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Historical reenactment of a Sasanian-era cataphract, complete with a full set of scale armour for the horse. The rider is covered by extensive mail armour.. A cataphract was a form of armoured heavy cavalry that originated in Persia and was fielded in ancient warfare throughout Eurasia and Northern Africa.
Modelled on the cataphracts of Parthia, they were armoured from neck-to-toe by a variety of armour types, probably including: scale armour (lorica squamata), mail armour (lorica hamata), and laminar armour (see manica). A number of descriptions indicate that helmets with visors shaped like human faces were worn.
Historically, the cataphract was a heavily armed and armoured cavalryman who saw action from the earliest days of Antiquity up through the High Middle Ages. Originally, the term cataphract referred to a type of armour worn to cover the whole body and that of the horse. Eventually the term described the cavalryman himself.
They would be guarded heavily by cataphract style cavalry. The post of aswaran sardar was held by a member of the House of Mihran . Parts of the aswaran division were high-ranking including the Pushtigban Body Guards , a super heavy shock cavalry, who were the royal guards of the Shah himself.
Byzantine cataphracts were a much feared force in their heyday. The army of Emperor Nicephorus II , the 'Pale Death of the Saracens' himself, relied on its cataphracts as its nucleus, coupling cataphract archers with cataphract lancers to create a self-perpetuating 'hammer blow' tactic where the cataphract lancers would charge again and again ...
The Grivpanvar (literally: neck-guard wearer) were an elite late Parthian and Sasanian division who fought as heavy cataphract cavalry. According to Roman sources, the Grivpanvar had the ability to impale two men on the long, heavy spears that they carried.
They numbered 1000 men, under the command of the pushtigban-salar ; in battle they fought mostly as cataphracts, heavily armed and armoured horsemen who would charge enemy positions with tremendous momentum. There are allusions to the participation of this unit in sources describing the Shapur II's Arab campaign and Siege of Amida (359). [1]
The standard cataphract weapon was a xyston-like spear. For close-quarter combat, a mace or sword was made available as a secondary weapon. The mace and cataphract ideas were combined into the Sassanid-introduced and Roman-named Clibanarii, who were armoured, both man and beast, in chainmail, and armed with a mace.