84 



A HISTORY OF CAVALRY. 



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[period I. 



allowing a weak force to cross a great plain to close him 

 up in an angle between impassable obstacles when he 

 was so immensely superior in cavalry, cannot be too 

 severely condemned. 



Lucullus, who commanded the Eoman army at one 

 period of the Mithridatic war, used his cavalry with 

 great ability, and owed his success at the battle of 

 Tigranocerta, over an immensely superior army, to the 

 judicious management of his horsemen.^ Tigranes, 

 whose army consisted of 150,000 infantry, 20,000 

 archers and slingers, 35,000 pioneers and road-makers, 

 and 55,000 cavalry, of whom 17,000 were clad in heavy 

 steel armour, encamped on a large plain with the river 

 Tigris before him. Lucullus, with 10,000 infantry, 

 3,000 horse, and 1,000 slingers and archers, marched 

 out to attack this enormous host, and crossed the 

 river in front of the extreme right of the enemy. 

 Tigranes, seeing the handful, laughed at their boldness, 

 saying, *' If they come as ambassadors there are too 

 many of them ; if as soldiors, too few,"^ Lucullus had 

 noticed that a hill level upon the top and sloping easily 

 dovsn to the enemy's right flank and close to it and 

 dominating it, had been left unoccupied by Tigranes, 

 and he at once conceived the idea of -seizing it by a bold 

 push with his cavalry, and from it to commence an 

 attack direct against the flank and rear of the enemy's 

 right wing, which was composed of his choice? o cavalry, 

 those already mentioned as being clad in complete 

 armour of steel. The Thracian and Gaulish horae 

 moved rapidly up the hill and from there charged the 

 enemy in flank.^ They were ordered to make no use of 

 their javelins, to ride sword in hand, to come to close 

 action at once, and to strike at nothing but the shafts of 

 their opponents' lances, as when those were broken, the 

 horsemen, immured in iron and without other weapons, 

 were helpless. This done they were to strike with their 

 sabres at their enemies' legs and thighs, which alone of 

 their bodies were unarmed. 



1 Plutarch, Life of Lucullus. ^ Liskenne, ii. 171. ' Plutarch, 

 Life of Lucullus. 



