¹ See Crouwel 1981; also Lorimer 1950, chapter 5, especially 307-328, and Wiesner, J., Fahren und Reiten [Archaeologia Homérica F], (Göttingen 1968)Google Scholar. Littauer, M.A. and Crouwel, J.H., ‘Chariots in late Bronze Age Greece’, Antiquity 57 (1983) 187–192CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Other recent references are in M.A. Littauer and Crouwel, J.H., ‘New Light on Priam's Wagon?’, JHS 108 (1988) 194–196Google Scholar.

² The phenomenon appears to occur almost simultaneously in the three regions, with Cyprus perhaps a little earlier, then Spain, then Italy, although this could merely be due to the chances of preservation and excavation. In Cyprus, chariots are best documented at Salamis, although they were buried in other sites too (such as Tamassos and Palaepaphos): Karageorghis 1969, passim, with reference to individual Salamis tombs (especially Tombs 1, 3, 47 and 79: cf. Karageorghis, et al., Excavations in the Necropolis of Salamis 1–3 [London etc. 1967-1974])Google Scholar; Stary, P.F., ‘Eisenzeitliche Wagengräber auf der iberischen Halbinsel’, Madrider Mitteilungen 30 (1989) 151–183Google Scholar; Stary, P.F., ‘Orientalische Einflüsse in der frühen etruskischen Bewaffnung’, HambBeitrA 7 (1980) 23–37Google Scholar; and ‘Zur Bedeutung und Funktion zweirädriger Wagen während der Eisenzeit in Mittelitalien’, HambBeitrA 7 (1980) 7–21Google Scholar. Etruscan and Italic chariot finds are listed by Stary 1981, 466-469 list W61. Later finds, including chariots identified as modified for women drivers: Galeotti, L., ‘Considerazioni sul carro a due ruote nell'Etruria’, ArchCl 38–40 (1986-1988) 94–104Google Scholar. One of the best known Etruscan chariots is the parade piece (showing signs of wear) from Monteleone di Spoleto; wooden construction was recovered for another entombed chariot at Ischia di Castro (Vulci): illustrations and references in Emiliozzi, A., ‘The Monteleone chariot: from discovery to restoration’, in Antichità dell'Umbria a New York, eds. Bonfante, L. and Roncalli, F., exhibition (Perugia 1991) 103–120Google Scholar and Boitani, F. and Aureli, P., ‘Conservazione sullo scavo e restauro in laboratorio: alcuni recenti interventi’, in Etruria meridionale. Conoscenza, conservazione, fruizione = Atti del Convegno Viterbo, 1985 (Rome 1988) 127–130Google Scholar, pis. 53-62.

³ The weight of metal or even padded linen armour could be a considerable factor in situations that tax endurance, such as chariots harrying a routed infantry or, for instance, the prolonged battle of Kadesh (see n.28). For linen armour, see Tòrnkvist, S., ‘Note on Linen Corslets’, OpRom 7 (1969) 81–82Google Scholar.

⁴ Only a very lucky blow, by ancient weapons, could immediately penetrate a horse's vital organs; impediments to breathing or sight are likely to have been the most common threats, necessitating chest and face protection. Greek sources occasionally refer to what must be padded cavalry armour, side-pieces or ‘thigh-pieces’ which extend beyond the rider and help to protect his mount: Anderson, J.K., ‘Notes on Some Points in Xenophon's ’, JHS 80 (1960) 1–9, esp. 7-8CrossRefGoogle Scholar on 12.8; one illustration is also in Anderson, J.K., Xenophon (London 1984) pi. 7Google Scholar. We thank the Antichthon referee for this and more useful information. Even parade armour usually included face protection—see following note.

⁵ Ornamental versions of the trapper or housing covering a horse's body are shown in Egyptian and Near Eastern representations. The only preserved example is a linen fragment, obviously for parade, from the tomb of Tutankhamun: Littauer & Crouwel 1979, 88 pi. 62. More substantial, quilted or padded Near Eastern examples appear on a Hittite relief from Sakçagözü, the horse wearing a sort of kardiophylax, gorget and scaley housing similar to the warriors' armour coats (Littauer & Crouwel 1979, fig. 58). Crouwel 1981, 124-126, dispenses with an interpretation of an ideogram in the Knossos Sc tablets as referring to a horse trapping; Crouwel's pis. 132-133 illustrate a trapper on a representation from Enkomi and an Egyptian version—see also 126 n.43. Beaten bronze armour on leather backing was found on the horses in the Salamis tombs (breastplates, side pendants, headbands and blinkers): Karageorghis 1969, 85-87 fig. 21, etc. A sketch reconstructing a Cypriote horse's armour appears in Karageorghis, V., ‘Salamis’, in Cyprus B.C., 7000 Years of History (British Museum exhibition, ed. Tatton-Brown, V., London 1979) 71–72Google Scholar; pieces of parade horse armour appear on pp. 73-81. Etruscan teams from tombs wore protective phalera, convex bronze bosses affixed to leather harness over the temples and/or forehead, for instance, at Vetulonia: Camporeale, G. in Notizie degli Scavi 1966, 28–30 nos. 7-12Google Scholar; von Hase, F.-W., Die Trensen der Früheisenzeit in Italien [Prähistorische Bronzefunde, 16.1] (Munich 1978) 50–51 figs. 10-11Google Scholar; these are not to be confused with Greek so-called phalera as criticised by Snodgrass, A.M., ‘Bronze “Phalara”—a Review’, HambBeitrA 3 (1973) 41–50Google Scholar. Another type of horse armour is the triangular nosepiece (e.g., from Marsiliana d'Albegna: Minto, A., Marsiiiana d'Albegna [Florence 1921] 270–272Google Scholar fig. 29, pi. 35). Such small items could protect the most vulnerable parts of a horse without impeding its vision or endurance, and make battlefield use of horses realistically feasible. Snodgrass, A., Early Greek Armour and Weapons (Edinburgh 1964) 163–166Google Scholar discusses large South Italian chamfreins associated with large, lunate breastplates for the horses, apparently a non-Greek tradition.

⁶ Bronson, R.C., ‘Chariot Racing in Etruria’, Studi in onore di Luisa Banti (1965) 89–106Google Scholar.

⁷ See Bronson, R., ‘Three Masterpieces of Etruscan BF. Vase-Painting’, ArchCl 18 (1966) 23–40, especially 25-26Google Scholar; JHumphrey, .H., Roman Circuses: Arenas for Chariot Racing (London 1986) 16–17Google Scholar; Thuillier, J.-P., Les jeux athlétiques dans la civilisation étrusque (Rome 1985) 94–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar with references on the Roman Trigarium. An Assyrian triga clearly used in action appears in a battle scene of Ashurnasirpal II from Nimrud: Littauer & Crouwel 1979, fig. 53.

⁸ A ProtoAttic lid from the Kerameikos seems to be the only Archaic survivor of Greek triga representations, as noted by Moore (see n.12): Kiibler, K., Kerameikos 6.2 (Berlin 1972) no. 28, pi. 19Google Scholar.

⁹ A sample of depictions of other transport in Italy contemporary with the introduction and early popularity of chariots: Woytowitsch, E., Die Wagen der Bronze- und frühen Eisenzeit in Italien (Munich 1978) 37–39 no. 31, pl. 12Google Scholar (actual cart from Regolini Galassi Tomb, Cerveteri, 650 B.C.); 97-98 no. 251, pi. 46 (Murlo procession frieze, early sixth century B.C.); 84 no. 219, pi. 46 (representation on a gold ring of the sixth century B.C.). From the late eighth to mid-seventh century B.C., Etruria was apparently dependent upon Levantine sources for new military technology, according to Stary, P.F., ‘Orientalische und griechische Einflüsse in der etruskischen Bewaffnung und Kampfesweise’, in Aufnahme fremder Kultureinflüsse in Etrurien und das Problem des Retardierens in der etruskischen Kunst, Etrusker-Symposion Mannheim 1980 [Schriften des Deutschen Archäologen-Verbandes, 5] (Mannheim 1981) 25-40, here p. 40Google Scholar.

¹⁰ Two female personages are driven in a triga and a biga; the biga's team, however, are winged. It is tempting to identify the ladies as the military Fortuna (in the triga) and Mater Matuta, since in Rome they adorned a predecessor of the Republican shrine of those two goddesses. For discussion of interpretations, and illustrations of the type now termed ‘Procession U’ of the frieze plaque series Veii-Rome-Velletri, see Cristofani, M. (ed.), La grande Roma dei Tarquini (exhibition, Rome 1990) 92–93 nos. 11-15, 126-127 nos. 28-32Google Scholar, by Battiselli, P. and Arata, F.P., and references therein. Also illustrated by Mura, A. Sommella, ‘L'area sacra di Sant'Omobono. La decorazione architettonica del tipo arcaico’, La Parola del Passato 32 (1977) 62–128, here 71-78 figs. 6, 7, 9Google Scholar. Another plaque type, from Palestrina, depicts a hoplite entering a triga with winged team (followed by a normal biga): see Andren, A., ‘Osservazioni sulle terracotte architettoniche etrusco-italiche’, OpRom 8 (1971) 1–16, here pl. 1 figs. 1-2Google Scholar.

¹¹ For painted representations, see Bronson (above nn.6-7). For sculptural versions, Jannot, J.-R., Les reliefs archaïques de Chiusi (Rome 1984) pis. 172, 265, 268, 286Google Scholar. A race with three trigae is a Velletri architectural plaque type: Andren (above n.10) pi. 6, fig. 16. Race of bigae with single triga: frieze plaque type used at Rome and Velletri, La grande Roma dei Tarquini [cited previous note] 92-93 nos. 16-18, 201-203 nos. 1-5, also pl. 21 no. 8.6.2.

¹² See Moore, M.B., ‘The Death of Pedasos’, AJA 86 (1982) 578–581CrossRefGoogle Scholar on an illustration in Black Figure by Exekias. She cites conventions of vase painting to explain the discrepancies with Homer: four horses instead of three, with the left-trace horse doomed and shown with face frontal; and no spear in the horse's shoulder because there is no room to depict the thrower, Sarpedon. But perhaps Exekias could not accurately depict a configuration for which he had no contemporary models.

¹³ Iliad 16.466-469: it is interesting that when Sarpedon throws his weapon, it is a but when it pierces Pedasos' shoulder, it is called an

¹⁴ Thus, the time suggested for actual combat conditions was presumably the Late Bronze Age, approximately the sixteenth to eleventh centuries B.C., corresponding with the Late Helladic cultural phases. The Trojan War period is often conjectured as the thirteenth century B.C.

The term was probably meaningful as combat terminology—see Wace & Stubbings 1962,104.

¹⁵ Iliad 16.152: Lattimore, Richmond, trans., The Iliad of Homer (Chicago 1967) 334Google Scholar.

¹⁶ As Apollo/Mentes tells Hektor, ‘they are difficult horses for mortal man to manage, or even to ride behind them for all except Achilleus, who was born of an immortal mother’, Iliad 17.76–78Google Scholar, trans. R. Lattimore (above n.15) 356. They weep for dead Patroklos and refuse Automedon's commands, in spite of the whip, threats or entreaties (17.426-459) and Zeus seems to regret having bound them in mortals' service (17.442-453). Later, they (Xanthos) will talk back to Achilles himself, with a little help from Hera (19.404-417).

¹⁷ See Stubbings in Wace & Stubbings 1962, 521-522. Against this type of combat, see Crouwel 1981, 127 and n.51, 148-151, especially n.16.

¹⁸ Littauer, M.A. and Crouwel, J.H., Antiquity 57 (1983) 187CrossRefGoogle Scholar claim ‘the absurdity of a head-on chariot attack’, but this seems to be a straw issue, as there is no implication of such foolishness in the sources, nor would the horse teams allow this! Littauer and Crouwel took issue with the suggestion of Greenhalgh (Antiquity 54 [1980] 201–205CrossRefGoogle Scholar) that the Dendra corselet was chariot armour: they are probably correct, since it is extremely heavy and constraining (we suggest it was a special issue for some VIP non-combatant who had a need to view or supervise from a risky position). Other arguments against tactical Bronze Age chariotry focus on the fact that Aegean miniaturists never depicted four chariots together, but this can be explained in terms of the restrictions of artistic media.

¹⁹ Iliad 16.141-142, 19.388-389: Lattimore (above n.15) 334,402.

²⁰ Some Italic (Picene) warrior burials of the Archaic-Classical Periods contained chariots and related gear, including spears/lances 10 to 12 feet long (3 to 4 m.) with iron tips. See Stary 1981,43 and Stary, , HambBeitrA 7 (1980) 12Google Scholar. Rarely is it possible to measure spear lengths, but see the following note.

²¹ See Hammond, N.G.L., ‘Training in the Use of a Sarissa and its Effect in Battle, 359-333 B.C.’, Antichthon 14 (1980) 53–63, here 53-54 and n.5CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Illustration: Andronikos, M., ‘Sarissa’, BCH 94 (1970) 91–107CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The controversy over sarissa tactics and their introduction appears in: Markle, M.M., ‘The Macedonian Sarissa, Spear and Related Armor’, AJA 81 (1977) 323–339CrossRefGoogle Scholar and ‘Use of the Sarissa by Philip and Alexander of Macedón’, AJA 82 (1978) 483–497CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Contra, Rahe, A., ‘The Annihilation of the Sacred Band at Chaeronea’, AJA 85 (1981) 84–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Also Nylander, C., ‘The Standard of the Great King—A Problem in the Alexander Mosaic’, OpRom 14 (1983) 19–37Google Scholar.

²² [In contrast, a .458 Weatherby magnum firearm which will stop the charge of an African elephant has only 8,000 foot pounds of muzzle energy.] By comparison, the kinetic energy (K.E.) of a javelin is in the order of 200 foot pounds. A javelin with throwing straps might have double this energy. Modern athletic studies tend to be too precise to compare with ancient combat conditions, e.g.: Soong, Tsai-chen, ‘The Dynamics of Javelin Throw’, Transactions ASME Series E (USA) 42.2 (1975) 257–262CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hubbard, M. and Alaways, L.W., ‘Rapid and Accurate Estimation of Release Conditions in the Javelin Throw’, Journal of Biomechanics (U.K.) 22.6-7 (1989) 583–595CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

²³ Xenophon, , An. 1.8.20Google Scholar: Cunaxa, 401 B.C. and Arrian, Anab. 3.13.5–6Google Scholar: Gaugamela, where the light infantry broke the charge of 200 chariots with javelins and pulled down the drivers, and the phalanx then opened ranks letting the remaining chariots pass through to be dealt with by the cavalry. See Littauer & Crouwel 1979, 152-153. The Persian commanders in both cases had every expectation of success (with or without scythed wheels) based upon what must have been a standard Near Eastern ploy of frontal assault by massed chariots. Only advance warning and the superior discipline of the Greeks enabled them to prevail. In contrast, the attack of Pharnabazos on 700 foraging Spartans near Daskyleion in 395 B.C. suggests what the Persians expected: although the Greeks tried to regroup into a phalanx, two scythe-wheeled chariots were able to scatter them in a frontal charge, leaving them for 400 horsemen to cut down. The Greeks fled, leaving about 100 casualties (Xenophon, , Hell. 4.1.17–19Google Scholar, in Brownson, C.L., Xenophon Hellenica vol. 1 [Cambridge MA and London 1947] 270–271)Google Scholar.

²⁴ ‘Next he pulled out from its standing place the spear of his father, huge, heavy, thick, which no one else of all the Achaians could handle, but Achilleus alone knew how to wield it, the Pelian ash spear which Cheiron had brought to his father from high on Pelion, to be death for fighters in battle.’ (19.389–391Google Scholar; Lattimore [above n.15] 402.)

²⁵ Lorimer 1950, 258-261. See also Stubbings in Wace & Stubbings 1962, 518 on the presumed Mycenaean origin of the but cf. Crouwel 1981, 119 on the Shaft Grave stele suggested as evidence.

²⁶ Greenhalgh, P.A.L., Early Greek Warfare: Horsemen and Chariots in the Homeric and Archaic Ages (Cambridge 1973) 17–19Google Scholar feels that Iron Age chariots were always too expensive to risk in war except as transport behind the lines or for display. We might now take the view, based on Hanson's concept of consciously formalised hoplite battle (see n.30), that chariotry may have been considered too devastating to be permitted in Archaic battle. By the time of the ‘total war’ of the later fifth and fourth centuries, other strategies made chariotry not worth introducing. Greenhalgh does defend Bronze Age chariotry: see n.18 and ‘How are the Mighty Fallen’, ActaCl 21 (1978) 1-38, 23–25Google Scholar on formalisation of chariot warfare. Littauer and Crouwel in their works (passim), especially Antiquity 57 (1983)Google Scholar, are of the opinion that chariot combat did not occur in the Bronze Age Aegean. Some modern data on the feasibility of chariot driving appear in Spruytte, J., Études expérimentales sur l'attelage [contribution à l'histoire du cheval] (Paris 1977)Google Scholar.

²⁷ One of the few representations that attempts to depict massed troops in battle (often assumed to be the earliest clear picture of a hoplite phalanx) is the Chigi olpe, dated C.640 B.C. by Amyx, D., Corinthian Vase-Painting of the Archaic Period (Berkeley 1988) 1.31–33Google Scholar and 2.369. The problems of registering the depth and perspective necessary for a battlefield panorama are nearly too much even for the Corinthian miniaturist who shows the close ranks as lines of hoplites pivoting on point, like a line of chorus dancers. Illustrations: T. Rasmussen in Rasmussen and Spivey, N. (eds.), Looking at Greek Vases (Cambridge 1991) 57–62, 60 fig. 22Google Scholar; Arias, P.E. and Hirmer, M., A History of A Thousand Years of Greek Vase Painting, trans, and revised by Shefton, B.B. (New York 1961), pis. IV, 16 and 17Google Scholar. See Salmon, J., ‘Political Hoplites?’, JHS 97 (1977) 84–101, here 87-92 (also illustrates vases)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

²⁸ Reliefs at the Ramesseum, Abu Simbel and Luxor (1290-1223 B.C.): Yadin, Y., The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands (New York 1963) 1.103–110 and pis. 238-9Google Scholar. [Wreszinski, W., Atlas zur Altaegyptischen Kulturgeschichte (Leipzig 1935) 2, pisGoogle Scholar. passim, including 63/4, 81/2-85/9, 92-106, 169-178.] See Littauer & Crouwel 1979, 77 and fig. 45. The allies, although stylised like Egyptian troops in the reliefs, are portrayed in crews of three to each two-horse chariot. Yadin notes (88-89) the ratio of captured horses to chariots in this period is 3:1, perhaps indicative of standard teams of three which include a barded horse.

²⁹ Archives from Knossos and Pylos refer to very large numbers of chariots and/or parts, and in some cases (Knossos series Sc) seem to indicate palace distribution of standard equipage: 1 chariot, 2 horses and 2 cuirasses, presumably for driver and warrior. See Détienne, M., ‘Remarques sur le char en Grèce’, in Problèmes de la guerre en Grèce ancienne, ed. Vernant, J.-P. (Paris 1968) 313–318, here 314Google Scholar. A related tablet must be a muster roll of charioteers under the term a-ni-o-ko (Crouwel 1981, 128 n.55). Cf. Littauer, M.A., ‘The Military Use of the Chariot in the Aegean in the Late Bronze Age’, AJA 76 (1972) 145–157CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The hoplite pairs of the fourth century Theban Sacred Band styled themselves and ‘driver’ and ‘crewman’, presumably as a vestige from actual chariot fighting days: see Anderson, J.K., Military Theory and Practice in the Age of Xenophon (Berkeley 1970) 159 and n.35Google Scholar, also Greenhalgh (above n.26) 38-39.

³⁰ Hanson, V.D., The Western Way of War (New York 1989)Google Scholar; Hanson, V.D. (ed.), Hoplites: The Classical Greek Battle Experience (London 1991)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

³¹ The Western Way of War, 185 ff.