Equites cataphractarii

However, a graffito from the Roman frontier fortress of Dura Europos shows a cataphract wearing a conical helmet with a face-covering mail aventail.

[4] Two iron and copper-alloy scale horse armours, usually called 'trappers' or 'bards', still attached to fabric backings were discovered in a 3rd-century context at Dura Europos.

And the light circular plates of iron which surrounded their bodies, and covered all their limbs, were so well fitted to all their motions, that in whatever direction they had occasion to move, the joints of their iron clothing adapted themselves equally to any position.” Ammianus (16.10.8) Also the emperor Julian the Apostate made a detailed description: "Your cavalry was almost unlimited in numbers and they all sat their horses like statues, while their limbs were fitted with armour that followed closely the outline of the human form.

The head and face are covered by a metal mask which makes its wearer look like a glittering statue, for not even the thighs and legs and the very ends of the feet lack this armour.

It is attached to the cuirass by fine chain-armour like a web, so that no part of the body is visible and uncovered, for this woven covering protects the hands as well, and is so flexible that the wearers can bend even the fingers."

[9] The earliest known unit of equites cataphractarii, recorded in the early 2nd century, is the auxiliary cavalry regiment, Ala I Gallorum et Pannoniorum cataphractaria, stationed in Moesia Inferior.

The deployment of this unit on the Danube front, rather than in the East, implies that initially the cataphractarii were aimed at countering the Sarmatian rather than the Parthian threat.