Anna Komnene's description of this formation is so imprecise as to be useless.[6] However, from her account of the army in action the nature of the parataxis is revealed; it was a defensive formation, a hollow square with the baggage in the centre, infantry on the outside and cavalry in-between, from whence they could mount attacks.[7] An ideal formation for tackling the fluid Turkish battle tactics, reliant on swarm attacks by horse-archers. A similar formation was later employed by Richard I of England at the Battle of Arsuf.