Kasai Cataphracts

Description

These heavy Ptolemaic horsemen are clad in kasai, Aithiopian-style robes that conceal the whole body of both rider and horse but for the eyes. They protect the soldiers and their mounts against the heat and sand of the desert, but can also deflect arrows and even javelins or stabbing spears. In melee, the Kasai cavalry can defend themselves with Kopis swords, but they usually charge the enemy with their lowered lances, the Macedonian Xyston. Pilos, Konos, Sidon, Phrygian and Boiotian helmets as well as coif cloaks complete their equipment, making them a powerful and dangerous unit that can easily break an enemy line – in the desert, or in more hospitable lands!

Historical background

The Ptolemaic secretary and historian Agatharchides of Knidos (ca. 208 - after 132/131 BC) described the campaign of Ptolemy II against the Nubian kingdom of Kush just before 270 BC in a detailed report. The pharaoh had prepared the enterprise in detail and strengthened his army with freshly recruited mercenaries. Since most of them hailed from Greece, however, they struggled with the intensive heat in the Nubian desert (for all people from Northern and Central Europe: yes, Greece is hot as well, but they DO actually have winter. The Nubian desert does not. It is hot. ALWAYS. And yes, it is still called Nubian desert, and yes, the people are still called Nubians, too. But enough with this Herodotean digression). According to Agatharchides, Ptolemy found a rather odd solution:

"For the war against the Aithiopians Ptolemy recruited 500 cavalrymen from Greece. To those who were to fight in the front ranks and to be in the vanguard – they were a hundred in number – he assigned the following form of equipment. For he distributed to them and their horses quilted robes, which the natives of that country call 'Kasai', that conceal the whole body except for the eyes." – Agatharchides of Knidos, On the Erythraian Sea (F20 Burstein).

This strange appearance has attracted the attention of several military historians in recent years. Paul Johstono (Ptolemaic Army (2020), p. 117) of the US Airforce University writes that these kasai were "[...] probably a type of quilted garment; thick layers of wool were pressed together and sewn. The kasai are known even from early modern times". The South African author Jean Charles du Plessis adds that they were basically cataphracts, just with quilted robes, ‘stolas piletas’ in the Greek original: "These robes were obviously trappers of thick felt used as armour which covered the entire horse 'except for the eyes'." (Seleucid Army (2022), p. 84). They may also be depicted on stelae and thus the armament could have been used on other occasions, too (cf. Thion, Le Soldat Lagide (2015), p. 9; with a reconstruction image). For this reason, they are available to every power in the region.

The felt cataphracts are well armoured against both heat and enemy fire, and an assemblage of popular Hellenistic helmets affords their heads extra protection. Though no report of their deployment in battle survives, Ptolemy II’s campaign was a success and it is easy to imagine that the felt cataphracts played a starring role in this. As powerful shock and melee cavalry, they are a unique sight on the battlefield and especially useful down here in the Nubian desert.