108 



A HISTORY OF CAYALRY. 



[period I. 



safely assume that the weapons and tactics of the more 

 remote tribes would not vary much from those in use 

 among the nations which bordered on the Roman Empiro, 

 and of whose system of fighting Roman historians have 

 given us some details. 



SECTION VIII. — TACTICS, OUTPOSTS, PATROLS, &C. 



We have gone back into the mists of antiquity 

 groping for the origin of the use of the horse in war, and 

 we have seen that the first idea was simply the rapid 

 conveyance of the warrior to the place of combat ; then 

 the use of the horse mounted for the same object — then 

 the fighting from the horse itself, and lastly the develop- 

 ment of the idea of the charge and the use of the weight 

 and speed of the horse as an element of force. We 

 have seen the cavalry attain its zenith under Hg-nnibal, 

 when it performed the most important part in the actions 

 of his age, reaching the perfection of cavalry tactics, 

 and that for two hundred years after the mounted force 

 held its high position. At Pharsalia the tide begins to 

 turn, and infantry learns to hold its own against the 

 horsemen. 



In Parthia also the principle of uniting great range of 

 projectiles with superior mobility reached its highest 

 development, and effected marvellous results for a Jong 

 period. This system has never in the world's history 

 been better understood, and more effectively put into 

 practice, than by the Parthians about the tiiiae of the 

 Christian era. 



The use of cavalry for outposts, pa,trols, and recon- 

 noitring parties was at this period thoroughly under- 

 stood, and was based upon the same principles as those 

 in use in modem times. The story of Alexander, King 

 ^ of Macedon, riding up to the outposts of the Greek 

 ' army shortly before the battle of Platea, and asking to 

 see Aristides the Athenian general, reads almost as if it 

 had happened yesterday, for the sentries would not let 

 him through their lines, but detained him while some 

 were sent back with his message to the general, and to 



