Roman Heavy Cavalry (2): AD 500-1450

Before the twilight of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, units of heavily armoured cavalry already formed the elite of Roman field armies. The long survival of the Eastern Empire based in Byzantium (Constantinople) saw several periods of vigorous re-conquest, such as the wars of Justinian the Great in the 6th century and those of the emperors of the Macedonian Dynasty in the 9th to 11th centuries. In these campaigns, the katáphraktoi - armoured from head to foot, and sometimes riding armoured horses - proved decisive on many battlefields, fighting against enemies as varied as the Vandals, Goths, Bulgarians, Arabs, the Turkic peoples from the steppes of Eurasia and other Byzantine East Roman armies in ruinous civil wars. Drawing upon a range of written sources - detailed military manuals, histories and poetry - as well as iconography and recorded archaeological finds, the co-authors and illustrator of this book reconstruct the appearance of these warriors over a period of nearly a thousand years, and analyse what these sources tell us about the organization of their units and their battlefield tactics. The text is illustrated with photos, carvings, murals, and miniatures from literary sources, and is accompanied by eight plates of meticulous reconstructions of the costumes, armour and equipment of these dazzling warriors. Book jacket.