cataphract
καλῶς γέ μου τὸν υἱὸν ὦ Στιλβωνίδη εὑρὼν ἀπιόντ' ἀπὸ γυμνασίου λελουμένον οὐκ ἔκυσας, οὐ προσεῖπας, οὐ προσηγάγου, οὐκ ὠρχιπέδισας, ὢν ἐμοὶ πατρικὸς φίλος → Ah! Is this well done, Stilbonides? You met my son coming from the bath after the gymnasium and you neither spoke to him, nor kissed him, nor took him with you, nor ever once felt his balls. Would anyone call you an old friend of mine?
Wikipedia EN
A cataphract was a form of armored heavy cavalryman fielded in ancient warfare throughout Eurasia and Northern Africa.
The English word derives from the Greek κατάφρακτος kataphraktos (plural: κατάφρακτοι Kataphraktoi), literally meaning "armored" or "completely enclosed" (the prefix kata-/cata- implying "intense" or "completely"). Historically, the cataphract was a very heavily armored horseman, with both the rider and mount almost completely covered in scale armor, and typically wielding a kontos or lance as his primary weapon.
Cataphracts served as the elite cavalry force for most empires and nations that fielded them, primarily used for charges to break through opposing heavy cavalry and infantry formations. Chronicled by many historians from the earliest days of antiquity up until the High Middle Ages, they are believed[by whom?] to have influenced[clarification needed] the later European knights, through contact with the Byzantine Empire.
Peoples and states deploying cataphracts at some point in their history included: the Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans, Parthians, Achaemenids, Sakas, Armenians, Seleucids, Pergamenes, Kingdom of Pontus, Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, Sassanids, Romans, Goths, Byzantines, Georgians, Chinese, Koreans, Jurchens, and Mongols.
In Europe, the fashion for heavily armored Roman cavalry seems to have been a response to the Eastern campaigns of the Parthians and Sassanids in the region referred to as Asia Minor, as well as numerous defeats at the hands of Iranian cataphracts across the steppes of Eurasia, most notably in the Battle of Carrhae in upper Mesopotamia (53 BC). Traditionally, Roman cavalry was neither heavily-armored nor decisive in effect; the Roman equites corps comprised mainly lightly-armored horsemen bearing spears and swords and using light-cavalry tactics to skirmish before and during battles, and then to pursue retreating enemies after a victory. The adoption of cataphract-like cavalry formations took hold among the late Roman army during the late 3rd and 4th centuries. The Emperor Gallienus Augustus (r. 253–268 AD) and his general and putative usurper Aureolus (died 268) arguably contributed much to the institution of Roman cataphract contingents in the Late Roman army.
Translations
ar: كاتافراكت; az: katafraktlar; be: катафракт; bg: катафракт; ca: catafracta; cs: katafrakt; da: katafrakt; de: Kataphrakt; el: κατάφρακτος; en: cataphract; eo: katafrakto; es: catafracto; eu: katafrakto; fa: سوار زرهپوش; fi: katafrakti; fr: cataphractaire; gl: catafracto; he: קטפרקט; hu: kataphraktosz; hy: կատաֆրակտոս; id: katafrak; it: catafratto; ja: カタフラクト; ko: 철갑기병; ms: kataphract; nl: katafrakt; no: katafrakt; pl: katafrakt; pt: catafractário; ro: catafract; ru: катафрактарии; sh: katafrakt; sk: katafrakt; sl: katafrakt; sr: катафракт; sv: katafrakt; tr: katafrakt; uk: катафрактарії; uz: katafraktlar; vi: cataphract; zh: 全覆裝甲騎兵
