Cavalry in Ancient World

Xenophon analysed cavalry practises of several city states when he saw that the Athenians lost their battles  against specifically the Boeotians who grew stronger with their hamippoi formations, cavalry intermingled with infantry. He therefore put recommendations forward to the city of Athens to improve their cavalry. He wanted them to adopt the Boeotian tactics which required them to improve their horsemanship on the level that they would be able to 'collect' their horses on the battlefield so they would be able to control them in even very slow paces but also be able to accelerate really fast. He describes several exercises and formations to practise this. He hoped that by doing so the Athenians would be able to gain back their hegemony as a counter weight to the rise of Thebes. This thesis offers an overview of cavalry tactics, cavalry training and a history of military horsemanship, which is the technology of cavalry warfare.

In this article it is argued that a livestock perspective can help revitalise and modernise the archaeology of ancient Macedon - a region whose archaeology has been biased towards culture-history and a preoccupation with dead kings and their tombs, not to mention, marred by nationalist narratives on all sides. By tracing military innovations and drawing parallels from the writings of Xenophon, as well as, synthesising recent archaeological discoveries from northern Greece, a picture is painted of 5th-4th century BCE Macedon in which horses and humans share a unique bond. Evidence is marshalled to characterise this bond as being built on a profound understanding of horses, their needs and capabilities. Through this lens, it is possible to re-examine this archaeology with a focus that is a) on the living past and b) not limited to elites. Finally, future directions are suggested for excavations which could elucidate further the place of horses in ancient Macedonian society.

At the Hydaspes River Alexander found himself confronted with a river in flood and an Indian King determined to prevent him from crossing.  This paper examines the diversions and subterfuges Alexander used to lull King Porus into a false sense of security.  The paper then examines the troops Alexander had assembled to lead across the river by both listed units and named commanders, to determine the actual composition of this attack force.

Xenophon analysed cavalry practises of several city states when he saw that the Athenians lost their battles  against specifically the Boeotians who grew stronger with their hamippoi formations, cavalry intermingled with infantry. He therefore put recommendations forward to the city of Athens to improve their cavalry. He wanted them to adopt the Boeotian tactics which required them to improve their horsemanship on the level that they would be able to 'collect' their horses on the battlefield so they would be able to control them in even very slow paces but also be able to accelerate really fast. He describes several exercises and formations to practise this. He hoped that by doing so the Athenians would be able to gain back their hegemony as a counter weight to the rise of Thebes.

Ce livre est une version très remaniée de la première partie de ma thèse et se veut une contribution à l'histoire de la culture équestre dans le monde grec antique. Fondée sur les sources littéraires, épigraphiques et iconographiques, l'auteur expose les spécificités de l'élevage, les types de montures et leur intégration dans les cavaleries, ainsi que les pratiques, les techniques, les savoirs et les métiers.

*Compte-rendu d'Insula (blog de la Bibliothèque des Sciences de l'Antiquité - Lille 3) :

http://bsa.biblio.univ-lille3.fr/blog/2016/02/elevage-et-dressage-du-cheval-de-guerre-en-grece-ancienne/

I potenti cavalli di Tessaglia furono protagonisti sotto le mura di Troia guidati da intrepidi achei su sofisticati carri da combattimento e vennero abbondantemente documentati nell'Iliade, opera ascrivibile al IX secolo avanti Cristo narrante le gesta della guerra di Troia, combattuta nella tarda età del bronzo, tra la fine del XIII e l'inizio del XII secolo. Con gli equidi, negli scontri tra carri e nelle gare di velocità negli ippodromi, furono valorosi eroi gli aurighi. Celebre il caso di Ettore il quale dovette cambiar auriga per ben tre volte, perché nello scontro i cocchieri perdevano la vita più facilmente del guerriero che montava sul carro in posizione più protetta e si scontrava con l'avversario ben protetto dalla corazza e dallo scudo. Il primo auriga di Ettore fu Eniopeo, ucciso da Diomede, il secondo, Archeptolemo, abbattuto da Teucro, infine il terzo, Cebrione, vittima di Patroclo. 1 Particolarmente eroica fu anche la gara all'ippodromo di Olimpia del 476 avanti Cristo cantata da Pindaro per descrivere il confronto tra cavalieri in una competizione al galoppo trionfata dal destriero sauro Ferenico 2 , portatore di vittoria, di proprietà di Ierone, tiranno di Siracusa, il quale commissionò a Pindaro un epinicio in onore del successo, un canto corale dalla metrica rigorosa composto in onore degli atleti vittoriosi. Le più grandi conquiste militari dell'uomo nel mondo antico venivano spesso associate al cavallo, anche soltanto in via simbolica. La storia ci ha tramandato la vicenda di Bucefalo, il cavallo del più grande conquistatore dell'antichità, Alessandro Magno, ma sono parimenti noti i nomi dei cavalli di numerosi imperatori romani, come Incitatus, il cavallo di Caligola. Nell'epica classica e nella storia greco-romana molti fieri corsieri si sono dunque ben guadagnato il loro meritato posto d'onore accanto a re ed eroi.

This is the first of two chapters looking at the battle of the Hydaspes.
The chapter looks at Alexander’s entry into Taxila and his journey to the Hydaspes River.
In this chapter I will discuss issues such as the cause of the battle, the dating of the battle, and review how much we know of where the battle was fought.  I will also discuss the composition of the Indian army under Porus, and the way Alexander’s Companion cavalry had been reorganised as Hipparchies.

The city of Athens performed cavalry inspections as an assessment of not only
the condition of the horses, but also of the acquired training level. Horse values
on lead tablets show that cavalry horses were evaluated each year, but these
values do not equal the amount of katastasis or loan granted by the state to each
cavalryman to purchase his warhorse. In this article, it will be proposed that
these values were insurance values attributed during state monetary evalutations of cavalry horses. On the horse market, these values may also have been
used as a guideline to establish selling prices for the horses. In such case, the
values attributed by the state could well have functioned as incentives for the
cavalrymen by means of which the Council tried to ensure that the horses received optimal training

L’Athénien Xénophon (environ 428 – environ 355 avant Jésus-Christ) est l’auteur d’une œuvre considérable. Outre les Helléniques, qui raconte l’histoire du monde grec dans la première moitié du IVe siècle, ou bien les Mémorables, qui rapportent les enseignements de Socrate, il est connu pour avoir écrit l’un des premiers traités équestres du monde occidental. Ce cavalier athénien, qui a parcouru les vastes espaces de l’Empire perse lors de l’expédition des Dix Mille, et qui a combattu auprès des Spartiates tout en ayant renié quelque temps sa cité d’origine, a acquis une solide expérience équestre qu’il a voulu, par souci didactique, fixer par écrit. Outre l’Art équestre, qui donne des conseils que l’on peut suivre encore aujourd’hui, il a rédigé un traité destiné à un commandant de la cavalerie (l’Hipparque), dans lequel il conseille d’utiliser souvent la ruse dans les combats. Ce sont donc deux traités inestimables, ici mis en valeur par la belle traduction de l’helléniste Paul-Louis Courier (1772-1825).

At about 350 B.C. Xenophon of Athens (ca. 430/425 – 355 B. C.) composed the Hipparchikos, a treatise on the cavalry commander, his duties, and the organisation, training and leading of the Athenian cavalry.
Xenophon himself had served in the Athenian cavalry as a young man during the last years of the Peloponnesian War and also under the Thirty Tyrants (404-403 B. C.). Afterwards he had accompanied the army of the Persian prince Kyros the Younger among other Greek soldiers and then – after the defeat and death of Kyros and all his Greek generals at Kunaxa (401 B.C.) –  had been elected as  general and had led this army back home to Greece, where many of the survivors of the Greek mercenary soldiers under Xenophon’s command joined the Spartan army under king Agesilaos. He fought for the Spartans for several years.
Thus, we can consider Xenophon an experienced horseman and commander, who writes about commanding the cavalry as an expert.
In my paper, I will first provide an overview of content and structure of the Hipparchikos focussing on the narrative. Afterwards I will discuss the text within its historical and political context. Regarding the context as well as the structure and style of the book, the main topic of my paper will be the addressee and the function of the text. It aims to answer the question whether the Hipparchikos is either a mere theoretical essay of an old military expert and therefore a kind of a memorandum for the Athenians to take care of their cavalry, which was in a bad state at that time, or instead an actual manual for Athenian cavalry commanders as an instruction to restore the cavalry and to make it both combat ready and presentable.

Part 5 of Chapter 1 of my thesis is now available. After a short clarification at the start, this section remains largely as it was in the original paper. The new work is in a blue text. The section concentrates on the Persian cavalry. In it, I look in particular at Darius' battle lines at Gaugamela, identifying a number of ethnic units as cavalry that were never specifically named as such. And I look as well at what appears to have been the standard size of Persian cavalry units for tactical purposes.

In this section of my thesis I turn my attention to Alexander's cavalry units, starting with those units I regard as light cavalry. The discussion examines both the nationalities of those units, together with their arms, armament and combat capabilities. Units considered include allied Greek cavalry, Thracians, Odrysians and Thessalians.

A new section has been added in which I conclude my review of Alexander's infantry with a discussion of the allied soldiers and mercenary troops in his army. This is then followed by a brief introduction of the section on Alexander's cavalry.
This section contains some significant revisions, including a discussion of the peltasts , which I will move to the Light Infantry section in my final study, plus to the introduction to the Cavalry section, which has also been rewritten to flag coming revisions to the Light Cavalry discussion.

In this section, I look at Alexander's Heavy Cavalry, the Companions, Prodromoi and Paeonians, and the revolutionary tactical change these units brought to cavalry combat at that time – their capacity to charge home. The section also includes a brief discussion on the organisation of Alexander's cavalry, and the ways he commanded his army in battle. (Detail from the Battle of Issus mosaic, Naples Archaeological Museum, 2018.)