Heavy Horse Studs

Eastern cavalry had both Hellenistic and Persian influences, with the more easterly states favouring cataphract-style scale armour, in the Parthian fashion, protecting both rider and horse. As a result, the Seleucid kings that followed Alexander maintained two 1,000-man units of elite cavalry, the Hetairoi, modelled on Parthian cataphracts. Following the Alexandrian and Parthian examples, heavy cavalry were a hammer in the tactical toolbox of eastern generals, driving off their opposite numbers before outflanking and exploiting vulnerable infantry flanks. This was helped by the use of a wedge formation to drive into the enemy and break their ordered lines.