This is brilliant thanks so much ! Maybe a video on the crusaders units , knights and the armour/weapons ? Just an idea

Loving this video and I love the fact that you finally started a cavalry series 👏 I'd like to see the Condottieri be covered in this new series

Thank you so much I love the work you guys do, its the highlight of my week anytime you publish a video

The sword brothers

Ancient Indian War Elephants would be a fascinating unit to cover, I think.

Yes, this seems like the most effective tactic to counter them. I wonder how well this approach translated in later years with other super heavy units

@@InvictaHistory I hear that during the crusades the Saracens? Camelry could counter the European heavy knights due to the horses fear of the camels smell and the environmental heat that forces them to take off their armour. Not sure how true that is though!

@@igncom1 I'm not sure how true that particular anecdote is but it's true that horses don't like camels. That was one of the factors that caused the U. S. Army to abandon their experiment with a camel corps in the southwest. Horses can be trained to tolerate camels but untrained horses often panic and run. I don't know why.

@@itsapittie US ARMY CAMEL CORPS?! What an amazing concept! Man what could have been.

@@InvictaHistory The same concept still applies today. Heavy units require more support and "tire" more quickly than lighter units. Of course, tanks don't actually get tired but they do break down and the longer they're committed to the battle, the more they will break. You can see this in the battles in the Ardennes in December 1944 and January 1945. The Germans committed a huge number of tanks to the effort and they did initially experience some success but the Allies resorted to striking and then falling back (whether through strategy or necessity) until the tanks broke down and/or ran out of gas at which time the dismounted tankers became easy pickings. Some things never change and one of those is that you don't get something for nothing.

I’d rather imagine being the soldier

And maybe just maybe you were behind a fortress , then the Romans started building mountains and shit.

I don't need to imagine I've played mount and blade I know bro

Imagine you’ve been raiding the Roman border and all you’ve fought are some dudes with spears and some mail and that’s all you expect easy pickings you’ve got your money you’re otw home and these metal covered monsters just piss on your parade

@@louassole You lived through it, bro, you ok?

The fact that they are being attacked by spammer bots shows how much the channel has grown

@@CsStoker true, soon enough comment replies will be unusable

@@ArgentavisMagnificens Oh I dunno about unusable. The good news is that higher comment count means that the Great Algorithm is Pleased and that more actual people come to watch the videos!

@@Callmecel I guess that is true. Though in some of the bigger channels you get 10 bot replies per comment so you'd have to dribble them in order to see an actual person's reply

@@ArgentavisMagnificens Very true! I haven't really flipped through comment sections on supermassive videos (first rule of the Internet), but I can imagine. Luckily, for now at least, there's no spam in the community section or the Patreon :)

Yeah but there's no fucking way

Humans can do marvelous things during times of war.

@@bubbachomp4674 I know.

@@ethanarnold4441 Ok, Han Solo.

@@bubbachomp4674 Lol

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Most definitely. Good choices, honestly. Never enough coverage of the eastern meridian methods...

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@@fabiandanesti1497 u mean gay orthodox chant?

@@neighbor-j-4737 Technically, almost all of Europe (and almost all of Eurasia) is in the Eastern Meridian.

@@Intranetusa Fair enough. I was just broadly agreeing using a figure of speech. Next time I'll use longitudinal specificity.

Indeed you are right but, oddly enough, roman cataphracts didn’t fare particularly well: they were annihilated three times in a row by Constantine’s infantry, they were easily put to flight by the alamanic dismounted cavalrymen at Strasbourg, they were systematically defeated by the Persians according to Ammianus. At Adrianople, the Roman cavalry, which probably included cataphracts , was rapidly dispersed by the incoming barbarian cavalry. On the other hand, late Roman infantry has a better victories / defeats ratio than the republican legions and the ones of the principate. Until the very end of the Empire. The only notable roman defeat in the fourth century was indeed Adrianople, and was due to the poor performance of the cavalry.

There's one mention of a battle near Auxerre & Troyes by Ammianus, where Julian's clibanarii were used to good effect against the barbarians just to name one contrary example, but for the most part I agree, that most surviving evidence presents the roman cataphracts as a rather fragile and situational unit. One could however say, that their utility came from their mobility which was increasingly valued by roman commanders during late antiquity (thinking of the Strategikon of Maurice, descriptions of Bellisarius' campaigns etc.). Especially the former describes a well-armored cavalryman skilled with lance and bow as the optimal combatant of its time (which sounds a lot like an improved catafractus. The treatise also describes how lancers in the first two ranks should wear more/stronger armor which would again make them similar to the typical clibanarius). Personally I also wouldn't put all the blame for Adrianople on the heavy cavalry itself, for iirc there were misinformations about the strength of the gothic cavalry since the scouts seemed to have overlooked the greutungi cav foraging in the surrounding land. Thus they were probably expecting an easy victory which might have convinced them to advance without orders. Them nearly breaking through before they got caught by surprise shows imo, that they weren't inherently wrong either, just misinformed (and lacked some discipline which seemed to be pretty common overall with late roman armies). But yeah, overall I still agree with most of your points.

I agree with your statements. I would also say that it seems that late imperial troops were not as poorly equipped as many would be led to believe. It is often said that the disuse of lorica segmentata as an example of the decline of the Army, but it seems that most of these armor changes were made because they were too expensive to maintain and appeared at actually fall apart quite easily. From a logistics standpoint, it makes sense to use armor that fairs almost as well and can be easily maintained. The fabricae across the empire were still churning out quality armor very late into the classical empire’s existence.

The late Roman army was still as effective as it predecessor. As proven by Majorian. Under his leadership, he reconquered Hispania from the Visigoths and parts of gaul from the Burgundians. This is in 461 A.D during the twilight of the western Roman empire. Even against such odds the Roman army was still able to win battles under competent leadership

Adding on to the conversation, the Kataphractarii or Klibanarii as in their counterparts before the Eastern Roman Empire’s reforms which is around 1st- late 6th century AD are more or less the Roman period’s attempts at trying to perfect its armored cavalry contingent. As mentioned above, the efforts of Aurelian at the battle of Immae and the battle of Antioch, Constantine at the battle of the Milvian bridge, Julian’s rout of his Kataphractarii unit at Strasbourg show a clear weakness in Kataphractarii units. Its slow speed, relatively weak mobility and lack of stirrups contribute to horsemen being unseated relatively easily by avoiding the horsemen and then with two infantrymen pull the men down from his horse from either side. One thing that the ancients learned especially the persians under Shapur II’s wars against Julian where he was experimenting with super heavy shock cavalry, his horsemen performed poorly in actual sustained combat with Julian’s heavy infantry and running out of stamina. More armor leads to lower stamina and poorer visibility due to protecting the wearer with a helmet with added mail aventail that covers everything except the eyes prevents Heavy shock cavalry the ability to perceive their environment more clearly. Maneuvers seen in The battle of Turin are already one such example. The Sassanians had abandoned the super heavy shock cavalry by the time the 6th century rolls around. Favoring a mail hauberk with the same helmet and aventail combo, with lance and bow added to help ensure a balance of mobility, maneuverability, heavy shock power and ranged options. Anyone should be familiar with the Bucellarii of Belisarius’s household guard favoring the powerful hunnic bow with strong accuracy at the cost of fire rate. Usually Hunnic or Sarmatian in origin, they have armor that protects well enough probably a scale coat or a mail hauberk and a ridge or segmented helmet they fight with the lance and bow. A powerful combination against the less mobile armies of the Ostrogoths and the Vandals who have no tradition of mounted horse archery. They do have heavy cavalry and infantry archers, but these are more specialized units. Whereas the Bucellarii were already experienced in fighting mounted shock and archer cavalry combination. Personally, these units are best used on the reserve. They are a battering ram that smashes the unit at the right time in conjunction with other units could achieve tremendous victory such as the Battle of Dorostolon. When Emperor Tzimiskies fought against Svyatoslav of the Kievan Rus. Both the infantry and the cavalry were having problems after a while engaging the heavy infantry rus who held off both infantry and cavalry attacks. Then when all hope seems lost, then unleash the Katafractoi with the usual escort units. They will advance on the trot in a wedge formation with horse archers at the centre of the wedge laying down suppressive fire and additional escorts of medium cavalry and horse archers at the sides as escorts. Charge with lances. Then drop the broken lances and use their maces to smash through the infantry line and towards the command centre and the general. Killing him or capturing him to force the enemy army to retreat. At this late stage of the battle, the enemy would have committed their reserves and would not expect a sudden Katafractoi charge from all the way at the rear to suddenly pounce on him. By this point in the 10th century AD, stirrups would have been used so they are an incredible powerhouse moulded at this point.

Bucellarii were escort troops, basically personal retainers paid and equipped by a Dux or Magister Militum by his own money. It means "Biscuit eaters". Size could vary.

@@wijse I had thought It was somehow related to "Bucephalus" , Alexander the Great´s horse, since they were a cavalry unit.

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Games? What use is that? Nothing to do with reality.

@@talisikid1618 Games are the main reason this channel even exists. This used to be a Total War gaming channel.

@@talisikid1618 games is what gives people like us who love history a chance to do more than just read about it but actually see it be apart of it play around with it and change it to our liking when you have a burning question what if

@@talisikid1618 If sorry to tell you, but gamers are real ;)

Because episode its not about Fall of roman Empire

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@@fabiandanesti1497 I would like to, but there's no Orthodox Church in my city!

@@rodrigomachado5291 F

Well you see sometimes shit just happens.

@Leo the British-Filipino Wait, Alexios Komnenos? Who uploaded a video on him. Been dying for a doc on him

@@RexGalilae Kings and generals

@@RexGalilae ukposts.info/have/v-deo/nWV9eWickZhnlYk.html

@@skyereave9454 Great! Thanks!

@@skyereave9454 Hoping they'll cover the rest of Alexios I's reign. Would be a bummer if they stopped coverage once their series on the First Crusade is complete.

There should be a serie about him tbh. The story of a desesperate emperor, seeing the world fall appart around him. His reign was tragic.

@Benoit Labrecque Agree! And when I think of him I realise that karma exist. Look what happened to Galiens assasins: Claudius 2, Aurelian and Probus. They got what they deserved.

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Hitting it once works too

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You mean the Roman Cataphract? Byzantium was already renamed as Constantinople.

Still the coolest units in the game

@@carlosmarquez5901 Unless you count the cheat code units. Type in "Bigdaddy" and see what happens. (spoiler) You get an IROC Z Camaro with a rocket launcher. Make about 4 of these and you can take over the world within minutes.

If only the Gauls had some!,

Not really. Survivability of light and medium cavalry was very high in the Classical and Roman era simply because most armies in this period were primarily heavy infantry, so someone on horseback could easily escape the battlefield when things went south. One of the most common complaints of ALL Roman generals was, "All my cavalry ran away!" The real reason a decade of service was required was because most light and medium cavalry didn't serve in the army that long. Turnover was high for horsemen in general. Auxilia typically joined for single campaigns or seasons, while mercs would drop out long before a decade of service was over. Only the most dedicated horsemen - those actually interested in Roman citizenship - had any reason to stay and consistently serve in the army.

I mostly like your analysis, but I'd suggest that while the *armies* started looking a lot alike, their political and social systems still had many large differences...