CHAP. III.] 



ROMAN CAVALRY. 



ftS 



struggle, when the fate of the battle was tremblinff in 

 the balance. This turned the scale. The Carthaginians 

 were utterly routed, for the plain in which the combat 

 took place left them at the mercy of the cavalry, who 

 pursued them with unrelenting vigour. Hannibal escaped 

 with difficulty, and thus ended this great action which, 

 as Polybius says, made the Romans masters of the 

 world. 



There is no doubt that this battle was won by the 

 cavalry, which was thrown into action very skilfully at 

 the proper moment, and was most ably led by the two 

 generals in command, who by their return from the 

 pursuit in order to take part in the action where the 

 decisive result was to be gained, proved themselves to be 

 cavalry commanders of the highest type. 



The Roman cavalry at the close of the second Punic 

 War was in the finest condition, and its uses were better 

 appreciated and understood than at any other period of 

 Roman history. Afterwards it was much more numerous 

 in their armies, and its proportion to the infantry much 

 greater, but still the quality was not as good, the disci- 

 pline not as perfect, nor were the generals so skilful in 

 using it efiectively. 



About one hundred years after this time we find 

 Sylla carrying on the war against the generals of 

 Mithridates in Boeotia in 86 B.C., with an army of 

 15,000 infantry and only 1,500 cavalry, while the 

 cavalry in his opponents* army was exceedingly nume- 

 rous.^ At tL*^. battle of Ovchomene Sylla, in order to 

 protect his w.ngs against the hostile horse, dug two 

 intrenchments on his right as far as a marsh, which lay 

 behind Archelaus, and on his left as far as the river 

 Melas, which wound round the right of the enemy's 

 camp and fell into the marsh in rear of it. By this 

 method he protected his flanks, neutralised the cavalry 

 opposed to him, and in the action succeeded in driving 

 them into their camp, storming it, and destroying the 

 army which, inclosed between the marsh and river, was 

 cut oflf from all retreat. The conduct of Archelaus in 



' Liskenne, ii. 157. 



G 2 



