This is the Heavy Cavalryman - Later 2nd Century AD that first appears in the Miniature Figurines 72/73 catalogue as PBC 126. I have added 'Roman' to the title - Minifigs taking it as read.
As with all the 'PB' range it is derived from Phil Barker's pair of books Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars and Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome. PBC standing for Phil Barker Cavalry. This figure corresponds with illustration 26 in AEIR.
He is riding the ubiquitous PBH 65-217 which is listed as two different horses in the 72/73 catalogue: PBH 65 Cavalry Horse and PBH 217 Roman Cavalry Horse 1st and 2nd Centuries AD. The code is stamped on the base in the usual way.
The usual thick/thin spear variants turn up as we might expect.
As I recall, horses of the S Range figures didn't have saddles. A lot of Romans simply transferred over to PB Range from the S Range so had saddles; then there would be a period of confusion during the changeover period. This figure is coded as an early figure. Later Romans were recoded as the IR Range. Originally, figures up to PB100 or PB101 (forget which) actually carried the suffix S as they were still part of the S Range; ones that later formed the IR Range (PB101 0r102?) never carried the S suffix. But basically Minifigs were a mess at that time!
ReplyDeleteIndeed - I think this was exactly when I started to build my original armies because I have a mix of S range, PB figures and horses from the S range, PBC range, and the bigger horses that appear in the 75 catalogue - the H and A series (the ones with a wide rear axle!). I've never been sure which of the S range Ancients transferred over - the Roman standard bearer (1st C) looks like it did. And there were often more than one design of the earlier S range figure too!
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