Everyone loves knights, but what do /his/torians think about their predecessors, the Cataphracts?
>>70880
Cataphract isn't a predecessor of knights, sometimes they were contemporaries and besides that a knight is a title a cataphract is just the function.
>>70880
Knights ARE cataphracts.
>>70950
Not really. A cataphract despite the similarities with a knight, were professional soldiers who were employed as low level nobles in the Persian armies for example.
A knight was not that.
>>70950
>Knights: traditionally bondsman and low ranking nobles, peasants could not become one. However they were military units but not traditional soldiers in any sense.
>Cataphracts: traditionally bondsman and low ranking nobles, peasants could not become one. However they were military units and actual professional soldiers, grouped in formations based off equipment, experience, and function.
They are similar.
Modern knights do descend from cataphracts who form the basis of heavily armored mounted calvarymen.
>>71124
>employed as low level nobles
That's wrong though.
>>71124
>A knight was not that.
A knight WAS a low level noble employed by lords as professional soldiers. That's literally what a Knight was. A cataphract was just the professional soldier part without the noble title.
Before knights became nobles (before the year 1000) knights originally came from the peasants. A lord would pick a strong looking peasant from his manor and train him to be a soldier. These soldiers became pretty arrogant though. Thats when the church came up with knightly codes and stuff, so they won't missbehave.
>>70880
Cataphracts were pretty based but i wonder if it made any sense to give your horse also an armor. Were medieval knights also buying armor for their horses
>>70880
I guess they're a part of the evolutionary line, but it's more directly from Roman style Equites to Knights.
Aren't they the same thing?
>>72186
Barding was definitely a thing for medieval knights, especially later. Generally at least padded armor, like a gambeson for your horse. It provided excellent protection against arrows, bolts, and incidental attacks on your horse that could see you getting dehorsed.
>>72186
That's very late - Renaissance and after
If you could afford it you might get some quilted armour for your horse - pretty effective at stopping arrows
