[gothic-l] Gothic Cavalry Strength

[Bertil Haggman]

Tim,

Could you give some figures that relates infantry to
cavalry during the late stage of the West Roman empire?

The figures provide are, I am afraid, not correct.
The ratio was 40,000 infantry and perhaps, only
perhaps, 10,000 cavalry. On the Gothic, Hunnic, Alan side
there were 50,000 infantry and 20,000 cavalry.

Gothically

Bertil


> This sounds like a generalist work and it certainly demonstrates a
> fairly erroneous view of Adrianople in particular and warfare in this
> period in particular.  Far from the Roman Army being unable to
> reorganise their forces from infantry to cavalry, the proportion,
> importance and status of cavalry units had been increasing in
> the Roman Army throughout the third and fourth centuries.
>
> By the time of Adrianople cavalry formed 30% of the Roman Army
> overall and made up a much higher proportion of the elite and
> guard units.  About one quarter of Valens army at Adrianople
> was cavalry, including very heavy *clibinarii*, mounted archers
> and a range of other mounted troops types.  The Gothic forces
> had an estimated 4000-7000 cavalry - mainly Greuthungian,
> Alanic, Sarmatian and Hunnic allies, and so were likely to have
> *less* cavalry than the Romans in this encounter.  Despite the
> persistent myth that Adrianople was some epoch changing
> victory of Gothic 'heavy cavalry' over outdated legions, it
> was largely an infantry vs infantry affair, though the timing of the
> sudden arrival of the Gothic allied cavalry swung the final result
> in favour of the Goths.
>
> This idea that the Germanic invaders were largely heavy cavalrymen
> is nonsense - most fought as infantry.  Even those tribes that did
> adopt steppe cavalry tactics (from the Alans and Sarmatians, not
> the Huns) still largely fielded infantry armies, though the cavalry
> played an increasingly important role.
>
> Heavy cavalry did not come to dominate the battlefields of Europe
> until after both the Western Empire and the Gothic kingdoms
> were long gone - once the combination of the stirrup and the
> couched lance made the new knightly cavalry an almost
> unstoppable force.
>
> Tim O'Neill
>
>
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>
>


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