Over christmas, with no prospect of Victrix late roman cavalry being released yet, I decided to proceed to convert a unit of heavy cavalry with a more eastern feel to them. I needed some Equites in my Victrix Late Roman Army for the Welsh Open To the Strongest competition in a couple of weeks time.
My start point was the victrix persian heavy cavalry, with the addition of a few roman items of equipment. This is loosely based on some of the excellent illustrations on a recent osprey series of books on Rome in the East, though these illustrations come from the Early or Middle imperial Roman era.
Ive taken one of the shield designs unattributed to a particular Roman unit in Phil Barkers “Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome” - an image taken from a Roman Fort in Luxor. The other additions being a Roman helmet and spears.
So the result is a unit of native or locally recruited Equites Indiginae or Equites Promoti; and although entirely conjectural, I’m really pleased with the result.