"cataphract armor" Topic

In several of the osprey and other illustrations the horse barding appears to be more gold or copper colored than steel/iron colored.

Obviously they didnt use gold for horse barding- did they paint or stain the armor to make it more colorful?

Also, if they did stain the armor, is there any indication that they used reds, blues etc?

Bronze

IIRC this would have been bronze if it is cataphract armor, which was mentioned by some ancient sources as preferred for horse armor. It's also possible some iron based armor was brass plated as well, because it looks fancy. Without seeing the specific picture in question, finally it is possible the armor is made of horn instead, as some cultures/civilizations used this instead of metal armor, and might have a yellowish-brown tone…

Damon.

IMHO, horn mixed with bronze! Plus other metals. Mike

I read somewhere many years ago that bronze was preferred because iron rusted from the horse's sweat.
Or, it may have been cheaper, or the iron available at the time was not as string as bronze.

Dyes and stains work well especially on horn….

Iron is heavier than bronze too isn't it?

You have it correct OFM. Bronze was cheaper and held up better from the horse sweat. Iron barding while available was more expensive. Bronze was still very good protection for this time period although very heavy compared to iron.

Horn? Did they shave off chunks of horn and shape them into scales for the barding?

Re horn, yes. I believe it can be flattened and worked, maybe even lacquered.

Its Pausanias description of Sarmatian armour. They slice horses hooves thinly, sew them to a backing and then make a coat of scales.
A form of this is shown on Trajans column, but incorrectly depicted as being tight to the horse's leg as opposed to being more like a long horse blanket.

Generall iron is cheaper than bronze, its a bit harder to work though.

Copper is heavier than tin and probably Iron. Bronze was made lighter with its mix ratio of Copper and tin. Or was that brass?!?!?!?

Bronze armour can be anywhere from brown with a trace of blue/green patina to buffed up yellow also depending on the alloy Copper/tin ratio. Copper stained with Vinegar and (iirc) sulfur can yield some pretty interesting colours from Copper- purple, browns etc etc. As well, heated copper can turn orange/red as well.

You could units fully polished or semi polished and unpolished.

-Mike

Also, I believe the Romans used brass (copper and zinc),so that could also be a possibility, though I think unlikely.

Quote: "Dyes and stains work well especially on horn…."

Any historical confirmation that horn scale barding was dyed/stained? I would love to have a red or purple-barded horse with my sassanid cataphracts.

I have been painting my cataphracts with colored scale as I like the look of it. The Romans certainly pinted everything else, especially their statuary, so I figured I'd go with this.

Especially since I only have the one unit of late Roman cataphracts, it looks pretty nice.

Once I get underway with the Parthians, I'm going to use various colors on their scale as well, probably also for officer's armour, etc.

V/R

Who knows how pure the metals were even when producing their alloys from ore. Could of even been unintentionally a mixture of copper, tin and zinc. So was there enough Zinc to call it Brass or not enough and it was more bronze…

The recent Bronze exhibition at the Royal Academy showed that bronze could vary hugely in composition and colour. Some ancient pieces were quite 'coppery' with a greenish hue, others quite light like brass and others a deeper darker colour.

The cataphract horse armour from Dura Europas was bronze.

Romans used both bronze and brass (copper alloyed with tin and zinc respectively) for all sorts of things. Brass had to be made indirectly by adding zinc oxide to copper as zinc evaporates at a lower temperature than is needed to break down the oxide while tin is much more stable.

Very generally speaking bronze is a redder coloured alloy while brass is 'golden'. Another interesting aside – it seems the Romans deliberately blackened a lot of copper and silver alloy objects then selectively shined up parts to make them contrast brightly.

The other thing to remember about the ancient world, metal was effectively currency, so bronze or brass armour was literally money.

"bronze or brass armour was literally money"-
So true.

Roman cataphracts are described as being like the polished statues of Praxiteles. So that argues against painted scales.
Plutarch has the Parthians throw off their cloaks to appear in glittering Margianian steel… Again arguing against painted armour,
Roy

Lewisgunner,

True, but they are MY cataphracts, so they'll wear what I decide they'll wear.

Actually, Robinson notes in "Armour of Imperial Rome' that the Romans also 'tinned' iron scales and other pieces of iron armor. That would definitely give a bright silver metallic sheen to the piece.

Doubt that they would have done so for horse armors, but?

If I recall correctly, the lamellar cataphract leg armor found at Dura Europa was dyed red (red brown?). Would seem not unlikely that something similar would be done for the horse armor.