98 



A HISTORY OF CAVALRY. 



[period I. 



upon the enemy while in confusion, and to pursue them 

 when in flight. 



Livy says that the Spanish cavalry often prevailed 

 over the Numidians, but in face of this statement it is 

 nevertheless generally admitted that the Spanish cavalry 

 were not equal either to the Gaulish or Carthaginian 

 horse. Their infantry must have been of good quality, 

 for Quintius Sertorius, the Roman general, preferred 

 them to the Roman troops, particularly for the defence 

 of fortified posts. 



j 



V! 



SECTION VII. — PARTHIAN CAVALRY. 



During the time that Julius Caesar was pursuing his 

 conquests in Gaul and Britain, and adding great stretches 

 of territory to the Roman Empire in that direction, a 

 war was being waged at the other extremity of the then 

 known world, in which the Romans were attempting to 

 extend their power to its furthest limits. The success 

 of Julius Caesar was not more marked in the west, than 

 was the failure of Crassus in the east. 



The defeat of Crassus was probably the most serious 

 blow that a Roman army had ever sufiered since the 

 mournful day of Cannae. And it is a curious circum- 

 stance that in this second disaster the Romans again 

 owed all their ill success to the superiority of the hostile 

 cavalry. In Parthia the inhabitants carried out success- 

 fully the same idea of harassing their invader with 

 mounted men that Verciugetorix had conceived about 

 the same period, but had been unable to put into 

 execution. 



Crassus marched into Parthia in B.C. 53 with an army 

 consisting of seven legions, about 35,000 men with 4,000 

 cavalry and nearly 4,000 light infantry.' Instead of 

 marching through the mountainous parts of Armenia 

 where he would have been among a friendly people, and 

 where his force could have operated to the greatest 

 advantage, he injudiciously passed the Euphrates at 



Zeugma, and took 



his route across 



' Plutarch, Crassus. 



the great plains of 



