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.1 I:' 



fi : 



34 



A HISTORY OF CAVALRY. 



mi 



[period I. 



leaving the centre to be filled up with weaker and less 

 trained men. 



In the reigns of Philip and Alexander the military- 

 power of Greece reached the zenith of its splendour, and 

 the Macedonian army at that period was a model of a 

 perfect Grecian army ; ^ its organisation was not much 

 less elaborate than exists in the best armies of Europe at 

 the present day.** 



They had both field and siege artillery, as well as a 

 transport corps with its train of horses, mules, and carts, 

 the whole being under military ofiicers. The phalanx of 

 infantry was a mass, 256 men in front by a depth of 

 16 ; in all 4,096. Attached to the phalanx were 2,048 

 liglit armed infantry and two regiments or hipparchies of 

 512 horses each. 



The cavalry were of three kinds : the heavy, who wore 

 coats of mail, helmets and brazen greaves, and carried 

 swords and short thrusting pikes ; the light cavalry, who 

 were used mainly for outpost duty, and were armed with 

 lances about sixteen feet long ; and the dimachi 

 {Sifiaxoi), who were formed by Alexander the Great, and 

 were similar to the modern dragoons, being intended to 

 fight both on foot and on horseback. 



The dimachi (Bifidxoi) were armed more heavily 

 than the other cavalry, but not so much so as the heavy 

 armed infantry. Alexander attached to them valets or 

 attendants, whose duty it was to hold the horses while 

 the horsemen dismounted to fight on foot. This seems 

 to have been the first instance of the use of dragoons, 

 and we see in it again the same idea that led to the use 

 of the early war-chariots — that of carrying an armed 

 soldier speedily and without fatigue to the scene of 

 conflict. The art of war by this time had so improved, 

 that the importance of rapidity of movement in antici- 

 pating an enemy in seizing an important position had 

 come to be fully understood, and Alexander, one of the 

 greatest military reformers, saw the advantage to be 

 gained by a force such as described, which could operate 

 upon broken ground where chariots could not be used. 

 ' Graham, 34. ' Maodougal's Hannibal, 14. 



