WI : Roman Cossacks

An idea I've thrown onto the board more than a few times is the idea of a Roman Cossack, but the idea has always been a bit nebulous even for me. (I've suggested it for greeks to, so perhaps a fairer idea is the idea of the Settled-Turned-Cossack).

What would you think a Roman Cossack would be like culturally or tactically, be it when first founded, or as they've matured? What arms would they use, and how would they adapt to the steppe.

For ease - assume they have complete support of the Emperors, and near complete diplomatic freedom outside of the Rus, the Caucasus and the Crimean Peninsula.
 
There have been at times mercs that rode on horseback for the Romans, but I don't know if the Cossacks existed by the Roman times if you want them
 
I think for Cossacks to exist, it requires gunpowder.

You can't see it earlier, or without gunpowder? That is a shame. My understanding is that the Cossacks largely chose to adopt the lifestyle (or a lifestyle similar to) the nomadic horsemen who'd previous ruled there.

There have been at times mercs that rode on horseback for the Romans, but I don't know if the Cossacks existed by the Roman times if you want them

Well, if they DONT need gunpowder, then I would think they could emerge earlier, I guess I'm more curious about steppe people sworn to the Emperor than anything else.
 
Cossacks emerged as men fleeing the Szlata system and serfdom. They settled in the borderlands between tartar and Polish territory.

I'd take a Byzantine route with this. If Byzantium holds on to at least Greece, the Danube principalities (in some form), and Anatolia we might see (assuming extremely low levels of butterflies) during the great revolt in 1648 the Cossacks ally with the Byzantines, especially if they've reclaimed Crimea from the tartars.
 

Deleted member 97083

You can't see it earlier, or without gunpowder? That is a shame. My understanding is that the Cossacks largely chose to adopt the lifestyle (or a lifestyle similar to) the nomadic horsemen who'd previous ruled there.
Oh I misunderstood what you meant by Roman Cossacks. I think the Byzantines already trained Greek horse archers, along with hiring Pecheneg + Cuman mercenary horse archers of course. And the Byzantines didn't really have that many more technologies than the earlier Romans, who themselves hired Alan horse archer foederati.

So it is possible for Romans to become dedicated horse archers as well as utilize them.

However fully adopting the lifestyle of a nomadic horsemen, rather than just being a cavalryman in the Roman army, is the hard part. Roman Cossacks might have to be prisoners or exiles at first, or perhaps they started as a different ethnic group to Romans but assimilated to Romanity later. Otherwise, if they were Roman citizens, they'd be living with other Roman army units for some temporary (if extended) military service and paid by the Romans, or ruling over some land in the Byzantine Empire, rather than forming a separated frontier state like the Zaparozhian Host.

Also lack of gunpowder/guns makes it a bit harder to train new Cossacks.
 
Oh I misunderstood what you meant by Roman Cossacks. I think the Byzantines already trained Greek horse archers, along with hiring Pecheneg + Cuman mercenary horse archers of course. And the Byzantines didn't really have that many more technologies than the earlier Romans, who themselves hired Alan horse archer foederati.

So it is possible for Romans to become dedicated horse archers as well as utilize them.

However fully adopting the lifestyle of a nomadic horsemen, rather than just being a cavalryman in the Roman army, is the hard part. Roman Cossacks might have to be prisoners or exiles at first, or perhaps they started as a different ethnic group to Romans but assimilated to Romanity later. Otherwise, if they were Roman citizens, they'd be living with other Roman army units for some temporary (if extended) military service and paid by the Romans, or ruling over some land in the Byzantine Empire, rather than forming a separated frontier state like the Zaparozhian Host.

Also lack of gunpowder/guns makes it a bit harder to train new Cossacks.

No bother - discussion boards are for discussion, no?

So, fundamentally, easy to have the skills - but not to have the people. Forgive the abuse of Faux-Greek and Tolkien, but you could have Hippo-Dynatoi / Horse-Lords. Basically Roman lords given control over the steppe after victory by a large cavalry arm. Sure they'd have landholders that were farmers near rivers, and like the Zaparozhian Sich, they'd have their main base near those rivers too. At least, that is how I see them emerging - and whilst there may be a lord whose house is based there, I can imagine his sons and most of his men would have to live like Steppe nomads to realistically control their territories, as in order to entice nobles to rule they'd have to have vast tracts of land - and as such they'd need to be able to patrol and defend it, and as much as I like the skutatoi or mavros pyritida skutatoi, you're gonna need fast, mobile forces. At least they'd be able to master defence-in-depth!

Aye. Gunpowder would make it easier, especially once it feasibly develops into saddleguns or carbine-style weapons.

@Admiral Beez - I think its pretty fair to assume a post-adoption of the stirrup reality for any of this to work :) So we're looking Post-Avars.
 
Cossacks were originally and primarily light infantry not cavalry. At least during the time the Cosacks were independent.

Cossacks take more than just steppe. Their formation was influenced by two main factors one, the escape from serfdom and two, the continual advance of tartar and other nomadic peoples into the steppe. This sort of thing is only really applicable where it took place IOTL.
 
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