Antiquities Exhibits

I ran across these images of this fascinating chariot while researching the Roman cavalry relief in the Capitoline Museum.  I've photographed the beautiful Monteleone Etruscan chariot at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York dated to 530 BCE but have never seen this one before. Over 300 ancient chariots are known to still exist but only six are reasonably complete. Surprisingly, the chariot was actually invented to provide a moving platform from which soldiers could shoot at enemies with arrows or javelins before mounted cavalry was introduced into ancient warfare.  Scholars think the horses were initially weaker and unable to support a man.  They were eventually bred to be stronger until they could be mounted and rode about a millennium and a half after the chariot was invented. The first reference to chariots was found in Syria and dated to about 1800 BCE.  Scholars claim on suitable terrain the chariot was an effective weapon and the number of chariots compar...

Lorica squamata, was  a type of scale armor used during the Roman Republic and in subsequent periods. It was made up of small metal scales sewn together to form the armor. It is commonly seen in illustrations of banner bearers , musicians, centurions , cavalry troops, and even auxiliary infantry images, although it could have also been worn by regular legionaries. This type of armor was the same length as lorica hamata, with the same doubled shoulder straps. The individual scales were made of iron or bronze , and sometimes both metals were alternated in the same armor.  Some scholars have also suggested the use of hardened leather as well.  The scales were tied with wires in horizontal rows, these being in turn sewn or tied to the inner lining.  A complete example of lorica squamata has never been found.  Loose scales, on the other hand, have been found in numerous excavations including those in a non-military context. While looking through my images from the Ca...

The worship of Epona, "the sole Celtic divinity ultimately worshipped in Rome itself",  was the patroness of cavalry and widespread in the Roman Empire between the first and third centuries CE.  This is unusual for a Celtic deity, most of whom were associated with specific localities.  Evidence of her worship was first found in the Danubian provinces and scholar Fernand Benoît asserted that she had been introduced in the limes of Gaul by horsemen from the east.  However, although the name is Gaulish, dedicatory inscriptions to Epona are in Latin or, rarely, Greek. They were made not only by Celts, but also by Germans, Romans, and other inhabitants of the Roman Empire. An inscription to Epona from Mainz, Germany, identifies the dedicator as Syrian. Epona's feast day in the Roman calendar was given as December 18 on a rustic calendar from Guidizzolo, Italy. She was incorporated into the imperial cult by being invoked on behalf of the Emperor, as Epona Augusta or Epona ...

The Persians did not use cavalry to a great extent until Cyrus the Great  gave the Persian nobility both horses and the wealth to maintain them from the proceeds of his western conquests. He encouraged them to ride and it became a source of disgrace for a Persian noble to be seen walking.  Cyrus then recruited his cavalry from the nobles, creating a regiment of 15,000 men drawn from the Huvaka or “kinsmen.” These kinsmen adopted brightly-colored trousers and shorter tunics that were more suitable for riding from the Medes.  Cyrus adopted cavalry tactics from the Khorassan horsemen of northeastern Iran, parts of modern Afghanistan and the southern parts of Central Asia. He initially armed his cavalry with the standard weapons of the Persian infantrymen: bows, battle-axes, and oval shields. Later, they were re-equipped with short stabbing swords and throwing javelins instead. Long lances and spears made of wood or entirely of metal were used too. In the mid-5th century Pers...

When Ardashir I (r. 224-241 CE) founded the Sasanian Empire, he created a  standing army which was under his personal command and whose officers were separate from satraps, local princes and nobility. He restored the Achaemenid military organizations, retained the Parthian cavalry model, and employed new types of armor and siege warfare techniques.  Organizationally, the Shahanshah (the King of Kings) served as the head of the military and there were four military commanders under his authority. Initially, the offices of the Great King of Armenia, King of Meshan, King of Gilan, and King of Sakastan fulfilled these roles. After the reforms of Khosrow I, there were four spahbeds (Army Commanders), each for a cardinal direction. In the character of their warfare, the Persians of the Sasanian period differed greatly, though, from their forebears under the Achaemenid kings. The war chariot was no longer used, the  elephant corps was advanced to a very prominent and important p...

 The Byzantine army evolved from that of the late Roman Empire, but it became considerably more sophisticated in strategy, tactics and organization over time. The language of the army was still Latin, until the 6th century when Greek became the official language of the entire empire. Unlike the Roman legions, though, the Byzantines' strength was in its cavalry, especially the armored cataphracts, which evolved from the clibanarii of the late empire.  The Romans introduced armored cavalry after clashing with cataphracts at the battles of Magnesia in 190 BCE against the Seleucids, Trigranocerta in 69 BCE against the Armenians, and the disastrous Carrhae in 53 BCE against the Parthians. Parthian cataphracts became a constant threat from the 1st - 2nd centuries CE then their threat was replaced by the cataphracts of the Sassanian Persians in the 3rd century CE. Marc Antony and Cleopatra employed contarii (from the Greek kontarioi meaning lancers) in the 1st century BCE and, when T...

Early spurs had a neck that ended in a point, called a prick, riveted to the heel band. The spur was used by the Celts during the La Tène period (which began in the fifth century BCE), and is also mentioned by Xenophon (circa 430 - 354 BCE.) in his treatise "On Horsemanship".   When the horse is about to leap over any obstacle, Xenophon recommends applying the spur on takeoff, so that the horse will use his whole body over the obstacle and make a safer jump. If this is not done, Xenophon points out, he may lag with his hind end. Xenophon goes on to admonish those wishing to make a horse "showy" to spare the spur. He emphasized that the rider should not pull on the bit nor spur or whip the horse, as this type of riding causes the opposite effect, simply distracting and frightening the animal and causing him to dislike being ridden. Instead, Xenophon urges, the horse must enjoy himself. He should be trained to be ridden on a loose rein, to hold his head high, arch his...

A cavesson, also known as a Psálion, was a Roman or Thracian cavalryman's emergency brake.  "Its lower curved bar was connected to a lead rope attached to the saddle or wrapped around the rider's arm. The cavesson presses on the horse's nose, a very sensitive area, and is used for reprimanding a spirited horse, or simply keeping some control of it, when the rider has to let the reins go for fighting. It was also used for leading a horse on foot. On this example, the long angled shanks have a leverage effect increasing the strength of the rider's action on the nose (like today's hackamores)." - Metropolitan Museum of Art Developed as early as the 5th century BCE, it is described in the equestrian treaty of Xenophon (ca. 430-355 BCE).  Examples have been found throughout western Europe and in Britain as far as Hadrian's wall. Scholars think this distribution was the result of eastern cavalrymen, particularly Thracians, serving in the Roman army. Romulus ...

According to Arrian of Nicomedia, a Roman provincial governor and a close friend of Hadrian, face mask helmets were used in cavalry parades and sporting mock battles called “hippika gymnasia“.  Both men and horses wore elaborate suites of equipment on these occasions, often in the guise of Greeks and Amazons. Parades or tournaments played an important part in maintaining unit morale and fighting effectiveness. They took place on a parade ground situated outside a fort and involved the cavalry practising manoeuvring and the handling of weapons such as javelins and spears (Fields, Nic; Hook, Adam. Roman auxiliary cavalryman: AD 14-193). Calvary helmets were made from a variety of metals and alloys, often from gold-coloured alloys or iron covered with tin. They were decorated with embossed reliefs and engravings depicting the war god Mars and other divine and semi-divine figures associated with the military. To see a fascinating selection of these masks and read more about them check ...

Prior to the Republican period, Rome depended on their non-citizen allies to provide, train, and equip cavalry known as the Foederati. But, when the Republic transitioned into the Empire, Augustus created a regular Auxilia corps. Although still non-citizens, these troops were now a regular part of the Roman army that were paid and trained by the Roman State. A typical cavalryman of an ala would be paid 20 percent more than a typical citizen legionary. Roman auxilia cavalry were usually heavily armored in mail and armed with a short lance, javelins, the spatha long sword, and sometimes bows for specialist horse archer units. These men primarily served as medium missile cavalry for flanking, scouting, skirmish, and pursuit.  Riders and horses were housed together in the same barracks. Structurally, a cavalry alae of the type ala quingenaria consisted of 480 horseman (ideally) divided into 16 turnmae of 30  men each under a decurio. The ala milliaria, however, contained 1008 hors...

The power of mobility  given by mounted units in warfare was recognized early on, but was offset by the difficulty of raising large forces and by the inability of horses (then mostly small) to carry heavy armor. Nonetheless, there are indications that, from the 15th century BCE onwards, horseback riding was practiced amongst the military elites of the great states of the ancient Near East, most notably those in Egypt, Assyria, the Hittite Empire, and Mycenaean Greece. Cavalry techniques, and the rise of true cavalry, were an innovation of equestrian nomads of the Central Asian and Iranian steppe and pastoralist tribes such as the Iranic Parthians and Sarmatians.  Initially, riders had no spurs, saddles, saddle cloths, or stirrups. Fighting from the back of a horse was much more difficult than mere riding. The cavalry acted in pairs. The reins of the mounted archer were controlled by his neighbor's hand. Even so, at this early time, cavalry used swords, shields, spears, and bo...

Engraved horse pectoral from Roman Carnuntum, 1st century CE, at the Carnuntum Roman Museum in Petronell-Carnuntum, Austria. Carnuntum was a Roman legionary fortress (castrum legionarium) and headquarters of the Pannonian fleet from 50 CE. After the 1st century, it was capital of Pannonia Superior and grew to a city of 50,000 inhabitants. Its impressive remains are situated on the Danube in Lower Austria halfway between Vienna and Bratislava in the Carnuntum Archaeological Park. Carnuntum first appears in Roman history when Tiberius made it his base of operations in his campaigns against Maroboduus, a Romanized king of the Germanic Suebi in 6 CE. In 14 CE the town was selected as the garrison of Legio XV Apollinaris. From the 1st century BCE onward, most cavalry members came from provinces outside Italy and allied states and were classified as auxilia. Most Roman military awards were reserved for Roman citizens but auxilia cavalrymen received horse trappings for battlefi...