CHAP. III.] 



ROMAN CAVALRY. 



99 



Mesopotamia, where the Parthian cavalry, which was 

 the main force of his enemy, would have every advantage 

 of ground. 



Orodes, the King of Parthia, sent his lieutenant or 

 general, Surena, to oppose Crassus, while lie himself 

 made an inroad into Armenia, whose king, Artavasdes, 

 was about taking the field in alliance with Crassus.' 

 Surena had nothing but cavalry in his army. This was 

 noc the habitual custom of the Parthians, for their armies 

 often contained four or five times as many infantry as 

 cavalry, but as the king was entering upon a campaign 

 in the mountains of Armenia, he naturally took the 

 infantry with him, leaving the cavalry to his favourite 

 general, who, if called upon to fight, would only be 

 obliged to do so upon open plains, exactly suited to the 

 use of that arm.* 



Surena's army was composed of two kinds of horse- 

 men — the heavy and the light. The heavy armed cavalry 

 were clad almost entirely in mail armour, wearing 

 cuirasses and thigh-pieces of leather with scales of brass 

 or iron sewn over them, and helmets of polished iron. 

 They carried no shield, their armour being a sufficient 

 protection. They carried a large lance or spear, one 

 much more formidable than those in use in most nations 

 of the time, and far more than a match for the light 

 weapon then carried by the Eoman cavalry. They used 

 also bows and arrows of unusual size, that would pierce 

 any ordinary armour, and so swift was i he flight of the 

 arrow that it was not seen until it had struck. They 

 carried in the girdle a short sword or knife for close 

 combat.' 



They were accustomed to charge in a close line at 

 speed, relying mainly upon their lances and the force of 

 the shock. Their horses were heavily armed with breast- 

 pieces, and had pieces of the same species of leathern 

 scale armour, as that used by their riders, their sides 

 and flanks being protected in the same way. 



The light cavalry, which was the most eficctive in 



Plutarch, OrasHiis. ^ Ravvlinson's Porthia, 100. 



•■' Ibid. 4(t4. 

 Jl -2 



