For a thousand years the Sarmatian tribes had contacts with the major military powers of the ancient world - Darian Persia, the Crimean and Pontic kingdoms, the Celts, Thracians and finally the Romans. These armoured horsemen of the southern Russian steppes migrated into the Roman world at first as invaders and later as heavy cavalry auxiliaries. In this book, an Eastern European archaeologist describes the history, armour, weapons and tactics of a colourful warrior people who even reached Britain, whom some believe are the origin of the myths of the knights of King Arthur.

Author Biography

Professor Mariusz Mielczarek of Torun University, Poland, is an archaeologist and numismatist who has taken part in many digs, and over the past few years has conducted expeditions to the northern Black Sea coast of the Ukraine. His previous publications include 'Cataphracti and Clibanaril: Studies on the Heavy Armoured Cavalry of the Ancient World' (Lodz, 1993). Richard Brzezinski is a young historian and a leading expert on the military history of central and Eastern Europe, greatly admired for his primary research and painstaking work in archives in Sweden, Germany and Poland. He has previously written titles on Polish Armies 1569-1696 and the army of Gustavus Adolphus in Osprey's Men-at Arms series.