 However, the Sasanians seem to have employed more cataphracts who were equipped with lighter chain-mail armor resembling that of the Romans.Although Iranian society was greatly militarised and its elite designated themselves as a "warrior nobility" ("arteshtaran"), it still had a significantly smaller population, was more impoverished, and was a less centralized state compared to the Roman Empire.As a result, the Sasanian shahs had access to fewer full-time fighters, and depended on recruits from the nobility instead.