Istvánovits Eszter: International Connections... (Jósa András Múzeum Kiadványai 47. Aszód-Nyíregyháza, 2001)

Eszter Istvánovits - Valéria Kulcsár: Sarmatians through the eyes of strangers. The Sarmatian warrior

but we also find this type among the Kosika representations (fig. 11:5) and on Sassanidian ones (fig. 11: 2). A contus may also be found without a bow as in a third depiction from Kosika (fig. 11: 12), several Bosporan ones (fig. 11: 7-10), and perhaps on the now lost gravestone from Ribchester that can be connected with Sarmatians settled in Britain by Marcus Aurelius (fig. 11: 6). The contus tactic was preserved for a long time. This is illustrated by a rock carving of the 8

th c. from Preslav (Bulgaria) (fig. 11: 3). It is a question for further study as to whether the Mediaeval custom of jousting can be derived from the contus tactic. The two scenes of Roxolani on Trajan's Column (fig. 7: 1-3) mentioned above show both the riders and their horses completely covered in scale armour. Also "on the base of the column, among the cluster of captured Dacian arms, are two coats built up of laminations consisting of body and long sleeves closed down the centre at the front with buckles or clasps. One can only assume that these had been used by Sarmatian cataphracts - allies of the Dacians - whose equipment had been influenced by the Parthians. Long scale coats were their normal body armour." (ROBINSON 1975, 186) (fig. 12: 4-5). In the opinion of H. v. Gall these Sarmatian coats depicted on the base of Trajan's Column were made of horizontal stripes of leather attached to each other by buckles. Similar armour was depicted in a Panticapaeum wall painting in the so-called Ashik burial chamber (GALL 1997, 186-187, ris. 6, 8) (fig. 12: 2). To date we know of only one fragment of scale armour from the Sarmatian Barbaricum of the Carpathian Basin. It was found at a Sarmatian settlement at Farmos between the Danube and Tisza (HAVASSY 1998, 157, kat. 74). Of course, this does not mean that scale armour was absent from the equipment of the Sarmatian warrior; like the bow, this may only be a matter of burial rites. (Farmos is not a burial site; the fragment was found in the context of a settlement.) Nevertheless, ample literary evidence attests that scale armour - whether made of metal or bone - was characteristic of the Sarmatians. Tacitus offers a well-known description (Hist. I. 79.): "...Roxolani, a Sarmatian tribe ... had 9000 cavalry, flushed with victory and intent on plunder rather than on fighting. ... on this occasion the day was damp and the ice thawed, what with the continual slipping of their horses, and the weight of their coats of mail, they could make no use of their pikes or their swords, which being of an excessive length they wield with both hands. These coats are worn as defensive armour by the princes and most distinguished persons of the tribe. They are formed of plates of iron or very tough hides, and though they are absolutely impenetrable to blows, yet they make it difficult for such as have been overthrown by the charge of the enemy to regain their feet..."; likewise Pausanias in the 2

nd c. (1. 21. 6) "Their breastplates they make in the following fashion ... mares they not only use for war, but also sacrifice them to the local gods and eat them for food. Their hoofs they collect, clean, split, and make from them as it were python scales.

... These pieces they bore and stitch together with the sinews of horses and oxen, and then use them as breastplates that are as handsome and strong as those of the Greeks. For they can withstand blows of missiles and those struck in close combat." References to Sarmatian cataphracts are also numerous (e.g. Valerius Flaccus, Argonaut. 6, 231, 233; Strabon 7, 3, 17; Ammian. 17, 12, 2-3 etc.).