Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/616

ture of sinew, is precisely that which is still adopted by modern savages with their arrow-points of flint. The defensive armour of the heroic ages was also entirely of bronze. In consisted of helmet, cuirass, greaves, and shield. The helm was sometimes a simple casque, or close-fitting headpiece, but more frequently adorned with crest and plumes. The cuirass of bronze was often elaborately engraved and adorned with gold. The greaves covered the leg to the instep, and were either of bronze or some similar compound metal of great toughness and flexibility. The shield, round or oval in form, is described as of bronze, backed or covered with hide, and decorated with bosses and concentric rings of metal. We have a gauge of the size of Hector's shield in the lines—

"Hector of the gleaming helm
Turned to depart; and as he moved along
The black bull's-hide his neck and ancles smote,
The outer circle of his bossy shield."

Il. vi. 116–118.

Greek Historic Age.—In the early historic ages the characteristic weapons of the Greek armies were determined by the military tactics of the period. The mode of fight ing in heavy phalanx necessitated the use of long, heavy epears. The Hoplites when massed in phalanx stood sixteen deep, the men of each rank close together, shield touching shield, the pikes of each line, 21 to 24 feet long, projecting from 2 to 13 feet in front of the foremost rank at equal distances, The shield of the early monuments, though still large, is not nearly so large as that of Hector, usually reaching from the shoulder to the knee, and still retaining its round or oval form and bold convexity. On the early vases the shields are represented as adorned with a great variety of devices. We now find the helm having a lengthened neck -guard, side-guards for the face, frontlet, and prolonged crest, sweeping gracefully over the rounded top of the head-piece and falling down the back. At the time of the Peloponnesian war the linen corselet, so much in favour among the Egyptians, Assyrians, and Asiatics generally, was introduced instead of the heavy cuirass of the Hoplites, and a smaller shield substituted for the larger and heavier one previously in use, while the length of the sword was considerably increased. The light-armed troops were furnished with a light javelin provided with a strap or thong attached to the middle to assist in hurling it. The mounted troops were similarly equipped as to their defensive armour, and fur nished with a longer sword, a javelin, and a short dagger.

Egyptian.—The strength of the Egyptian armies in the earliest times consisted of archers, who fought either on foot or from chariots. The Egyptian bow was somewhat shorter than the height of a man. The string was of hide, catgut, or cord. The arrows varied from 24 to 34 inches in length, and were usually of reed, winged with three feathers and pointed with heads of bronze. These were sometimes cast with sockets and sometimes with tangs. Arrow-heads of flint are occasionally found in the tombs along with those of bronze, and Sir Gardner Wilkinson remarks on this, that " flint arrow-heads were not confined to an ancient era, nor were they peculiar to Egypt alone; the Persians and other Eastern peoples frequently used them even in war." The Egyptian archers were provided with a falchion, dagger, mace, or battle-axe, for close combat; their defensive armour consisted of a quilted head piece and coat, but they carried no shield, which would have been an impediment to the free use of the bow. The infantry were classified according to the weapons with which they fought, as spearmen, swordsmen, clubmen, and slingers. The spears were 5 or 6 feet long, with large triangular or leaf-shaped heads of bronze, socketed and fastened to the shaft by a single rivet through the socket. The spearmen fought in close phalanx, and were furnished with shields of a peculiar form, rectangular below and semicircular above, like a round-headed door, about half the height of a man. Their shields were covered with bull s hide, having the hair outwards, strengthened by rims and studs of metal, and furnished with a round sight- hole in the middle of the semicircular upper part. They had quilted helmets, and cuirasses of bronze scales or quilted with bands of metal, but no greaves. The early Egyptian sword was of bronze, straight, double-edged, tapering from hilt to point, and varying from 30 to 36 inches in length. Axes, with short handle and an oblong or crescentic blade, with segmental openings, fastened to the handle and unsocketed, maces and clubs of various forms, and short, leaf-shaped daggers of bronze, were also used.

Assyrian.—The Assyrian sword, as represented on the monuments, resembled the Egyptian, but was worn on the left side, slung in a nearly horizontal position by the waist- belt. The bow was also a favourite weapon with the Assyrians, and lances, spears, and javelins, with oblong, leaf-shaped and unbarbed heads, constantly appear upon the sculptures. The shield was round and convex; the helm frequently conical, truncated or curved forward, and with pieces to protect the neck at the back and sides. Their cuirasses were close-fitting tunics made of many layers of flax, plaited or interwoven, and hardened and cemented with glue, a species of linen corselet frequently referred to as in use also among the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans.

Etruscan.—The arms and armour of the Etruscans were in the main similar to those of the Greeks. Their cuirasses, however, were provided with overlapping shoulder-guards, a peculiarity not observed in Greek armour. The shields were round and exceedingly convex, the helmets of very various forms, with a general tendency to a deep, bell- shaped contour, adorned with an excessively elevated and elongated crest, and sometimes with alated projections of considerable height rising from opposite sides near the apex of the helm.

Roman.—The early Roman sword, like that of the Greeks, Egyptians, and Etruscans, was of bronze. We have no direct statement as to its form, but in all proba bility it was of the leaf-shaped form so universally charac teristic of this weapon in bronze. We gather from the monuments that, in the 1st century B.C., the Roman sword was short, worn on the right side, suspended from a shoulder-belt, and reaching from the hollow of the back to the middle of. the thigh, thus representing a length of from 22 inches to 2 feet. The blade was straight, double-edged, and obtusely pointed. On the Trajan column (114 A.D.) it is considerably longer, and under the Flavian emperors the long, single-edged spatha appears frequently along with the short sword. The characteristic weapon peculiar to the Romans, however, was the pilum. The form of this weapon and the mode of using it have been minutely described by Polybius, but his description has been much misunderstood ill consequence of the rarity of representations or remains of the pilum. It is shown on a monument at St Remi, in Provence, assigned to the age of the first emperors, and in a bas-relief at Mayence, on the grave-stone of Quintus Petilius Secundus, a soldier of the 15th legion. A specimen of the actual weapon is in the museum at Weisbaden. It is a pike with a stout iron head, carried on an iron rod, about 20 inches in length, which terminates in a socket for the insertion of the wooden shaft. As represented on the monuments, the iron part of the weapon is about one-third of its entire length, and its junction with the wooden part of the shaft is fortified by a knob or swelling which is peculiar to this weapon. When used as a javelin at short distances it had a most embarrassing effect. Piercing the