155 



as well as weapons of a better temper, which Stuart calls "antique 

 Punic" fashioned swords.* It may be added, that, although archery 

 seems to have been totally disused at the time of the English invasion, 

 yet the old chronicles of the country number it among the exercises 

 of the national militia, while the epithet " of the nine hostages " 

 referred to Nial the great, ad ann. 379) shews that such pledges were 

 allowed in the military code of this period. 



It does not appear that the Irish used chariots for warlike pur- 

 poses, but that they had them for travelling is expressly stated in 

 their annals ;-f and those of the Four Masters particularly allege the 

 occasional use of even four horses with them, while the office and 

 business of a charioteer is also incidentally mentioned in other pas- 

 sages; J indeed there can be no reason for setting up modern incre- 

 dulity against the voice of Irish history. That the Britons went in 

 chariots to the field of battle is too well known to require illustration,§ 

 and Diodorus Siculus extends their use to the common purposes of 

 travelling ; so frequent were they in Britain, that Caesar asserts that 

 Cassibelaunus, after he had dismissed in despair all his other forces, 

 still retained no fewer than four thousand of these war chariots about 

 his person. (" Omni spe deposita contentionis, dimissis amplioribus 

 copiis, millibus circiter iv retentis, &c.")|| That war chariots were also 

 used by the Gauls before" the time of Caesar, Livy gives a striking 

 testimony, where he speaks of those enemies of Rome, as displaying 



* Stuart's Armagh, p. 512. 



t Annal. Tigem. O'Conor's Rer. Hib. Script, v. 2. ps. 44, 126 and 141. and Annal. Four 

 Masters, Id. v. 3. ps. 30, 37, 82, 91, and 103. Annal. Inisfall. Id. v. 2. p. 2. 



t Annal. Four Masters, O'Conor's Id. vol. 3. ps. 24 and 1 17. 



§ See Pomp. Mela, lib. 3. c. 5. p. 192. Diod. Sicul. lib. 5. p. 346. Tacitus Vit. Agric. 

 Caesar de Bell. Gall. lib. 4. cs. 24,32. Lib. 5. cs. 3, 16, 19. Dio Cassius, lib. 60. Strabo, 

 lib. 4. &c. &c. 



II De Bell. Gall. lib. 5. c. 19. 



X 2 



