PERIOD I. 



CHAP, 



III.] 



ROMAN CAVALRY. 



69 



figure so dressed. A lioman soldier is trying to drag 

 him from his horse by the hair of the head. The horse, 

 a small slight animal, has neither saddle nor bridle, nor 

 pad nor straps. Strabo says that the Numidians directed 

 their horses where they wished with a small rod, and 

 that, without being led, their horses would follow them 

 like dogs.^ In view of this accumulated testimony, it is 

 probable that the Numidians must have been able to 

 manage their chargers without bridles. Folard, however, 

 does not place anj' reliance upon the figures on the 

 Trajan column, treating them as " une pure reverie de 

 sculpture."'^ It seems probable that Folard is right 

 except in reference to the want of bridles, but the 

 corroborative evidence of Polybius, Strabo, Silius Italicus, 

 llerodianus, and Virgil, confirms the statement that the 

 Numidians used no reins. 



The Numidians may have been accustomed in their 

 own country to serve almost naked, but it is not at all 

 likely that, v/heu they were enrolled in Hannibal's army 

 and were serving in Spain and Italy, they were not 

 supplied with some light clothing. They were armed 

 with javelins and a buckler. They were not fitted for 

 fighting in line or by squadrons, although Hannibal seems 

 to have trained them to such an extent, that he was able 

 to form them in squadrons of sixty-four each, and draw 

 them up on the wings of his army in the front line. 



Their principal use was, however, to harass the enemy, 

 to reconnoitre, to forage, to attack convoys, to annoy a 

 rear-guard, and to make raids on the baggage of their 

 foe. They were bold and enterprising, exceedingly 

 hardy and very rapid in their movements.^ Their great 

 strength lay in their cajjacity to harass and aniioy ; their 

 tactics, like those of the Parthians, consisted in charging 

 p in irregular groups, and throwing their javelins with 

 wonderful skill, falling back when attacked and pressing 

 on again when occasion oftered, repeating this manoeuvre 

 with a rapidity which proved the speed, the strength, 

 and the surefootedness of their horses. 



In ambuscades, surprises and skirmishes they excelled, 

 1 Beamish, 30. « Folard, iv. 116. » Ibid. 



