1967/11/01 by John W. Eadie · 5 citations
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Ancient Near East History #Classical Antiquity Studies #Ancient Egypt and Archaeology #Roman Empire #Terminology #Variety (cybernetics) #Classics #History #Ancient history #Empire #Philosophy #Computer science #Linguistics
paper · doi:10.2307/299352
openalex publication_date 1967/11/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
The willingness of the Romans to adopt foreign military practices and to modify, and hereby strengthen, legionary organization, equipment, and tactics is well-documented and thas been discussed frequently by modern scholars. One manifestation of this pragmatic approach, however, has not received the attention it deserves—viz. their attempts during the Empire to develop an effective cavalry. In this effort the Romans employed a variety of cavalrymen and cavalry tactics, but one of the most interesting and certainly one of the most enduring products was the mailed cavalry. The origin, development and success of this force—which became a prominent branch of the Roman army after the first century A.D.—cannot be analysed without some reference to earlier experiments with cavalry equipment and tactics in the Mediterranean area. The Romans did not invent the heavy-armoured horseman: on the contrary, the innovators were the Assyrians, whose monuments uniquely illustrate the evolution of cavalry technique in antiquity. Delineation of the Assyrian development is instructive, for they were required to solve many of the technical and tactical problems which later confronted the Romans. Moreover, the tactics employed and the cavalry types created by the Assyrians are remarkably similar to the later Roman. To facilitate comparison of the Assyrian and Roman experience, in the following assessment the equivalent Greek and Latin terminology has been supplied for each phase in the Assyrian development.