make sure you are subscribed to our 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Channel: Kings and Generals

Views: 632,935

Rating: 4.9496503 out of 5

Keywords: roman empire, full documentary, roman army tactics, roman tactics, kings and generals, history lesson, documentary film, military history, ancient history, decisive battles, animated historical documentary, roman military, fall of the roman empire, king and generals, history documentary, history channel, late roman empire, castra, roman fortress, roman fort, roman army, roman history, world history, caesar, legion, roman legions, ancient battle, cataphract, clibanarii

Id: X1KD_LJwFZQ

Length: 19min 27sec (1167 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 02 2020