dimanche 4 juin 2017

Late Imperial Roman Army I - The Cataphracts

Introduction

What we call today the Late Roman Empire lasted from the end of the 3rd century AD to the 5th century AD. It began with the reign of Diocletian, who reorganized the Empire through the system of the Tetrarchy and divided it in two halves, East and West. Each part was ruled by an Emperor with the help of a Caesar.

Statue of the Tetrarchs in Venice - Diocletian on the left

At the end of this period, the western part of the Empire desintegrated, and the Eastern part, with Constantinople as a capital, became the Byzantine Empire.

The Cataphractarii, or Cataphracts

The Cataphractarii were extra heavy cavalry, whose main tactic was the shock charge. This sort of cavalry existed prior to the Late Empire, but their number had considerably increased during the period. Men and horses were covered with armors (lamellar, mail, or both). Cataphracts carried long lances called contus. Most Cataphracts regiments were located in the East, but there were some in the West too.





The minis displayed are Hät figures. They are meant to be based together as Knights for DBA, and I will need to paint another unit.
That's all for today :)


13 commentaires:

  1. Excellent job on the cataphracts! I especially like the results of your striped spears.

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  2. Thank you Jonathan! I would have liked to paint something more sophisticated (as you can see in the documentation), but once in my life, I tried to be an army painter, simple and efficient !

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  3. Lourds, puissants et magnifiques...en voilà un excellent travail!

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    1. Je crois que ce sera mon déguisement pour samedi :)... bon je ne sais pas monter à cheval, sur un vélo ça le fait ?

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  4. The pattern on the kontos is a nice touch. Well done.

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    1. Thank you Bruce. Yes, the kind of details I like to add, but the real patterns were sometimes more complicated !

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  5. They look fantastic! Very nice indeed.

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    1. Thank you Nick, always a pleasure to read from you

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  6. hi sehr gut die arbeit von dir
    die rüstung der pferde ist genial
    finde das dies eine richtig schöne truppe ist

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