INTRODUCTION. 95 



The Homeric heroes of the Iliad, the Persian and 

 Babylonian warriors, likewise had these warlike 

 vehicles ; but the last mentioned had no mounted 

 cavalry until after the invasion of Madyes, or at 

 least till the conquests of Cyrus, for chariots alone 

 are sculptured on the bas reliefs of Persepolis ; 

 though, from the figures already noticed, found at 

 Nineveh, the Medes were in all probability a 

 mounted people at an earlier date. * Saddle-horses 

 were not common in the south of Western Asia, 

 and perhaps not even in Media, since Cyrus op- 

 posed his camels to the Lydian cavalry of Croesus ; t 

 and hence we may infer that riding steeds, of recent 

 introduction, by the passes of Caucasus, along the 

 west coast of tbe Caspian, gave the advantage to 

 that power which was most accessible to the ad- 

 Egyptian battle-pictures, but they always represent enemies, 

 such as those opposed to Remses in his Asiatic expedition. 



* See note, page 87. 



+ Herodotus, Aristotle, and Pliny are sufficient authority 

 for the original dislike of the horse to the camel, and the fact 

 proves their subjugation and domestic habits were not then 

 completely established, for now, and for several centuries past, 

 they are not only thoroughly reconciled to each other, but in 

 actual friendship, since she camels suckle foals, and many of 

 the best Arabians chiefly subsist on camels' milk. If Cyrus 

 be Kaikaus and reigned in Bactria, it might be inferred that 

 in Western Asia the first charioteers came through the Arian 

 desert to the lower Euphrates ; but it is most likely their route 

 lay between the Caspian and the Caucasus into Armenia ; 

 though it is more probable that the bay stock of horses spread 

 by the Sulimani range and Helmond to Southern Asia, Ye- 

 men, and Egypt. 



