Bret Devereaux

Hamippoi are fun. I mean, we have no idea how they work, but they're fun. Also ponies are funhttps://twitter.com/askhistorians/status/1399819036540608513 …

I vaguely remember a passage of Livy where the Romans have additional velites mounted on the equites' horses, who would then dismount to try to defeat the Carthaginian (Numidian) cavalry. Does that sound at all plausible, or is it likely poor memory/duff translation?

I read this about 8 years ago, and I can't remember where it is, so I'm fully willing to accept that I'm misremembering the passage

I don't know the passage, but going by Xenophon's material on hamippoi, this is exactly the kind of conditions in which they might be useful (ie. beefing up a cav force against a stronger opponent). @DrMichaelJTayl1 might know the context?

During the siege of Capua in 212 the Romans paired light infantry (velites) with cavalry, so that a veles would ride double sitting behind the cavalryman and then hop off to fight (Livy 26.4). This tactic supposedly helped defeat the superior Campanian cavalry.

Naive question, why do you even bother with cavalry strategies in a siege?

The Capuans were engaging in sorties with their superior cavalry.