CHAP. HI.] 



ROMAN CAVALRY. 



57 



Rome. When cliti^v^n up for action they were placed on 

 the wings, and were called equites alarii to distinguish 

 them from the Roman cavalry called equites legionarii. 



Before the Punic War the Romans, although they 

 considered the cavalry as the most honourable service, 

 and filled its ranks with the young men of the highest 

 position in the state, had never appreciated the true 

 genius of the arm, and had neA'^er understood the proper 

 method of drilling it or employing it in war. There 

 does not appear to have been any design in their 

 management of the force except that which has been 

 already intimated, of using it to reconnoitre and to 

 pursue. The speed of the horse was utilised by them for 

 these purposes simply, but the idea of using a mass of 

 cavalry as a projectile weapon, to be hurled at speed upon 

 an enemy, to crush down all opposition by its weight 

 and velocity, was not thoroughly appreciated by them. 



They used them often on foot, and it is strange that 

 they never organised a force of heavy armed dragoons 

 that could have dismounted and taken their place in line 

 with the triani or best of the foot soldiers. They did not 

 organise such a corps, but continued to maintain a force 

 badly equipped and armed, and quite unfitted for the 

 great sphere that was open to cavalry in an age when 

 projectile weapons had a range of but a few yards. 



'SECTION III. — CAVALRY IN THE WARS WITH HANNIBAL. 



Hannibal, who was one of those great masters of the 

 art of war who nppet«,r only at intervals separated by 

 centuries, and who have always left a deep impress of 

 their genius upon the records of the military science, 

 was tlie first in Western Europe to estimate the cavalry 

 service at its true value, and to clearly understand the 

 full benefits to be derived from the proper tise of it. 

 Like Alexander in the east, Hannibal in the west 

 obtained a series of the most brilliant successes against 

 the finest infantry of his age, by the skilful use of a 

 numerous and well-trained cavalry. 



Hannibal left the Pyrenees to invade Italy with 50,000 



