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Sagittarii
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the constellation, see Sagittarius.
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Sagittarii (also equites sagittarii) were horse riding auxiliary archers recruited mainly in the Eastern Empire and Africa.
By the 5th century, there were numerous Roman cavalry regiments trained to use the bow as a supplement to their swords and lances, but the sagittarii appeared to have used the bow as their primary rather than supplemental weapon. The Notitia Dignitatum does not list any sagittarii as being stationed in the Gallic provinces; the ones in the Western empire seem to have been concentrated in Africa. Possibly some of the other cavalry regiments there carried bows as back-up weapons, but were not the dedicated mounted archers that the sagitarii were. The use of bows as a primary weapon probably originated in the East in the later 4th century to help the Roman Army counter Persian bow-armed cavalry.