by Brian Fagan
Several of the excavated mounds commemorated lesser figures, usually just a man and his horse. But Kurgan 11 was another matter. The mound contained a man in his thirties who had met a violent death, a woman who had died later, and thirteen sacrificial horses, killed after being adorned with their full ceremonial regalia. The excavators removed the horse carcasses from the soil in still-frozen earthen blocks, and then excavated them carefully in the laboratory. Bridle tack displayed plaques depicting real and mythical animals like griffins, which have the heads of eagles and the bodies of lions. Decorated wooden bands on the other animals displayed stylized heads of animals and mythic beasts. These were no ordinary horses, for they wore pendants and garlands and red felt saddle blankets that glittered with gold ornaments.
The Berel kurgans preserve the wealth of elites who spent much of the year with their own small tribal groups, moving with the seasons by horse and sometimes camel. In a classic transhumance pattern, they tended flocks of sheep and goats in higher-altitude summer pastures, moving to the lowlands in winter. From late autumn and winter campsites, parties of mounted warriors embarked on raids to acquire not only animals but also the luxury goods cherished by the elite. They, in their turn, used such booty for ceremonial displays and distributed exotic artifacts to key followers as part of an endless process of alliance building, which was the key to power on the open plains.
Warfare from horseback developed out of necessity in a world of enormous distances and chronic mobility. Cavalry horses were something new. They can have become a potent weapon only among people who lived and breathed riding and who developed extremely close relationships with their beasts. Just training a horse for combat, let alone fighting with it, was a challenge, a task achieved in steps. It involved transforming a highly temperamental animal, with an instinct to take flight, into a quite different beast. A cavalry horse had to be unfazed by loud noises, to face acute danger, and to maneuver rapidly, jumping without notice and galloping at human command. Such horses also needed to be higher and larger than the squat beasts, whose ancestors were the tarpan and Przewalski’s horse, too small for use in cavalry units. Larger horses were faster, more agile, and had more stamina. Their additional stature made it possible to fight from horseback with lances. Quite when such larger steeds were first bred remains uncertain, but their descendants turned the Scythians into the world’s best light cavalry.
Xenophon’s Mantras
Hard-learned strategic lessons gradually passed southward from the steppes into chariotry circles. Centuries passed before the Assyrians learned the art of cavalry fighting from their neighbors the Urartians of present-day eastern Iran, who had ready access to the steppe and fought almost entirely in hilly terrain, where chariots were useless. Once convinced of the value of mounted warfare, the Assyrians learned quickly. They trained drivers to control a pair of horses unencumbered with chariots, the second rider being purely a bowman. The strategy was so successful that, inevitably, nomadic ways of fighting from horseback became deeply embedded in Assyrian and later armies. Metal bits replaced bone ones; single riders rode into battle instead of maneuvering in pairs. The Assyrians acquired ever-larger numbers of horses from the steppes, and then started breeding them themselves on a large scale, as they turned cavalry from a mob of individual riders into a powerful strike force. Chariots became an anachronism, reserved for ceremonial occasions and parades.
A regiment of disciplined horsemen could deliver well-timed hammer blows against the enemy. By now, Assyrian kings had learned the new rules of warfare. Nearly 2,000 of King Shalmaneser III’s cavalrymen attacked 3,940 chariots in a battle against Levantine forces at Qarqar in 853 BCE, capturing numerous chariots and their horses. By the reign of King Sargon II in the eighth century, his armies had many more cavalrymen than chariots.
Cyrus the Great (578–530 BCE), the founder of the First Persian (or Achaemenid) Empire, was both a brilliant administrator and an expert strategist who knew well the value of horse-mounted shock troops. Darius I (who reigned 522–486 BCE) was the third Achaemenid monarch, who expanded the empire to encompass twenty provinces between the Aegean and the Indus River, conquered by fast-moving cavalry with superior weapons. He campaigned against the Scythians on the open steppe, but as we have seen, they evaded him, saying that they would attack only if he assaulted their kurgans. By the time of King Xerxes, who tried in vain to conquer the Greek city-states in 480 BCE, the Persian cavalry mustered eighty thousand horses, but equestrian might was powerless in the face of the naval supremacy enjoyed by the Greeks.
Not that the Greeks were unskilled equestrians. The historian, soldier, and philosopher Xenophon achieved historical immortality by helping lead a force of ten thousand Greeks from the heart of Persian territory to the Black Sea. In his seven-book Anabasis, describing the journey, Xenophon devoted one volume to the training and owning of horses with a philosophy quite different from that of Kikkuli. He urged trainers to treat horses kindly by touching and caressing them. “As the result of this treatment, necessarily the young horse will acquire—not fondness merely, but an absolute craving for human beings.” One aimed to train one’s steed to “adopt the very airs and graces which he naturally assumes when showing off to best advantage, you have got what you are aiming at—a horse that delights in being ridden, a splendid and showy animal, the joy of all beholders”12—wise words, adopted as gospel by thousands of cavalrymen over the centuries. Alexander the Great is said to have been strongly influenced by the Anabasis.
Xenophon’s guidelines for horse care and training endured through Roman times and into the Middle Ages. His recommendations persisted in part because they were effective and also because his distinctive methods worked well with beasts ridden bareback, with only a cloth for the rider, and no stirrups. Riders practiced with wooden vaulting horses in a gymnasium. When a rider prepares for the spring onto the horse’s back, Xenophon advised, “let him pull up his body with his left hand, and keep his right hand straight to raise himself.”13
For all the emphasis on charges and killing, the essence of the entire cavalry experience was the close, even emotional partnership between the horse and its rider. The Macedonian general Alexander the Great entered legend when he succeeded in taming the Thessalian horse Bucephalus (“Oxhead”) at age twelve, when he noticed that the horse was afraid of its shadow. Bucephalus was his closest companion during years of conquest. The Macedonians were superb horsemen, trained by horse masters to fight in close formation. The eight hundred “King’s Companions,” armed with thrusting spears, were near-invincible when pitted against Persian cavalry. At the Battle of Issus, on the Syrian Plain in 333 BCE, Alexander and his five thousand horsemen routed King Darius’s eleven thousand cavalry by attacking in constricted terrain where the Persians could not deploy their full cavalry forces. By the time of Alexander’s death in 323 BCE, cavalry had effectively superseded chariots on the battlefield.
Chariots remained popular for hunting, display, and racing. Assyrian king Ashurbanipal adorned the walls of his palace with masterful bas-reliefs of a royal lion hunt in his game park, now beautifully displayed in London’s British Museum. We see the caged lions being released and an enthusiastic crowd cheering on the king as he releases arrows from his chariot. The carefully organized event was a remote ancestor of medieval royal hunts in Europe many centuries later. Chariots evolved into light, strong vehicles, assembled by using bent wood, leather, and metal to produce fast, durable conveyances pulled by trained beasts of a type resembling modern-day Arabians. These were expensive conveyances that required skilled artisans to maintain them and cosseted stabling for the horses. Just obtaining the different kinds of hay for the diet of high-performance steeds required special effort. Such feeding placed heavy demands on local subsistence farmers. Piggott estimates that a single pair of chariot horses in late prehistoric Britain would have required a crop of barley from three to four hectares (eight to ten acres) annually.14
Possessing chariots involved
far more than buying a vehicle. The wealthy owner had to acquire teams of trained horses, a staff to look after them, and, above all, trained charioteers who had a close working relationship with the horses and who were capable of driving in combat or racing the chariot, caring for the horses, and repairing the vehicle, if need be. It was no coincidence that charioteers were individuals of high status, often equal to that of the passenger. Among the Akkadians, the charioteer was a mariann, a member of the nobility. In Egypt, landowning officers fought from chariots. Above all, chariots were vehicles of pleasure and prestige, much used in public displays and processions.
The Noble Animal and Lesser Beasts
For the Romans, the horse was the prestige animal, ridden by emperors, princes, and generals. On campaign, horses were the mounts for the emperor and his entourage when they went in the field, as they were for generals. The horse elevated the leader above his army. It was a symbol of authority, part of the mystique of kingship and leadership. Inevitably, the horse became a noble animal, named and cherished, its hide polished to a gloss. Alexander’s was named Bucephalus. The names given chariot racing horses and the tradition of naming noble mounts went back deep into history, for they were really part of the family. Horse breeding became a profitable business in Roman times, in part because of a demand for fine horses and racing animals as well as for strong military beasts.
Roman cavalry engaged in intricate exercises in peacetime, with young riders wheeling, separating, and engaging in mock fights. Those who performed in these games were of noble rank and wore helmets and yellow plumes.15 They wore tightly fitting trousers, quite unlike the loosely tailored pants used by Persian cavalry. All this lavish display was hardly typical of classic Roman restraint and sobriety. Emperors and high officials were models of public dignity. A surviving equestrian statue of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (who reigned 161–180 CE), in gilded bronze, shows him riding without stirrups on a horse whose front right foot is raised, perhaps to rest on a now-vanished figure of a barbarian, someone outside the law.
Figure 11.2 Emperor Marcus Aureliius as the epitome of public dignity. Ken Durden/Shutterstock.
A noble horse, such as Marcus Aurelius’s steed, often called Magnus equus, “the great horse,” was a larger beast, perhaps standing around 150 centimeters (about 5 feet) and a superior breed in the Roman lexicon. There were pack and military horses as well, often stockier animals used for hauling loads on roads and on the farm. By medieval times, a European packhorse could carry between 99 and 150 kilograms (218 to 330 pounds), probably somewhat similar to Roman loads.
As the Roman Empire grew and consolidated, horses played an increasingly important role in warfare. They were fast, could navigate rough terrain, could be trained for durability, and carried significant loads. They could also forage for themselves on the move, an important strategic advantage. By day, the cavalry formed a protective screen around marching legions and baggage animals. Mounted scouts ranged widely at night. The best cavalry marched at the rear, to guard against surprise attacks. The Romans based their cavalry in what is now Milan. The huge road network that linked all parts of the empire allowed mounted regiments to deploy rapidly when rebellion threatened. At the same time, mounted couriers and official chariots carried mail from one province to another, using changing stations to acquire fresh horses. The couriers rode along the edge of the road, which carried for the most part either regiments or plodding donkey or mule caravans. With frequent changeovers, such riders could cover as much as 385 kilometers (240 miles) in a day.
Roman horses were heavier than Scythian mounts, which made them more susceptible to heat stress. Unlike horsemen from the steppes, the Romans did not have access to unlimited numbers of beasts. They levied horses from Gaul, Thessaly, and elsewhere and raised them on ranches in the most fertile regions of Italy. They pastured them in the mountains in summer, where the rocky terrain toughened their hooves, like those of donkeys. From the outset, military horse trainers conditioned their charges for the clamor and disorder, as well as the violence, of battle, teaching them to jump deep trenches and to swim across rivers, just as the Assyrians had done in earlier centuries. Cavalry maneuver frequently, twisting and turning in such a manner that makes bareback riding ineffective. Inevitably, some form of rigid saddle came into use, perhaps adopted from the steppes to the east.
So successful was Roman breeding of high-quality mounts that export of them to subject peoples was forbidden. Of horses, the scholar and rancher Marcus Terentius Varro remarked, “As some horses are fitted for military service, others for hauling, others for breeding, and others for racing, all are not to be judged and valued by the same standards. Thus the experienced soldier chooses his horses by one standard and feeds and trains them in one way, and the charioteer and circus-rider in another; and the trainer who is breaking horses for riding under the saddle or for the carriage does not use the same system as the man who has military service in view; for as on the one hand, in the army, they want spirited horses, so on the other hand they prefer more docile ones for road service.”16
As we shall see in chapter 14, the centuries that followed witnessed the increasing influence of Christian doctrine on the ways in which people treated animals. Biblical teachings, with their messages of dominance, replaced Xenophon.
CHAPTER 12
Deposing Sons of Heaven
Northern China, 1200 BCE. The light chariot stands atop a low ridge overlooking a shallow valley near the Huang He River. Flies swarm around the beautifully matched horses. Their tails swish gently in the hot air. Shang Dynasty ruler Wu Ding and the driver stand motionless in the small conveyance, feet slightly astride on the plaited-leather floor. The expressionless leader steadies himself with a hand on the heat-bent wooden rail. Banners flap lazily in the morning air. In the valley itself, his troops are stationary, weapons at the ready, eyes on the massed ranks of their enemies. A raised hand from the chariot, officers shout, the regiment advances. Dense clouds of dust swirl around the conflict, so the driver eases the horses ahead. The spoked wheels of the mobile command post squeak gently over the rutted ground.
We know of such chariots only as ghosts. They stand in deep burial pits near the city of Anyang, once capital of Shang Dynasty rulers, surviving as dark casts in the soil excavated by twentieth-century archaeologists.1 At least eleven beautifully fashioned chariots have been found. Delicate brush strokes have uncovered their wheels, each with between eighteen and twenty-eight spokes, far more than the four to eight of such vehicles in the West. The skeletons of the driver and the matched horses lie in place, ready to carry their master in the next world.
Chinese Chariotry
Chariots appeared suddenly in China, during the reign of the Shang ruler Wu Ding, in about 1180 BCE.2 By any standards, they were sophisticated wheeled vehicles, constructed with an elaborate technology of bent wood and leather identical to that developed thousands of kilometers away in the West. They came from the steppe—fully refined, horse-drawn weaponry that conquered the vast distances of Mongol country with an effortless panache made possible only by the horse.
Not that the horse was unknown in China at the time the chariot appeared. Domesticated horses had spread rapidly eastward across the steppes, to arrive in eastern China earlier in the second millennium BCE. The first were squat beasts that served as pack animals. They hauled carts and wagons for the privileged nobility. Then came the chariot, the equivalent of a Cadillac or Mercedes in the Shang world. The nobility embraced the new conveyances with enthusiasm. Important leaders used them as mobile command posts on the outskirts of a conflict. Brilliantly caparisoned with banners and harness bells, Shang chariots were prestigious transportation on public occasions and for battle command, not necessarily for actual fighting. When a ruler died, his chariot accompanied him, as did dozens of sacrificial victims, many of them prisoners bound and buried alive, decapitated, or just plain butchered.
The Shang fought numerous wars on the northwestern steppes, which yie
lded not only prisoners, but rich hauls of horses and weaponry. In time, they found at least some allies among the frontier tribes, from whom they acquired horse trainers, wheelwrights, veterinarians, and other experts to maintain and drive what was a revolutionary technology to people who had been farmers for millennia. Just managing the horses demanded unfamiliar skills from people who dealt habitually with farm animals.
The Zhou, who overthrew the Shang in 1045 BCE, were the first Chinese to use light chariots in combat on the battlefield.3 They deployed three hundred chariots and archers with composite bows against their Shang foes at the Battle of Muye, despite being outnumbered, and trounced them. The ruler Wen, who founded the Zhou Dynasty, is said to have been a “barbarian,” a man from the steppes, which probably accounts for his mobile strategy. Massed regiments of chariots, many of them with four-horse teams, became popular throughout northern China within a few centuries. Competing rulers fought constantly from the fifth to third centuries in a bewildering morass of violence, this apart from Mongol raids from the north. War brought technological innovation. Iron metallurgy arrived from the steppes by 800 BCE. Chariots became ever more elaborate. Lustrous metals provided ornamentation that turned the conveyances into status symbols, often awarded by rulers as rewards for meritorious service on or off the battlefield.
Barbarian Horseman
The northern borderlands suffered under a classic regime of nomads encroaching on settled lands along a porous frontier where people traded horses and cattle for grain and other agricultural products. The climax of the trade came in the fall, when steppe animals were fat and the harvest was over. In some years, the Chinese failed to open their markets. Invariably, nomadic horsemen descended to raid grain stores. More organized warriors on horseback first appeared on the steppes north of the frontier by 484 BCE. They advanced and retreated with bewildering rapidity, never striking at the same location, and almost invariably in larger numbers than the defenders. Defense was a nightmare for a much-slower-moving soldiery scattered along a long frontier. Accurate bowmanship and complete mobility proved so effective that three northern states built walls to deter the invaders as they penetrated ever deeper into China’s heartlands.
