CHAP. III.] 



ROMAN CAVALRY. 



95 



had 



fainst 



look 



We 



sesar 



him 



his 



ould 



being thrown into the action at its crisis, rather than 

 to any superior qualities on the part of the German 

 horsemen. 



Caesar, who had seen that the Gauls were very superior 

 to him in cavalry and light troops, and that he was 

 surrounded by a hostUe population, and unable to obtain 

 any assistance in the shape of a mounted force from 

 either Italy or the Roman provinces, turned towards 

 Germany for support, and sent across the Rhine to those 

 nations that he had pacified in the preceding years, and 

 asked them to furnish him with the cavalry and light 

 infantry of their armies.^ When they arrived, however, 

 they were in a wretched condition, the horses being in 

 many instances unfit for service. He made great efforts 

 to render them efficient, and distributed among them 

 the horses that happened to be in his lines belonging 

 to the tribunes, the other officers, and the veterans. 

 He also obtained horses wherever he could so as to 

 have them thoroughly supplied ; so successful was 

 he in this endeavour, that he very soon had a nu- 

 merous and most efficient corps of German horsemen. 

 Appian of Alexandria says they numbered as high as 

 10,000 men.'* 



Afterwards, when the Romans carried on their offensive 

 wars against the Germans, which lasted for nearly two 

 hundred years, the constant campaigning against a much 

 more skilful foe taught the Germans many lessons in 

 the art of war.^ They gradually adopted better arms, 

 and defensive armour, and improved their system of 

 tactics to a great extent, so that in time the war on their 

 part, instead of being defensive, became aggressive, and 

 after that it may be said that the Germans, more than 

 any other people, contributed to weaken and destroy the 

 Roman Empire of the West.* 



The Goths were a portion of the German people 

 and had a high military reputation. The Visigoths had 

 but few cavalry, while the Ostrogoths maintained a 

 numerous body of horsemen in their armies. Theodoric, 



^ Caesar, vii. 65. ^ Ligkenne, ii. 250. ^ Humbert, 43. 



*Duparcq, 216. 



