Bellator Equus. The Late Republic and the Extinction of the Citizen Cavalry

The Roman Cavalry of the Late Republic could cope with the more “traditional” units of the Hellenistic world, moreover it proved to a be rather versatile in terms of equipment and tactics, even though many historians considered, to be ineffective. Due to the many new challenges on the battlefield and in Roman policy citizen cavalry was doomed to extinction. The present paper analyses a few military and political causes its disappearance.