THE GEECIAN HORSE 523 



were extensively used in dangerous contests at the hippodrome, she seems 

 to have used them only sparingly on the day of battle, and then only 

 when yoked to chariots; but cavalry, which formed a most important 

 military force of the Persians and other neighbouring nations, was by 

 the Greeks long almost entirely neglected. 



It appears, according to Herodotus, that up to the year 490 B.C. the 

 Greeks possessed no cavalry, and at the beginning of the Peloponnesian 

 war, 431 B.C., it only amounted to 1200 strong, out of which number 

 200 were hired Scythian bowmen. And even down to the time of 

 Demosthenes this corps was not numerically increased, but it was the 

 duty of the two hipparchs who commanded this force to see that it was 

 kept up to its full force of 1000. 



At the battle of Marathon (b.c. 490) the Greeks used no cavalry, 

 while the Persian army comprised 100,000 foot and 10,000 cavalry. It 

 seems difficult to understand why the Greeks did not employ cavalry 

 in battle, surrounded as they were by nations who made great use of 

 this branch of the service in times of war. Yet, unaided by cavalry, 

 they routed the Persians at Marathon, and on other occasions they had 

 beaten their enemies without the aid of this auxiliary, and instances 

 had occurred where chariots had caused confusion and disaster. Xerxes' 

 array which passed over the Hellespont, according to Herodotus consisted 

 of infantry 170 myriads, of cavalry 8 myriads, exclusive of chariots and 

 camels. In this expedition fifty-six different nations took part, the 

 infantry of which appears to have been little better than a rabble, whose 

 vast numbers, crowded together on the battle-field, interfered with the 

 action of the cavalry and put them into confusion. Marathon, Platfea, 

 and Mycale are witnesses of like dilemmas. The war-chariots could not 

 act ujDon uneven and broken ground, and thus, being rendered incapable 

 of acting, became dangerous impediments. Another reason why the 

 Greeks did not employ cavalry might have been the rough and stony 

 ground over which their armies had to march, over roads whose surfaces 

 wore down their horses' hoofs so low as to cause them to become sore 

 and almost incapable of locomotion. For short journeys and performance 

 in the hippodrome the tracks were laid down with soft material, so that 

 horses could run over their 4-mile courses with impunity; but over hard 

 roads during arduous and prolonged marches their hoof horn constantly 

 wore down to the quick, when the sufferers had to be left in the rear. 

 It is evident that although the horse was not, in the early part of Grecian 

 history, used extensively as a war-horse, he was highly esteemed as a 

 hunter, for pageants, for racing in the hippodrome, and for purposes of 

 pleasure, and the pens of the greatest -minded Greeks were devoted to 



