DrVELOPMENT or ARMS. 25 
As the knowledge and use of bronze passed slowly from the 
east to the west,. until the remains are found as frequently in the 
west and north as in classic localities, so did iron, by which the 
Romans established their superiority and vast empire, travel in 
the same direction, to be turned eventually against themselves, 
when the vigorous and fierce Goth, and Hun, and Vandal con- 
fronted the cohorts of Italy, armed with the same weapons. 
These weapons differed but little in the early civilisations. 
They were the spear or lance, sword, sling, and bow, while the 
defensive armour consisted of helmet, round buckler or long 
shield, and later of a cuirass or corselet, with plates of metal sewn 
on to woven stuffs or skins. The sword varied greatly, from the 
short, straight blade of the Assyrian, the hatchet or chopper-like 
implement of the Egyptians, the grand, shapely bronze of the 
Grecian, the scimitar of the Arabian, and the well-known short, 
broad-bladed cut-and-thrust weapon of the invincible Roman foot 
soldier. The throwing knife, khop or tolla, was in common use 
among the early Egyptians. The battle-axe, the enlarged suc- 
cessor of the bronze celt, and the lance, doubtless, came in later, 
when coats of mail and protective armour were used. Such 
implements of war as scythe-chariots, battering-rams, catapults, or 
balistas, for throwing missiles into besieged towns, &c., require 
only passing enumeration. 
Varying only in form, in material, in fashion, and finish, the 
weapons used for hand-to-hand combat must have remained the 
same for centuries scarcely to be numbered ; and any improve- 
ment in attack was met by improvement in panoply, in defensive 
armour. urther development could, therefore, only be by way of 
missiles discharged at a distance. The use of the helmet and coat 
of mail must have speedily <rought to an end the art of the slinger, 
whose stones and bolts would prove powerless against such pro- 
tection; while the yew bow and good yard-long arrow were 
effective only against the lightly armed, or when it chanced to 
pierce a joint in the armour, or found its way through the holes of 
a vizor or frontlet. ‘The crossbow, a mechanical improvement on 
the old bow, giving greater penetrative force, failed against the 
magnificent suits of mail of the Middle Ages, and it required the 
irresistible force of the bullet, propelled by explosion, to change 
the entire system of warfare, and render shield and buckler, corset 
and suit of steel, of no avail to protect their wearers in the fight, 
