The Grivpanvar (literally: neck-guard wearer) were an elite late Parthian and Sasanian division who fought as heavy cataphract cavalry.
In the 3rd century AD, the Romans began to deploy such cavalry calling them clibanarii, a name thought to derive from griwbanwar or griva-pana-bara.
Clad in chain mail with a breastplate and strong scale armour, they were armed with the famed Kontos lance used by many Iranian peoples during antiquity.
The Parthians' horses and camels stepped onto these lethal weapons and fell, taking their riders with them thereby breaking the momentum of the charge.
The Sassanians continued to use the grivpanvar in their armies, starting from the reign of Ardashir I until the final ruler Yazdegerd III lost his throne.