n ............................................................................................. 172
...................................................................................... 229
..................................................................................... 252
273
291
..................................................................................... 331
..................................................................................................... 353
CHAPTER TEN
TROUBLE COMES IN THREES:
FROM CHARIOT TO CAVALRY
IN THE CELTIC WORLD1
ALBERTO PÉREZ-RUBIO
The trimarkisia always gets a passing mention when tackling the
Galatian onslaught against Greece in 280/279 BC, without further delving
into the matter. A careful analysis of this cavalry fighting unit within the
context of contemporary Celtic societies has been lacking. However,
such an analysis can shed light on several aspects of the European Iron
Age. This paper analyses just one: how the trimarkisia gives us insight
into the evolution from chariotry to cavalry in Iron Age temperate Europe.
I have chosen, advisedly, to include the adjective Celtic in the title
and therefore employ it in the text. There is neither need nor space to
dwell on a debate that has generated much literature in the last two
decades.2 But I consider that the term Celtic is still useful and appropriate
when analyzing certain European Iron Age societies that, notwithstanding
their differences and distinctive features, shared some linguistic, cultural
and social traits.3 In the same vein, I will resort to parallels in ancient Irish
literature if appropriate; even if Jacksons4 fruitful metaphor of Irish
1
Research project: "Entre la paz y la guerra: alianzas, confederaciones y
diplomacia en el Occidente Mediterráneo (siglos III-I aC)", HAR2011-27782,
National Plan for Scientific Research, Development and Innovation, State
Secretary of Research, Development and Innovation, Ministry of Economy and
Competitiveness, Government of Spain.
2
Fitzpatrick 1996; Collis 1996, 1997, 2003; Megaw and Megaw 1996, 1998;
James 1998, 1999; Karl 2004; Ruiz Zapatero 2004, 2010; Karl and Stifter 2007;
Anthoons and Clerinx 2007.
3
Ruiz Zapatero 2010, 110.
4
Jackson 1964.
Trouble Comes in Threes: From Chariot to Cavalry in the Celtic World 173
literature as a window on the Iron Age has been downplayed lately, I
agree with Karl5 that it provides an indigenous approach to shared cultural
practices.
The only extant quote in the classical sources that explicitly mentions
the trimarkisia is in book ten of Pausanias Description of Greece, in a
passage which deals with the Galatian invasion of Greece in 279 BC led
by Brennus and Acichorius. This mention is absent in the two other
surviving sources which recount this event, namely the Histories of
Diodorus Siculus (22.9.1-5) and the Epitome of Pompeius Trogus via
Justin (24.4-8). The text reads as follows:
For to each horseman were attached two servants, who were themselves
skilled riders and, like their masters, had a horse. [ ] This organization is
called in their native speech trimarkisia, for I would have you know that
marka is the Celtic name for a horse. (Paus. 10.19.9-11)
Although Pausanias sources are not totally clear, he relied on third
century BC historians narrations about the Galatian attack against Greece
and their later crossing to Asia, as we know about the existence of several
Galatica.6 So we can state that Pausanias description of the trimarkisia
probably reflects a real cavalry institution observed amongst the Galatians.
This was probably familiar to his unknown source because of the
pervading presence of Galatian mercenaries in Eastern Mediterranean
armies at the time.7
ETYMOLOGY AND SYMBOLISM
The etymology of the word trimarkisia does not present much of a
problem for Celtic philologists. It can be deconstructed in two words, triand marcos.8 Tri- is the Celtic numeral for three, in accordance with the
Indo-European languages and which appears in many compound words.9
The number three has a major significance in Celtic cosmology, where
the iconography is pervaded by triplism: Triple-faced images, triads as the
Matres or triplication in animals.10 The triple repetition enhances and
5
6
7
8
9
10
Karl 2005, 257.
Nachtergael 1975, 49-93; Rankin 1987, 71-2.
Mitchell 2003, 288; Pérez-Rubio 2009.
Delamarre 2003, 301.
Delamarre 2003, 300.
Aldhouse-Green 1991; 1992a, 169-205; 2004, 202.
174
Chapter Ten
intensifies the symbolism embodied in the number itself.11 This prevalence
of the number three is endorsed by its importance in Welsh and Irish
literature.12 In fact there is a passage in Irish literature that reflects
Pausanias trimarkisia, at least linguistically. The Togail Bruidne Da
Derga, or The Destruction of Da Dergas Hostel, is an Irish epic tale.
Although the oldest surviving manuscript dates from the eleventh century
AD, its content can be dated several centuries earlier.13 In section 30 of the
manuscript, three dreadful horsemen (triar marcach) appear when Conaire
was journeying along the Road of Cualu:
He marked before him three horsemen [triar marcach], riding towards the
house. Three red frocks had they, and three red mantles: three red bucklers
they bore, and three red spears were in their hands: three red steeds they
bestrode, and three red heads of hair were on them. (The Destruction of Da
Dergas Hostel, 30)
The enumeration of the triads sounds almost as a magic spell. These
horsemen are messengers from the Netherworld, the Sidh, and carriers of
terrible omens (The Destruction of Da Dergas Hostel, 35).
On the other hand, marcisia is a derivate in isi from marcos, horse.
Horse is marc in Old Irish and march in Welsh, Cornish and Breton.14
Marcos has parallels in Germanic, as the Old High German marh-, the Old
English mearh and nowadays mare,15 and it represents a Celto-Germanic
isogloss.16 But marcos was not the only Celtic noun for horse.17 There
were several words for the animal and each one seems to have had a
correspondence with a certain function or a certain kind of horse. For
example mandus was a pony,18 caballos was a work horse,19 cassica was a
mare,20 and ueredus was a post-horse.21 That all of these words were
11
Aldhouse-Green 1992, 170.
The Triads of the Horses (Trioedd y Meirch) found as a distinctive group of
Triads in Welsh literature do not seem to have any relationship with the
trimarkisia, being the Triad, a mnemonic device employed by traditional poets
(Bromwich 1997,102-3).
13
OConnor 2008, 56.
14
Delamarre 2003, 216.
15
Raulwing 2000, 108; Delamarre 2003, 301.
16
Kelly 1997, 45; Raulwing 2000, 108; Mikhailova 2007, 6.
17
Kelly 1997.
18
Kelly 1997, 52; Delamarre 2003, 214; Blaek 2008, 49.
19
Delamarre 2003, 95.
20
Kelly 1997, 56; Delamarre 2003, 109-110.
21
Delamarre 2003, 314; Blaek 2008, 50.
12
Trouble Comes in Threes: From Chariot to Cavalry in the Celtic World 175
incorporated into Latin is an indicator of Celtic proficiency in
horsemanship.22
However, the most common term for horse was epos. Epos derives
from *e uos, the ancient Indo-European name for horse as Latin equus
or Greek hippos23 while there is no agreement about the root for marcos.
Most scholars admit it was a Wanderwort, a travelling word, although
there are discrepancies about its origin. Gamkrelidze and Ivanov suggest
an Altaic origin (from Altaic *morV-), a borrowing explained by early
contacts between both Indo-European and Altaic tribes. However, as
Tatyana A. Mikhailova24 has pointed out, this does not match with the
absence of marcos in West Indo-European languages apart from Celtic and
Germanic.25 Birkhan proposes a pre- Indo-European word incorporated via
the Thracians, who would have maintained the element mark- in some
anthroponyms.26 The most convincing thesis is that of Mikhailova,27 who
argues that *mark would have been borrowed by Celtic and Germanic
speakers from Eastern communities skilled in horsemanship, such as the
Scythians. Marcos would have been used in Celtic languages for mounted
horse (and particularly for war horse) as advanced by Joseph Loth,28 so
it is plausible that it was a borrowing from the communities that probably
introduced horse riding into temperate Europe, as Mikhailova argues. In
this respect, it is worth mentioning that according to Pliny (Nat. Hist. 8.66)
the Scythians prefer mares for the purposes of war, because they can pass
their urine without stopping in their career. In contrast, most Scythian
equine iconography seems to depict stallions, although according to
Herodotus (7.4.8) the Scythians and Sarmatians used to castrate their
horses in order to make them more tractable. This is deemed implausible
by Renate Rolle,29 as it would deplete the vigor of the animal, much
needed in warfare. The mention in Trogus (Justin 9.2) of the 20,000 mares
that Philip II of Macedon captured from the Scythians and sent to
Macedon for breeding is an indicator of the importance of the animal. In
any case, if the *mark root lies in the Scythian word for mare (and hence
22
On the excellence of Celtichorsemanship, Str. 4.4.2, Plut. Vit. Marc. 6.4, Arr.
Tact. 33.
23
Kelly 1997, 44; Delamarre 2003, 163.
24
Mikhailova 2007, 6.
25
Kelly 1997, 45.
26
Mikhailova 2007, 7.
27
Mikhailova 2007, 6-7.
28
Loth 1925, 113; 1927, 410; Mikhailova 2007, 5.
29
Rolle 1989, 101.
176
Chapter Ten
for war horse according to Pliny), Mikhailovas thesis could be
strengthened; the word travelling into Celtic as mounted (or war) horse.
The meaning of marcos as mounted horse and its use confined to
Celtic and Germanic languages in contrast with epos/*e uos, which is
present in almost all languages of the Indo-European family,30 fit well with
a later borrowing. For Loth,31 epos would have been the word for yoked
horse, only displaced by marcos when cavalry superseded chariots, but
remained prevalent in Celtic onomastics and toponomy.32 The linguistic
data matches with what we know about chariotry and cavalry in Iron Age
temperate Europe. Indeed, the depictions of chariots pulled by horses in
Europe predate by several centuries those of horsemen,33 and from the
middle of the second millennium BC onwards the chariot was part of the
European mindset.34 By contrast, the first depictions of ridden horses in
temperate Europe date from the Hallstatt C period, around the sixth century
BC.35 True horse riding only began in temperate Europe around the seventh
century BC.36 Iron Age chariots pulled by horses seem to have inherited, in
some ways, the symbolic significance of the four wheeled carts drawn by
oxen and associated with burial practices from 3000 BC onwards.37 The
highest symbolic value and prestige of the chariot over the single horse
could also have had a reflection in the much higher number of personal
names composed with epos (even the theonym Epona) than with marcos.38
THE CHARIOT
In Iron-Age temperate Europe two-wheeled chariots pulled by horses
appear in the La Tène period,39 from the fifth until the first centuries BC,
30
Delamarre 2003, 163.
Loth 1927, 410.
32
Delamarre 2003, 163.
33
The first depictions of war chariots in Europe are those of the stelai of the
Shaft Graves of Mycenae, c. 1600 BC, while the first image of an armed horseman
is a terracotta figure, also from Mycenae, from the thirteenth century BC (Renfrew
1998: 202-5).
34
Renfrew 1998, 204.
35
Renfrew 1998, 280. A rock carving in at Tegneby in Bohuslän, Sweden, dated
to the second quarter of the first millennium BC may well be the earliest depiction
of mounted combat in temperate Europe (Drews 2004, 62).
36
Powell 1971, 5.
37
Renfrew 1998, 204-5.
38
Loth 1927, 410; Kelly 1997, 45; Delamarre 2013, 216.
39
Piggott 1983, 195-239.
31
Trouble Comes in Threes: From Chariot to Cavalry in the Celtic World 177
replacing the four-wheeled wagons present in aristocratic Hallstatt
burials40 between 750-500 BC.41 The La Tène chariot was a status
symbol,42 employed for travel43 and war (Diod. 5.29), the vehicle in which
the high-ranking deceased were transported to the tomb and their vehicle
to the Netherworld.44 Such burials are found from Britain to Thrace, being
especially frequent from the fifth and fourth centuries BC in Champagne
and the Rhineland, with fewer finds from the third and second centuries
BC, and almost disappearing in the first century BC.45 The last mention of
fighting chariots on mainland Europe is from 121 BC, when king Bituitus
of the Arverni was routed by the Romans (Flor. 1.37.5). In Britain the
chariot would still be in use during the following century, and even as late
as AD 83 in the battle of Mons Graupius (Tac. Ag. 35.3). According to
Diodorus (5.29), in travel and in war:
The Gauls use chariots drawn by two horses, which carry the charioteer
and the warrior; and when they encounter cavalry in the fighting they first
hurl their javelins at the enemy and then step down from their chariots and
join battle with their swords. [ ] They bring along to war also their free
] to serve them, choosing them out from among the poor,
men [
and these attendants they use in battle as charioteers [
] and as
shield-bearers [
]
Most probably Diodorus account derives from Posidonius,46 who
visited southern Gaul personally in the first decade of the first century
BC.47 His first-hand knowledge was perhaps limited to the area
surrounding Massalia,48 although he could also have gathered information
from the inner regions.49 Brunaux50 even thinks that Posidonius
information does not reflect the customs of Massalias Gallic neighbors at
the start of the first century BC, but rather those of northern Gaul two
centuries earlier (suggesting that Posidonius was relying on older sources).
40
Piggott 1983, 138-194; Pare 1993.
Quesada Sanz 2005a, 56-60.
42
Piggott 1986.
43
Raimund Karl (2001) argues for some kind of road networks in Celtic
Europe.
44
Quesada Sanz 2005a, 59.
45
Furger-Gunti 1991, 356; Karl 2003, 3-4.
46
Tierney 1960, 113.
47
Ruggeri 2000.
48
Kidd 1988, 16.
49
Webster 1999, 8.
50
Brunaux 2004, 10.
41
178
Chapter Ten
For example, the chain-belt mentioned by Diodorus (5.30)51 disappeared
towards the end of the third century BC.52 On the specific issue of
chariots, even if we have the mention of king Bituitus and some
numismatic iconography from the first century BC, Diodorus / Posidonius
reflect a bygone era. In fact, Caesar did not meet chariots during his
conquest of Gaul, although he did in Britain. There he describes the
Britons using their war chariots in a way reminiscent of Diodorus, both as
mobile missile platforms and as battle-taxis.53 Although Caesar does not
mention explicitly foot retinues fighting alongside chariots, their presence
is highly plausible. Indeed, speaking about British chariots, Tacitus (Ag.
12.1) states that some tribes fight also with the chariot. The higher in rank
is the charioteer; the dependents fight. The roles are reversed in
Diodorus text. On the contrary, in Irish literature the highest in rank is the
warrior and the charioteer is his dependent (as Cú Chulainn and his
charioteer Láeg on the Táin Bó Cúailnge), the same as in Diodorus.
Diodorus description of the chariot in battle mentions the warrior, the
charioteer and the shield-bearer, the latter two as dependents of the former.
A warrior triad is also suggested by Athenaeus in The Deipnosophists
(4.152), quoting directly Posidonius, although instead of charioteers
] and shield-bearers [
] he speaks about armour[
bearers [
] and spear-bearers [
]. In his description
of Gallic feasting, a hierarchy determined by skill in warfare, family or
wealth dictated how guests sat. Accompanying each guest:
] stand behind the
Armed men bearing oblong shields [
guests, and their bodyguards [
, better translated as spearbearers] sit opposite them in a circle, just like their masters, and eat
together.
Posidonius is describing the feasting of a group of warriors, highly
ritualized and employed as a way to strengthen their bonds.54 There is a
clear hierarchy, with a main warrior with his armour-bearer and his spearbearer. It is plausible that this passage would have figured alongside
Diodorus text on Gallic feasting55 in the original Poseidonian work. And
51
They carry long broad-swords which are hung on chains of iron or bronze and
are worn along the right flank
52
Rapin 1996, 516; 1999, 59.
53
Bradley 2009, 1088.
54
Brunaux 2004, 43.
55
When they dine they all sit, not upon chairs, but upon the ground, using for
cushions the skins of wolves or of dogs. The service at the meals is performed by
Trouble Comes in Threes: From Chariot to Cavalry in the Celtic World 179
although Athenaeus does not refer to chariots, my guess is that this kind of
ritual feasting would have been attended by high-status warriors, such as
those who fought in chariots. The warrior triad can also be inferred in
another text by Diodorus (5.32) (probably using again Posidonius as his
source) about the intercourse amongst Celtic men:
The Celts [ ] abandon themselves to a strange passion for other men.
They usually sleep on the ground on skins of wild animals and tumble
about with a bedfellow on either side.
Although Diodorus interest dwelt on the sexual overtones of the
practice,56 the passage could, in fact, reveal some kind of ritual bonding
amongst three men. The skins of wild animals (also mentioned as
cushions in Diodorus passage on feasting) are highly reminiscent of the
skins employed by some mannerbunde of young warriors in certain IndoEuropean societies,57 and it has been suggested that homosexual
intercourse could be a form of warrior bonding in Celtic and Germanic
societies.58
The iconography displaying Celtic chariots normally shows a warrior
and a charioteer, as found in early Irish literature.59 A funerary stele from
Albinagsego dated in the third century BC depicts a chariot60 carrying two
persons, one upright and the other seated on the rear of the vehicle.
According to Otto-Herman Frey,61 the former would be a warrior holding
the reins and a whip, and the latter would be his wife. However, the
presence of an oval shield on the side of the chariot, and a spear protruding
from the back of the upright character, indicates that we should consider
this instead as a depiction of a driver and warrior couple. Moreover, the
inscription on the gravestone, in Venetic, includes the two names of the
the youngest children, both male and female, who are of suitable age; and near at
hand are their fireplaces heaped with coals, and on them are caldrons and spits
holding whole pieces of meat. Brave warriors they reward with the choicest
portions of the meat Diod. 5.28.
56
See also Aristotle Pol. 1269b.
57
Speidel 2004, 10-49.
58
Neill 2009, 121-2.
59
Greene 1972, 62.
60
A bird flies over the chariot, bringing to mind a verse from one of the earliest
poems in the Ulster cycle, the Ro-mbáe: There were wild geese on the left side [of
the chariot], swans on the right side; our chariot was all red, the space between the
seats was full of heads (Ó Cróinín 1998, 154-5)
61
Frey 1968, 317-20.
180
Chapter Ten
deceased - both masculine, and the word ekupetaris, tentatively defined as
charioteer.62 On the reverse of the denarius issued by L. Hostilius
Saserna c. 48 BC,63 the driver appears seated on the front of the chariot
box, while behind a warrior stands upright brandishing a spear and an oval
shield. It is likely that Saserna went to Gaul with Caesar,64 and he perhaps
watched the British chariots in action. Some medieval Irish depictions of
chariots bear a striking resemblance to these Iron Age images. The image
on the Ahenny high cross, dating approximately to the 9th century AD, is
very similar to the Paduan stele.65 Other examples come for the
Clonmacnoise and the Monasterboice high crosses. Moreover, old Irish
words for the chariot warrior and his auriga clearly point towards two
men manning the vehicle. The noun for the chariot warrior was eirr,66 a
word that originally meant he who sits behind (*er-seds), while the noun
for the charioteer, arae, meant he who sits in front (*are-seds).67
However, we also have some depictions with only a single man on the
vehicle. The reverse of the denarii issued by L. Licinus Crassus, Cn.
Domitius Ahenobarbus and his associates, probably minted in Narbo in, or
shortly after 118 BC,68 depicts a chariot driven by an upright warrior,
holding the reins and a shield in his left hand and brandishing a spear in
his right. A carnyx appears behind the warrior. J. de Witte69 suggested that
the image could represent king Bituitus, routed and captured in 121 BC by
the father of Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus. Indeed, during the celebration of
Fabius Maximus triumph, The most conspicuous figure in the triumph
was king Bituitus himself, in his vari-coloured arms and silver chariot, just
as he had appeared in battle (Flor. 1.37.5). A single, winged, auriga,
appears on the reverse of a bronze issue of the Remi tribe, which can be
dated before 52 BC as some examples come from Alesia. The prototypes
for his image would be found on Hellenistic coins with Nike depictions. In
another Gallic issue of the first century BC, a stater of the Redones, a
woman drives a chariot pulled by a human-headed horse.70 A single,
upright warrior armed with spear and shield appears in a Galatomachy
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
Kispert 1971, 231-3.
Crawford 1974, 463.
Desnier 1991, 612.
Karl 2003, 13.
Greene 1972, 61: Also cairptech, derived from carpat, chariot.
Green 1972, 62.
Crawford 1974, 298-9.
De Witte 1882, 342.
Aldhouse-Green 1992b, 81.
Trouble Comes in Threes: From Chariot to Cavalry in the Celtic World 181
featured on the lower part of an Etruscan sarcophagus from Chiusi, dated
to the first century BC.71 The chariot from the frieze of Civitalba, dated
around the end of the second century BC,72 is also driven by just one man,
but according to Stead,73 the chariot depicted is more similar to Etruscan
or Greek models than to Celtic ones. Although probably inspired by the
Hellenistic iconography about the sack of Delphi and consciously seeking
a parallel with that event, the frieze perhaps reflects some local conflict
with the Cisalpine Gauls.74 It is interesting to note that two Gallic warriors
are depicted running alongside the chariot, with another one being
trampled by the horses. However, these examples do not mean that
chariots were single manned. In fact, although a single warrior could
control the chariot with the reins tied around his hips, as is sometimes the
case in depictions of Egyptian pharaohs and was sometimes practiced by
Etruscan and Roman race charioteers,75 it was a very hazardous feat and it
is difficult to believe this was the practice in battle.76 Both Caesar and
Tacitus make clear that charioteers and warriors manned the British
chariots. The examples we have just described owe more to ideal or
mythic equivalents (as the winged Nike on the Remic issue or the female
charioteer driving an androcephalic horse on the Redones stater suggest)
than to reality. This heroic, upright single driver is also doubtful if we take
a look at the etymology of the Gallic word for chariot, *essedon (Latin
essedum), that would simply mean what is sat in.77
Besides the warrior and the driver, the reading of Diodorus and
Athenaeus texts suggests that a third man would have been part of the
chariot fighting team. His absence in the iconographic record (except
perhaps in the Civitalba frieze), scarce as this is, was probably due to his
lower status and his minor importance in regard to the warrior and the
charioteer. Also Caesar, in his detailed description of British chariots, does
not make any mention of a third member of the chariot team. Perhaps
these fighters went unnoticed to his sharp military eye, unaccustomed as
he was to this kind of warfare? Perhaps the three-man chariot fighting
team was a peculiarity of mainland Europe when chariots still played a
part in war? In fact, the presence of this third man in battle makes sense. In
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
Stead 1965, 263-4.
Marszal 2001, 215.
Stead 1965, 265.
Marszal 2001, 216.
Anthony 2007, 400.
Quesada Sanz 2005a, 30.
Greene 1972, 62; Delamarre 2003, 166.
182
Chapter Ten
Bronze Age chariot warfare in the Near East, infantry runners fought
alongside the chariots, playing a crucial role in battle,78 and I think that
their presence in La Tène warfare is also highly plausible. In the initial
phase of the engagement, when chariots exchanged projectiles, the third
man could fetch javelins to his master (thence the name of spear-bearer?).
And once his master descended to fight on foot he could engage in the
fighting as well. A third function could be guarding the chariot while his
master fought.79 The readiness to dismount of the Gallic horsemen and the
frequent mingling of cavalry and infantry80 could be a further hint about
the presence of runners alongside chariots in fifth and fourth century BC
combat.
FROM THE CHARIOT TO THE TRIMARKISIA
The mere existence of mounted warriors on the battlefield does not
imply the existence of a proper cavalry, which implies a large number of
horsemen acting in a concerted way.81 At the early stages of the La Téne
culture, there were aristocratic warriors fighting on horseback (e.g. the
ones depicted in the fifth century BC bronze scabbard found at grave 994
in the Hallstatt cemetery),82 as in the late Hallstatt culture, but in all
probability they were not cavalry in the full sense. Their role would be
akin to the chariot. Either they clashed heroically with other elite warriors
on horseback or dismounted to fight on foot, as did the mounted hoplites
of archaic Greece or the Iberian horsemen of sixth and fifth centuries
BC.83 Chariots and mounted warriors were not of course used exclusively.
Both types of fighters could be present on the battlefield, as we know for
example at Sentinum (Liv. 10.28.6-11), or as Caesar found in Britain (B
Gal. 4.32; 5.15).
78
Drews 1993, 142-8.
A personal name as Eporedorix might indeed have preserved these kind of
runners, if it could be translated as King of men who ride after horses (Kelsey
1897, 43). However, the more accepted translation to Eporedorix is king of the
running of horses or king of the horsemen (Dottin et al. 1891, 103; Ellis 1967,
90-2; Delamarre 2003, 162). Other authors propose king of the trainers of horses
(Belloguet 1872, 413). The name may even disguise a magistracy as the Roman
Magister equitum (Jullien 1914, 345; Almagro-Gorbea 1995, 253). We know an
Eporedorix amongst the Galatians (Plut. De mul. vir. 259) and also in Gaul (Caes.
B Gal. 7.38), and an Eporedirix attested by epigraphy (Delamarre 20007, 96).
80
Pérez Rubio 2012, 18.
81
Gordon 1953.
82
Frey 1976, 176.
83
Quesada 2005b, 97-98.
79
Trouble Comes in Threes: From Chariot to Cavalry in the Celtic World 183
However, the importance of chariotry in mainland Europe decreased
during the third century BC. This was dictated by the new needs that
warfare imposed on migrating Celtic communities and mercenary war
bands,84 reflected both in the archaeological record and in the classical
sources, and the reason behind the new developments in the Celtic
panoply.85 The new mobile nature of warfare favored the speed and
flexibility that horses could provide. Furthermore, cavalry had several
advantages over chariots: it was more suited for broken terrain,86 it was
effective for reconnaissance (an impossible task for a conspicuous and
noisy chariot), it was much cheaper - with no need for the high
technological craftsmanship needed to build a cart87 and it was less
vulnerable than chariotry, as a wounded horse in a chariot meant a useless
vehicle. Finally, if a chariot needed two horses to move, carrying just a
driver and a warrior, but two horsemen meant two warriors, then, with the
same number of horses, an army could double its offensive power.
The chariot remained a prominent status symbol, and the dawn of a
proper Celtic cavalry did not mean its immediate disappearance. Even
the Galatians, credited with the trimarkisia by Pausanias, kept using
chariots, as documented by the dismantled chariot depicted in the carvings
of the temple of Athena Nikephoros at Pergamon amongst other Galatian
trophies.88 This ambivalence between the cavalry as the new elite arm,
whose importance kept growing in Celtic warfare,89 and the survival of
the chariot as a status symbol (and as such epitomizing the Gaul perceived
by the Romans), is reflected in the narrative of the battle of Clastidium in
222 BC by Propertius and Plutarch. According to Propertius (4.10) king
Virdomarus of the Gaesatae was killed by M. Claudius Marcellus while
fighting from his chariot: He boasted to be sprung from Rhine himself,
and nimble was he to hurl the Gallic spear from unswerving chariot. Even
as in striped breaches he went forth before his host, the bent torque fell
from his severed throat. But Plutarch (Marc. 6.4) wrote: For they [the
Gauls] were most excellent fighters on horseback, and were thought to be
specially superior as such, and, besides, at this time they far outnumbered
Marcellus. Immediately, therefore, they charged upon him with great
violence and dreadful threats, thinking to overwhelm him, their king riding
84
85
86
87
88
89
Szabó 1991.
Rapin 1991; 1996, 516; 1999, 54-61; Léjars 2013, 315.
Archer 2010, 71.
Furger-Gunti 1991.
Stead 1965, 262.
Pérez-Rubio 2012.
184
Chapter Ten
in front of them. Propertius, a poet from the Augustan age, sings about
the three occasions when spolia opima were dedicated at the temple of
Feretrian Jupiter; his description of a Gallic king is surely more indebted
to Roman topoi (chariot, striped bracae, torque) than to reality. On the
other hand, although Plutarchs sources for his Roman Lives are difficult
to ascertain,90 he probably is closer to reality and reflects Gallic cavalry in
the third century BC.
The trimarkisia appeared in this new context. If in Irish literature the
heroes were called eirr chariot man as if the ownership of a chariot
was their main mark,91 the Celtic elite warriors were now to express their
status in battle by riding three horses, supported by a retinue of two men,
as previously they did with a charioteer and a shield/spear-bearer. This
transition is somewhat similar to the transition between chariots and
cavalry in the Neo-Assyrian Empire. There, when mounted troops began
to appear in the ninth century BC they mimicked the charioteer/archer
couple:92 one man, the higher in rank, acted as an archer, while the other, a
shield bearer, held both horses reins. The maintenance of the fighting unit
in the Assyrian army was primarily dictated by practical needs,
particularly the efficient control of the mount,93 but it also signals a
conservatism in the conception of the new weapon. The displacement of
the chariot for the horse in Celtic warfare as the elite vehicle for battle
also conveyed this kind of hierarchical conservatism. The maintenance of
the number three as an ideal, so pervading in the Celtic mindset, could be
considered in the same way. We can speculate that the trimarkisia could
even have had a mythic equivalent, as in the undead triar marcach of The
Destruction of Da Dergas Hostel, messengers of destruction. Thus the
trimarkisia prolonged and maintained the social and mental implications
of the warrior triads and the chariot fighting, but adapted them to the new
realities of warfare. The later corollary of this would be the development
of the client-patron relationships and armed retinues, as the ambacti (B
Gal. 6.15) or soldurii (B Gal. 3.22) mentioned by Caesar.
Of course this pattern cannot be applied to the whole of Celtic
Europe, as in some places chariots were probably never used in battle.94
90
Mineo 2011, 124.
Greene 1972, 61.
92
Archer 2010, 71.
93
Quesada Sanz 2012, 15-6.
94
Although the distribution of chariot burials (a good map in Koch 2007, 116)
may perhaps indicate where in Celtic Europe chariots were used in warfare, we
91
Trouble Comes in Threes: From Chariot to Cavalry in the Celtic World 185
But some communities would have shared this (or a similar) military
institution, probably depending on the development of a proper cavalry as
demanded by their needs to wage war. The existence of knowledge
networks, with fosterage playing an important part in the exchange of
specialist knowledge between elite groups,95 would explain the diffusion
of the trimarkisia or similar institutions. James,96 speaking about the
movements between elite groups in the La Tène world, argues for a transethnic cultural koine, marking not common Celticness but a system of
interaction between societies which were in other ways culturally diverse.
Warfare as a sphere of elite behavior, auto-representation and interaction,
was a prime example of that trans-ethnic cultural koine, and in this
respect it is remarkable how mutations in the panoply seem to follow
quickly the same patterns and chronology throughout all temperate Europe
during the third century BC,97 with the Galatian attack against Delphi in
279 BC as an axis.98 An attack that according to Pausanias was
spearheaded by groups of three horsemen: the trimarkisia.
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