For many more pictures and a detailed description of the arms and armour plus tactical use of the Nikephorian) Kataphractoi please feel free to pop over to my Just Add Water blog here http://justaddwater-bedford.blogspot.co ... orian.html:
Almost certainly the most attractive of all the units in an early 10th CE Thematic Byzantine army are, of course, the Kataphractoi. Fully enclosed in many layers of armour, invincible like a middle ages version of the battle tank. Well, not quite but that is certainly the impression they were meant to have on the enemy. One Arab soldier poet described the Byzantine horses as having no legs!
