IIG 



A HISTORY OF CAVA1.RY. 



[I'EBIOD I. 



The above extract gives a very good idea of the arma- 

 ment and equipment of the cavalry of that age, and it is 

 remarkable how closely the Romans had imitated those 

 Parthian archers, whose tactics had cost them so dear in 

 so many campaigns. 



The great increase of cavalry, the weight of their 

 armour, and the quality of their horses, were all in vain 

 to save the falling Empire. Arms, equipment, or tactics 

 could do nothing to save a nation where the guiding 

 principle was lost, where there was no longer a feeling of 

 patriotism, where the national life was dying out, and 

 where the indulgence of selfish luxury was the ruling 

 sentiment of the people. 



The barbarian tribes, hardy and warlike, fighting 

 chiefly on horseback, soon flooded over the provinces, 

 gathering immense booty in the wealthy and civilised 

 countries of Southern Europe ; and at last, in the year 

 410, eleven hundred and sixty-three years after the 

 foundation of Rome, the Goths, under Alaric, captured 

 the imperial city, and the mistress of the world was 

 handed over to the licentious fury of the fierce tribes of 

 barbarians.' 



A few years later, the great barbarian ruler, Attila, 

 King of the Huns, threatened the Roman Empire, and 

 compelled it to make treaties most humiliating in their 

 terms. He united Germany and Scythia under his rule. 

 His army was of enormous strength,^ containing 500,000 

 men of various nations that acknowledged him as king. 

 The Huns, who formed a considerable part of his army, 

 are well described by Ammianus Marcellinus, and we 

 learn from him that they never lived in fixed habita- 

 tions, but wandered about on horseback, followed by 

 cattle drawing cars on which their women and children 

 lived. They were inured to all hardships, and were 

 clad in dresses made of skins. They rode small horses, 

 ugly but vigorous, and swift in their paces, and they 

 seem to have almost lived in the saddle, buying and 

 selling, eating and drinking mounted, and sometimes 



Gibbon, iii. 282. 



2 Jornandes, ch. 35. 



