Hoplite

Abstract: The brief article will mainly present a comprehensive and detail account of the Byzantine cataphract (κατάφρακτος, κατάφρακτοι – “armored”) cavalrly military unites. It is important to stretch that the cataphract as a military unit in the Byzantine army appeared and was active on a specified period of time which can be acknowledged as the late 9th century (around the 880s) to the mid of the 11th – for some historians little after the Battle of Manzikert. Which was the unit’s composition, armour and weaponry? What was their main function in the battlefield? How much that unit was changed from its predesesors?

Rules tend to treat Peltasts as troops that can throw javelins, evade, fight under the most desperate circumstances.

Peltasts are difficult to represent on the wargame table because most wargame rule writers tend to lump Peltasts together with light armed (such as psiloi) as one type. The nimble fellows shooting down Gauls in Greece are no different than Aetolian armored men fighting Seleucid phalangites in Egyptian service. They also seem ideal for taking on cavalry. However, I say that is not the case.

Peltasts seem to go through several changes throughout history, but game rules do not reflect that. They are no different than the Psiloi, light armed, with perhaps the exception the light armed are not shielded while the peltast is. War game rules tend to overvalue light armed.  (more…)