CHAP. II.] THE GREEK CAVALRY. 23 



Plutarch states, upon the authority of Philostephanus, 

 that Lycurgus was the first organizer of the Spartan 

 cavalry, that he formed them in troops of fifty each 

 who were drawn up in a square. This is doubtful, 

 however, for Plutarch goes on to say that Demetrius the 

 Phalcrean says that Lj'-curgus never had any military 

 appointment, and that there was the profounr" st peace 

 when he established the constitution of Spartc There 

 is the corroborative evidence of Xenophon in his 

 "Treatise on the Lacedaemonian Government," where 

 he states that Lycurgus divided the army into cavalry 

 and heavy armed infantry, six companies of each. 



Sixty years after Lycurgus, in the first Messenian 

 war, 743 B.C., cavalry were used. According to Pausanias, 

 the Spartans and Messenians had each 500 horsemen 

 and light armed troops.' In one of the battles the 

 heavy armed phalanges were separated by a ravine, and 

 could not come to close quarters, while the cavalry and 

 light armed troops alone were engaged. In another 

 conflict, he says that the cavalry on both sides were 

 very few in number, and did nothing memorable, and 

 he adds that the people of the Pclopoimesus were not 

 skilful at that time in the use of cavalry, which pro- 

 bably accounts for the fact, that in the last action of 

 the war, which took place at the foot of Mount Tthome, 

 there appears to have been no cavalry on either side. 



Among the early Greeks, the mounted service was not 

 popular, for they paid but little attention to their cavalry, 

 and had very few of them in their armies. Those who 

 were wealthy and able to furnish horses were compelled 

 to do so, but they were accustomed to give the horses to 

 substitutes who were also enrolled to serve, while the 

 wealthy citizens themselves served on foot in preference. 

 The whole confidence was placed in the phalanx of heavy 

 armed infantry, and though often defeated through the 

 want of cavaky, they did not for a long time supply 

 the deficiency.^ They endeavoured to give the required 

 assistance to the phalanx, by means of light armed 

 infantry who fought with javelins, slings, and bows 



' Maizeroy, 43, 44, 45. -' Maizeroy, 46. 



