Information AboutClibanarii |
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The Clibanarii (from the Latin, ''clibani'', meaning camp-oven, It is said the word ''clibanarii'' is derived from Persian word ''griwbanwar'' or ''griva-pana-bara'' meaning "neck-guard wearer") were a late Roman, Sassanid Persian and Byzantine military unit of heavy armored horsemen. Similar to the Cataphracti , they themselves and their horses were fully armoured, earning them the name "camp-oven." The Clibanarii were used mostly by Eastern armies; for example, they were used by the Palmyrene Empire , and fought against the inferior Roman cavalry at Immae and Emesa . Sassanids employed Clibanarii in their western armies, mainly against Eastern Roman Empire . They were more heavily armoured than their Byzantine counterparts. The Clibinarii cavalry of Shapur II is described by Greek historian Ammianus Marcellinus : All the companies were clad in iron, and all parts of their bodies were covered with thick plates, so fitted that the stiff-joints conformed with those of their limbs; and the forms of human faces were so skilfully fitted to their heads, that since their entire body was covered with metal, arrows that fell upon them could lodge only where they could see a little through tiny openings opposite the pupil of the eye, or where through the tip of their nose they were able to get a little breath. Of these some who were armed with pikes, stood so motionless that you would have thought them held fast by clamps of bronze. REFERENCES
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