PERIOD I. 



CHAP. III.] 



ROMAN CAVALRY, 



61 



1 



holding a similar position in the infantry. The cavalry 

 decurion was of equal rank with the centurion of the 

 legion.^ 



We have very little information as to the system of 

 drill and method of fighting in use among the Romans 

 in the very early ages. In the account Livy gives of 

 the battle between the Romans under Valerius and 

 Brutus, and the people of Veii under the banished 

 Tarquin and his sons, he says that Valerius led up the 

 foot in a square battalion (evidently in the phalanx 

 formation), and Brutus marched before with his horse 

 to reconnoitre. The Veientians came up in the same 

 order, Aruns, Tarquin's son, in command of their horse. 

 The cavalry must have charged each other with lances, 

 for it is stated that Brutus and Aruns transfixed each 

 other with their lances and both fell lifeless from their 

 horses.^ 



At the battle of Lake Regillus the cavalry appear to 



ave fought with spears or lances. After the battle had 



€en raging for some timie with varying fortune, and the 



omans were almost despairing of success, the Dictator 



osthumius went to the cavalry in the reserve and 



ntreated them to dismount from their horses and join 



he fight, as the infantry were exhausted with the severe 



itruggle that had been going on.^ They dismounted, 



hurried to the front, and formed in the first line, and 



fought with the tired foot-soldiers, who, inspirited by 



this action of the young noblemen, increased their 



exertions, and soon the Latins were beaten back and 



outed. The horses were then brought up to the cavalry, 



ho mounted and pursued, followed by their infantry, 



nd soon captured the enemy's camp. 



Livy mentions that in the year 481 B.C. the Consul 

 Caeso Fabius routed the army of the iEqui solely by a 

 harge of his cavalry, but that the infantry refused to 

 ursue them when routed on account of their hatred of 

 he consul* 



In the battle between the Romans and the Sabines, 

 n the year 447 B.C., when the Sabines suddenly turned 

 1 Bardin, 4250. ' Livy, ii. 6. » Ibid. 20. * Ibid. 43. 



E 2 



