CHANGES IN THE ART OF WAR. 61.5 



value of shoeing had become generally known, the art of 

 war became altered, not only as regards the increased 

 mobility of armed bodies of men, and the certain efficiency 

 of cavalry, but as concerning tactics and equipment. 

 Always of the greatest moment, it was only when about 

 to commence a campaign, or when really engaged in it, 

 that the generals of antiquity devoted so much of their 

 attention to the preservation of their horses' hoofs ; and 

 when these began to give way, defeat was often not very 

 far distant. Consequently, the movements of large armies 

 were generally constrained as to rapidity, and the horse- 

 men were armed and equipped as lightly as possible, to 

 diminish the chances of embarrassment from this source. 

 It may have been from their ignorance of shoeing, that 

 the Greeks considered cavalry rather as auxiliaries than as 

 principals in battle,' and that it was not employed in the 

 Trojan war. To this circumstance, also, may we not ac- 

 count for the warriors in the time of Homer having two 

 horses each, upon which they rode alternately, in order to 

 relieve the hoofs as much as possible?^ Alexander the 

 Great, undoubtedly, had a large force of men who fought 

 both on horseback and on foot {^i[xoL^ai),^ but Diodorus 

 mentions how these were rendered useless, by their horses 

 becoming hoof-worn when on service. 



In the early ages, armour had its origin in the cunning 

 or effeminacy of Asiatic nations ; but the more open and 

 dauntless European despised every device except the shield, 

 until brought into contact with the mail-covered enemy, 

 when he also was obliged to adopt this protection. In the 



' Miiller. Dorians, ii. 259. ^ Iliad, v. 679, 684. 



3 Pollux, i. 6, 10. 



