Defensive Armor of the Han Period 221 



to get the full force of the animal's weight into the spear-thrust. 1 At a 

 given signal, the squadron composed of such horsemen dashed forth for 

 the assault of the enemy, and was a formidable weapon against the 

 infantry armed with bows, as the body protection rendered the horsemen 

 arrow-proof. There were also cataphracti armed with bows, as follows 

 from the figure of such a cavalier represented on the Column of Trajan, 

 and shooting backward. It is clear that this troop could be efficient 

 only as a united body and for the purpose of a surprise charge; when 

 successfully repelled, the result must have been disastrous to the clumsy 

 horsemen. The single ones were incapable of defending themselves: 

 and we hear that the Gauls who accompanied the army of Crassus 

 practised the stratagem of seizing their lances and pulling them off the 

 horses. The difference in principle between the former mounted 

 bodies of archers and this new system of cavalry is obvious: the mounted 

 infantry soldier was an individual, and as such an independent fighting- 

 unit, able and mobile on any occasion, be it charge, enduring battle, or 

 pursuit; this troop did not advance at command in any regular align- 

 ments, but dispersed in open order, small bands suddenly sallying forth 

 here and there, and as swiftly turning round, now attacking, then 

 feigning flight, exhausting their opponents in pursuit, then rallying and 

 pushing forward again till the contest was decided. The new cavalry 

 troop was a machine set in motion by the will and word of a single com- 

 mander. It was effective as long as the body preserved the agility of its 

 members and worked with collective action as an undivided unit. Its 

 success was bound up with the speed, security, and force of its assault; 

 when the charge failed, its case was lost. 



When and by whom this new mode of tactics was invented is un- 

 known. We have seen that it existed in Persia at the time of Xenophon, 

 and the idea seems to have indeed originated among Iranians. Sub- 

 sequently we find it in the army of Antiochus Epiphanes ; and from the 

 time of Antoninus Pius it became common in the armies of the Romans, 

 soldiers of this description being frequently mentioned in inscriptions 

 of that period. Thus we see the Romans adopt the strategy of their 

 adversaries,— a bit of history which, as we shall see presently, repeats 

 itself in China. The Iranian mode of strategy with the peculiar body 

 armor for man and horse spread likewise to the Scythians (see p. 220), 

 and to Siberia as far as the Yenisei, as witnessed by the famed petro- 

 glyph of a mounted lancer equipped with plate mail. This horseman in- 

 deed represents a cataphi -actus (Fig. 35). This monument may be 



1 Smith, Wayte, and Marindin, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 

 3d ed. (Vol. I, p. 384). 



