In the Roman social hierarchy, the equestrian order stood second only to the senatorial aristocracy in status and prestige. Throughout more than a thousand years of Roman history, equestrians played prominent roles in the Roman government, army, and society as cavalrymen, officers, businessmen, tax collectors, jurors, administrators, and writers. This book offers the first comprehensive history of the equestrian order, covering the period from the eighth century BC to the fifth century AD. It examines how Rome's cavalry became the equestrian order during the Republican period, before analysing how imperial rule transformed the role of equestrians in government. Using literary and documentary evidence, the book demonstrates the vital social function which the equestrian order filled in the Roman world, and how this was shaped by the transformation of the Roman state itself.
Having banished eastern Native peoples to lands west of the Mississippi, President Andrew Jackson’s government by 1833 needed a new type of soldier to keep displaced Indians from returning home. And s
The history of the German cavalry, a combat arm that not only survived World War I but also rode to war again in 1939 Despite the enduring popular image of the blitzkrieg of World War II, the German A
In the mid-nineteenth century, the U.S. Army would employ a weapon that had never before been seen on its native soil. From the Middle East came a cavalry mount that would fare better than both mules
The most imposing of all the troops of Napoleon's Old Guard were the heavy cavalry of the Mounted Grenadiers - veterans chosen for their physical stature and proven bravery, riding great black horses
Osprey's study of the Byzantine cavalrymen, who were regarded as the elite arm of the military during the Middle Byzantine period (867-1204). The cavalry executed high speed reconnaissance, agile arro
At the end of World War I, the United States Army—despite its recent experience with trenches, machine guns, barbed wire, airplanes, and even tanks—maintained a horse-mounted cavalry from
Until very recently, the horsehas been the decisive factor in determining military success. Showingthat the art of warfare from horseback with its culture of mobility has always been at c
The privileged Muslim bodyguard employed by Castilian kings provides a fascinating episode of Muslim-Christian relations in late Medieval Spain, where frontier ideals triumphed. Conversion and assimil
outlining the doctrinal and material evolution of the cavalry in its quest for dominance and survival in the battlefield, this history assesses the philosophy and principles of one of warfare's most
This book examines the origins and development of the Polish 'Winged' Hussars. Using many years' painstaking research drawn from unpublished Polish sources, the author provides a rounded view of the
The U.S. Cavalry, which began in the nineteenth century as little more than a mounted reconnaissance and harrying force, underwent intense growing pains with the rapid technological developments of th
The most exotic of all the troops of Napoleon's Imperial Guard were undoubtedly the Mamelukes - the bodyguard of Oriental cavalry which followed him home after the Egyptian expedition of 1798-1801, an
The Sassanians ruled the last great imperial Empire of Persia before the Arab conquests of the 7th century. Rome’s only equal in the classical world, the Sassanian Empire had an enormous impact on the
The two privileged regiments of Carabiniers survived the?Napoleonic Wars?(1977-1815)?with their elite status intact. They covered themselves with glory at Austerlitz, Friedland, Ratisbonne and Wagram
