§ 1. We employ horses for warriors, and other animals as animate instruments; thus they too can be called arms. Indeed, whether a farmer turns the earth with a mattock or with oxen, both the oxen and the iron are instruments.
§ 2. The most ancient arms of early peoples were chariot horses and chariots armed with iron and scythes. Scythed four-horse chariots were formerly an object of the greatest fear. They are frequently mentioned in Sacred Scripture. In Exodus 14 Pharaoh yokes six hundred chosen chariots; Deuteronomy 11:4 and 20:1; Joshua 11:4 and 17:16; iron chariots, Judges 1:19 and 4:13, where Sisera has nine hundred; and in 1 Samuel 13:5 the Philistines have thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen. In 1 Kings 9:19 the cities of the chariots are fortified; likewise 2 Chronicles 8:6 and 9:25. Strength and confidence were placed in them: Judith 9:6; Isaiah 31:1, 36:9, 37:24, and 66:15, “his four-horse chariot is like a whirlwind.” Antiochus and Mithridates also employed chariots. At last they disappeared and are now altogether useless for battle. Vegetius gives the reason in book 3, chapter 24: “As they at first brought great terror, so afterward they were an object of ridicule. For a scythed chariot finds an entirely level field with difficulty and is arrested by a slight obstacle; and when one horse is brought down or wounded, it is brought to a halt. But they perished especially through this device of the Roman soldiers. When battle was joined, the Romans suddenly cast caltrops over the whole field; when the charging four-horse chariots fell upon these, they were destroyed. A caltrop is a defense composed of four stakes which, however it is cast, stands upon three points and threatens with the fourth upright.”
There were also other chariots, or scythed chariots, drawn by two horses or one, of the kind exhibited for us by the learned and diligent commentator on Vegetius, Gottschalk Stewech.
Caesar describes chariot-fighters for us as almost wonderfully bold and nimble, book 4: “This is their manner of fighting from chariots. First they ride about through every part and cast missiles; by the very terror of the horses and the clatter of the wheels they generally disorder the ranks. When they have insinuated themselves among the companies of horsemen, they leap from the chariots and fight on foot. Meanwhile the charioteers withdraw a little from the battle and so station themselves that, if those men are pressed by a multitude of enemies, they may have a ready return to their own men. Thus in battles they display the mobility of horsemen and the steadiness of infantrymen. At length, by daily practice and exercise, they become accustomed to stop their horses upon a sloping and precipitous place, to control and turn them in a short space, to run along the pole, to stand upon the yoke, and from there to betake themselves into the chariots with the greatest speed.”
Curtius describes scythed chariots for us in book 4: “He had scythed chariots before him, all of which, when the signal was given, he poured upon the enemy. The charioteers rushed forward with loosened reins so that they might crush more men by an attack for which sufficient provision had not yet been made. Thus spears projecting far beyond the pole tore some men, while scythes let down from either side tore others.” Again in the same book: “Two hundred scythed four-horse chariots, the only aid of those nations, followed. Spears tipped with iron projected from the highest part of the pole. On each side of the yoke they had directed three swords, and between the spokes of the wheels several darts projected forward. Then other scythes clung to the outer rims of the wheels, and still others, lowered toward the ground, were to cut off whatever met the horses at full speed.” Alexander himself ordered that they be received after the ranks were opened; Sulla fixed stakes.
When the Helvetii had determined to occupy the Gauls, they increased to the greatest possible number of beasts of burden and wagons, made the greatest possible harvests for two years, and entered into an alliance with the neighboring states. Then, when they were about to depart, they ordered each man to have ground provisions for three months, Caesar, book 1 of The Gallic War.
Those chariots served as fortifications, as I shall say in the proper place, and at the same time for conveying necessities.
§ 3. The introduction of elephants into battle was formerly terrifying. Pyrrhus first brought them into Italy.
§ 4. The Romans also rendered elephants useless; now they are generally harmful because they are very readily turned against their own men. Formerly they placed armored men in chariots against the beasts, who directed sarissas—that is, long pikes. Others sent against them armored soldiers fortified on every side with projecting points, so that they could not be seized by the trunk; others sent slingers and archers. They granted them space to attack, then surrounded them and captured them together with their masters. They also assailed them with wheeled ballistae. Now every kind of artillery is effective against them, so that they are scarcely led into battle. Hannibal placed eighty elephants before the battle line; Scipio opposed Numidian horsemen to them. They are considered common enemies, or enemies to both sides, because they are readily turned against friends. Cassiodorus falsely reports in book 10, chapter 30 that they could be wounded by no force; otherwise they are repelled with the slightest trouble.
§ 5. Men were accustomed to oppose camels to horses and elephants. Croesus opposed camels to cavalry; the horses, terrified by their novelty, threw down their riders. Frontinus, book 2, chapter 4. Pliny also mentions camels in wars, book 7, chapter 18. Alyattes the Lydian, the Colophonians, and the Castabalians employed dogs in battle; this was also customary among the Magnesians. Polyaenus, book 7; Aelian, book 14.
Philip also captured the Arbelans when they fled into dense forests by means of hunting dogs, Polyaenus, book 4.
There is nothing wonderful about noble beasts. Men even led pigs into war—an animal born for banquets, whose life serves in place of salt. For the elephant abominates and shudders at the grunting of a pig and at that unclean animal itself. It was therefore sometimes employed against the tower-bearing beasts.
The Megarians turned aside the elephants of Antigonus by means of pigs which they had smeared with pitch. Others removed the terror by habituation, for everything familiar becomes contemptible. Perseus caused wooden elephants, from which a trumpet shrieked, to be made, so that the horses might grow accustomed to them and learn to despise them.
It is not wonderful that men employed beasts when they even brought statues to an assault. What is said about Sardis when it was captured by Cyrus appears excessively crude. On the side where the mountain was precipitous, he placed armed statues upon poles and applied them to it; then he began the assault from another side. But when the besieged saw the statues, they believed the ridge to have been occupied by armed men, and thus Cyrus entered the city. Therefore, everything that lies between serves as arms for a prudent commander.
With beasts too it belongs to skill to excite their natures in whatever manner is possible. For since they lack skill, they must be governed by another’s skill. When the weary horses of Brachius could not be driven by spurs, he sent mares ahead, which they followed, Fulgosus, book 7, chapter 4. Victory depended upon occupying the passes of the mountains first.