6 MILITARY SCIENCES. 



of 10,000, who communicated it to his subordinates. These same divisions 

 were retained afterwards with the mercenaries. The higher officers stood 

 in great respect, and the generals were always relations of the king. When 

 a great war commenced, then a levy en masse was ordered ; all the nations 

 of the empire were assembled and divided as above. Upon the march no 

 order was observed ; the king with the Persians was in the centre, the 

 other nations marched as they chose. As little order was maintained in 

 their encampments ; for the king and chief officers there were tents ; all 

 the rest bivouacked in the open air. Only on approaching the hostile 

 boundary was there a muster and division of the host by nations ; and when 

 Xerxes mustered his army in Europe, it was found to contain fifty-six 

 nations. Among them were Sagartians, who, otherwise weaponless, 

 caught their foe in a leathern noose, Libyans with armed chariots {pi. 5, 

 Jig. 4), and Arabs upon camels. 



The arms of this motley host were naturally of equal diversity. A 

 number of the weapons used by Asiatic nations who belonged mostly to 

 the Persian armies are brought together on pi. 1. Thus fig. 23 shows the 

 bow and quiver of the Medes and Persians, whose shield of strong leather 

 with a rim and boss of iron is represented in fig. 24. The bow was 

 carried usually in the case belonging to it, shown in fig. 25, where a spear 

 also is represented. Figs. 26 and 27 show Median and Persian helmets 

 and storming-caps. The Parthians had bows as in fig. 28, and spears 

 tvhose momentum was increased by a ball at the butt, as in fig. 29. One 

 of the showy helmets of the Syrians, made of leather with metal ornaments, 

 is represented va fig. 30; while j^^. 31 shows a peculiarly formed and often 

 painted helmet of leather bound with iron, worn by the Armenians. The 

 Scythian heavy armed infantry were clad in a leathern cuirass, strengthened 

 by thin scales of iron, as shown at fig. 32, wore a leathern helmet bound 

 with strong iron bands (Jig. 33), and carried an oval, often richly orna- 

 mented shield of leather, covered entirely with metal plate {fig. 34). The 

 bow {fig. 36) was with them only secondary, and was, therefore, small and 

 light ; but they can'ied clubs with long spikes, for blow or thrust, and 

 maces set with iron spikes, as shown in fig. 35, where both are given. The 

 short sword, or more properly long dagger {figs. 37, 38), they had in 

 common with the Dacians, of whose leathern helmets, gaily painted and 

 the head-piece studded with metal scales, an example is given in fig. 45 ; 

 while fig. 44 shows one of the Dacian field badges, such as were carried 

 by the larger divisions of the army, and which were distinguished from each 

 other by the most various forms. The Mysians had circular shields plated 

 with metal, as in fig. 39, and javelins {figs. 42, 43), whose shaft was often 

 carved in rings or spirals, with a counter-weight for greater momentum, 

 and on this weight a short spike for close combat. Quite similar were 

 the Thracian javelins, of which figs. 40 and 41 give examples, save that 

 the counter-weight was often nearer the middle. The Thracian helmet 

 was of buffalo-hide, bound with iron. The skin of the head was often 

 chosen for this purpose, with the horns kept on ; often that form was 

 merely imitated, and false horns added {fig. 55). The Thracian shield was 

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