Late Roman Light Cavalry

Here are some Late Roman light cavalry from the new Gripping Beast plastic set. This is quite a nice addition as you can make up twelve Illyrian type light cavalry armed with javelins and shields or twelve horse archers. I decided to do a six figure squadron (turma) of each type. The javelin armed light cavalry above have the shield designs of the Equites Honoriani Taifali Iuniores in the Notitia Dignitatum and were under the command of the Comes Britanniae. This wasn't a great choice for light cavalry as they were famous for their heavy cavalry but a light cavalry squadron may be a possibility at some point in their history. The Taifali were originally a Germanic or Sarmatian tribe. The Late Roman re-enacting site Comitatus has an interesting history of them:

http://www.comitatus.net/cavalrytaifali.html


The horse archers below have the shield designs of the Equites Sagittarii Primi in the Notitia Dignitatum and were under the command of the Comes Africae. There are two options for horse archer shields in the box. Smaller ones without a boss and these larger ones with bosses, which I think look better and are easier to paint with the shield designs. The riders in this set all have saddles which wasn't the case with their Late Roman heavy cavalry set and the torsos are two part with separate heads which enable a greater variety of poses.

Overall I think this an excellent set and definitely worth getting if you are collecting a Late Roman army. The infantry set is my favourite of the three Gripping Beast Late Roman plastic boxes released to date.