The Role of Early Empire Roman Cavalry in the Defence of Tauric Chersonesos

Abstract

Cavalry is not the first thing which comes to mind when one considers the activities of the Roman army. Naturally, that way of thinking is also present in works which focus their attention on the defensive capabilities of Roman frontier systems. Even though turf ramparts, watchtow-ers and camp remains are given the attention they deserve, the arrangements designed for mobile defence which required cavalry use, have received less interest, mostly due to the blurred and sketchy picture provided by the limited and fragmentary archaeological evidence.Moreover, when it comes to the activities of the Roman army, connected with the Crimean Peninsula, the surviving literary records tend to diminish the role of the cavalry. And so, accord-ing to Tacitus’s account, the Roman troops used in the Bosporan war of AD 49 were composed mostly of infantry units, and the cavalry contin-gents were provided by the allied Sarmatian Aorsi tribe. Despite the fact that the particular passage in Tacitus’ account could have been a reflection of the real situation during the Bosporan war, the surviving archaeological and epigraphic evidence suggests quite a different overall picture.