Greek Cavalry Saddle blankets???

[Terry37]

Hi Guys, Another question re Greek cavalry. Working on a Later Greek Athenian (II5b)army and find the Essex horses come with both a saddle and a blanket. My references don't reflect a saddle so believe I can remove it easy enough. However, some sources show a blanket and some don't. So my question is, should they have a saddle blanket? and if so, any ideas on colros - or is it just what ever suits your fancy? Thanks, Terry

[Bill Sumruld]

Colors are roughly the same as those for tunics, reds, browns, and shades of white probably predominate and some have stripes or other simple decorations. Also, by the time of late Hellenistic period there is some evidence for a simple saddle (no big pommels or cantles please), just no stirrups.

Hope this helps,

bill

[Terry37]

Hi Bill,

[Terry37]

Hi Bill,

Thanks, this is excellent news! The horse casting comes with a simple saddle as you describe, so now I don't have to waste time filing them off. Do you happen to have a reference you could share where this info came from? Thanks for the help! Terry

[imported_adsarf]

Bill is quite right about the Hellenistic period, but for my money, if the army is the later hoplite (II/5) then you should not have saddles (although if I were in your position, I would be too lazy to bother with getting rid of them). Xenophon gives a fairly detailed account of Greek horsemanship at this period, and IIRC he doesn't mention saddles at all.

Will they be visible once the men are mounted? I'm sure you can get away without adverse comment, but if you are determined to have them absolutely accurate, then I think the saddles should go.

Andrew

[Bill Sumruld]

If the army is II/5b, I should have caught that, then no a saddle is not really appropriate. Now if the army was II/31 you can accurately use that. I think the Athenian II/31 Hellenistic army, I can't remember the letter right now, is a very interesting army. Unlike its neighbors it is still using Hoplites rather than Phalangites and includes a Knight element as well as quite a few Ax (Thureophoroi)and an element of Lh, all rounded off with some Psiloi. This makes it a relatively flexible army, able to deal with almost any terrain but somewhat difficult to win with against someone with a lot of mounted.

[Terry37]

Thanks Guys,

Appreciate the additional details. OK, the saddles are out of here! Hopefully won't take too long to file them off. Terry