cataphract

plural cataphracts

1. historicalgovernmentDefensive armour covering the entire body of a soldier and often the soldier's horse as well, especially the linked mail or scale armour of some eastern nations.

   Carmine streaks stained their limbs, their tunics and cataphracts; but little of the blood was theirs. They did not move like people with injuries.

   2013, Stephen R[eeder] Donaldson, “Shamed Choices”, in The Last Dark (The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant; book 4), New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →ISBN, page 437

   1 more example

   Those fighting before the standards, around the standards and (otherwise) in the front line were called principes [i.e. the centurions and the other under-officers]. This was the heavy armament, which had helmets, cataphracts, greaves, shields, large swords called spathae, and other smaller swords called semispathia, [...]

   1996, Vegetius [i.e., Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus], “How the Lines of the Legions are Drawn Up”, in N. P. Milner, transl., Vegetius: Epitome of Military Science […] (Translated Texts for Historians; 16), 2nd edition, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, published 2001, →ISBN, book II (The Ancient Legion), page 47

2. broadlyobsoletebiologyAn outer covering of some fish resembling armour or plate.

1. historicalnauticalOf a galley such as a trireme: with the upper tier of rowers shielded rather than exposed.

   2 more examples

   And first we must call attention to the fact that two classes of vessels appear to have been employed, distinguished by the name of "Aphract," unfenced, or "Cataphract," fenced, according as the rowers of the upper tier were protected or exposed. Both classes were decked and floored, but the "Aphract" class carried their decks and flooring lower than the "Cataphract," so that in them the rowers of the upper tier were visible above the side of the vessel; [...] [F]rom the time of the invention by the Thasians of this system, all the larger vessels of war used by both Greeks and Romans were Cataphract. In the Cataphract trireme, the space allowed for each oarsman was, according to [B.] Graser, eight square feet per man, and this proportion was observed in the larger vessels up to the octireme.

   1876 April 7, Edmond Warre, “Ancient Naval Tactics. Part I.”, in Journal of the Royal United Service Institution, Whitehall Yard, volume XX, number LXXXVIII, London: W. Mitchell and Co., […], published 1877, →OCLC, pages 597–598

   The ancients either called these ships by their class name (a number plus the -eres root) or by a descriptive term "cataphract" (kataphraktos) which means something like "armored" or "fenced" in the sense of having reinforced decks and sides to protect the oarcrew from missiles and deck-fighting. Because "The Age of Titans" involved galleys whose signature feature was their larger than normal size, and because cataphract galleys could comprise small ships that were protected by extra planking, I frequently employ another term to describe these ships, namely, "big" or "large," from the Greek megala skaphe and its variants megalai nees (big ships) and megista skaphe (biggest ships).

   2012, William M. Murray, “Introduction: Understanding the Big Ship Phenomenon”, in The Age of Titans: The Rise and Fall of the Great Hellenistic Navies (Onassis Series in Hellenic Culture), Oxford, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN

   Antonyms: aphract

plural cataphracts

1. historicalgovernmentA soldier (especially a horseman) covered with a cataphract (etymology 1, sense 1).

   Immediately / Was Samſon as a public ſervant brought, / In thir ſtate Livery clad; before him Pipes / and Timbrels, on each ſide went armed guards, / Both horſe and foot before him and behind / Archers, and Slingers, Cataphracts and Spears.

   1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, pages 93–94, lines 615–620

   5 more examples

   He who lookes you in the face, ſaith he ſees you, though the reſt of your bodie be within your cloathes, and if you, being an ὁωλομάχος a cataphract in your proteſtantiſh πανοπλία [panoplía, suit of armour] should for fear pull downe your beuer before you come into the liſt, your Aduerſarie for all that might light vpon your (  ) vnleſſe you bring with you Giges his ring, ſo to make your ſelf inuiſible; [...]

   1635, L. I. [pseudonym; John Lechmere], “The Third Argument was about the Killing Letter; out of Origen, […]”, in The Relection of a Conference Tovching the Reall Presence. Or A Bachelovrs Censvre of a Masters Apologie for Doctour Featlie, Douai: Lavrence Kellam, →OCLC, page 333

   Lucullus also had these [the cavalry of Cappadocia and Paphlagonia] in his army at the siege of Tigranocerta; and in the battle with Tigranes made choice of them and the Thracian horse to attack the Cataphracts, the choicest of the enemy's cavalry, and to drive them from the ground.

   1812, Herodotus, translated by William Beloe, Herodotus, Translated from the Greek, […], 3rd edition, volume IV, London: […] Luke Hansard & Sons, […]; for Leigh and Sotheby; […], →OCLC, footnote 155, page 127

   Ælian calls the heavy-armed infantry, ὁπλίται, hoplitæ; and the heavy horse soldiers, καταφρακτοι, cataphracti;—we denominate the former completely-armed troops, and the latter cuirassiers.— [...] The cuirassiers carried targets and used pikes. The Parthian cataphracts had also bows and arrows.

   1814, Henry Augustus; Viscount Dillon [i.e., Henry Dillon, 13th Viscount Dillon], “Of the Division of Forces into Distinct Classes”, in Ælian [i.e., Aelianus Tacticus], The Tactics of Ælian, Comprising the Military System of the Grecians; […], London: […] Cox and Baylis, […], for E. Kerby, […], →OCLC, pages 19–20

   Besides the equestrian archers who fought flying, and wearied out an enemy by often renewed assaults, they had heavy cataphracts or cuirassiers clad in the steel of Margiana (a province immediately eastward of Parthia,) armed with long lances, and bearing a wonderful resemblance in all points to the chivalrous warriors of the middle ages.

   1820, John Gillies, chapter XXV, in The History of Ancient Greece, Its Colonies, and Conquests: Part the Second; […], new (6th) edition, volume IV, London: […] T[homas] Cadell & W[illiam] Davies, […], →OCLC, pages 119–120

   [...] Tacitus (Hist. I, 79) says that the Sarmatian cataphracts were rather helpless if knocked off their horses, just like the mediaeval knights. The chief difference was, that whereas the mediaeval knight was armoured all over, the cataphract had no thigh armour under his coat, I suppose because he was riding without stirrups and grip was all-important; it may have been this which led to the invention of stirrups.

   1930, W[illiam] W[oodthorpe] Tarn, “Lecture II: Cavalry and Elephants”, in Hellenistic Military & Naval Developments, New York, N.Y.: Biblo and Tannen, published 1984, →ISBN, pages 74–75

2. A galley with the upper tier of rowers shielded.