most numerous body, and composed the strength of their armies. Vast numbers of archers were incorporated with the army of Vercingetorix in his wars with Cæsar 2. Huntingdon mentions them in the British army 3; and from Giraldus Cambrensis it appears that the Welsh archers were remarkably expert and formidable. Their bows were made of wild elm, unpolished, rude and uncouth, but stout; not calculated to shoot an arrow to a great distance, but to inflict very severe wounds in close fight. They would pierce oaken gates four fingers thick 4. When Marius defeated the Cimbri, their dogs defended the baggage for some time against the victorious Romans. Strabo says that the Gauls used them in the front line of their armies; and the Britons also. According to Dr. Meyrick's Plate, they were of the mastiff or bull-dog kind 5. The cavalry were mounted on small, but hardy, mettlesome horses, which they managed with great dexterity. They rode without saddles, and the bits of their bridles were of bone. They were armed with clubs, wooden slings, small curved swords (Aribens), or long spears with shields. They wore brazen helmets, with huge appendages, the Mantell Gedenawg, or shaggy cloak, appointed for horsemen in the Welch laws, trowsers and shoes. It was usual for these horsemen, as well as those of the Gauls and Germans, to dismount, when occasion required, and fight on foot, having their horses so well trained that they stood quietly where they were left till their masters returned. It was also a common practice to mix an equal number of foot soldiers, who were famed for swiftness, with the cavalry, each of whom held by a horse's mane, and kept pace with him in all his motions. This mode of fighting was practised by the Highlanders of the Scots army, so late as the civil wars in the time of Charles 1.6 The use of war-chariots was confined to certain provinces; and it was customary to post the men of different districts distinctly (as the Gauls are said by Cæsar to have done) that each party might have an opportunity of displaying their valour 7. Ossian says, that fires were erected in the night, and scouts or sentinels sent abroad. I shall not quote Tacitus and Cæsar for their tacticks in the field, but close the paragraph with a singular circumstance. The irascibility of the Welsh is proverbial; and Zosimus says, the soldiers stationed in the British Isles were more prone to insult and anger than all the rest 8. Roman-Britons. There was a partial mixture, as is mentioned by Huntingdon, of the Roman Tacticks. His accounts are these. The Saxons beat the Picts and Scots, because they fought close with battle-axes and long swords, the latter only with darts and spears. Thus they retained, in this respect, the old British practice. În the battle of Cinric and Ceaulin his son, the Britons, pursuing the clan system, formed nine divisions, three in the van, three in the centre, and three in the rear, the archers, lightarmed men, and cavalry, being disposed in the Roman manner; but the Saxons formed one compact body, and, rushing in, so as to render their lances useless, brought them to close action From the accounts of the Picts in the last author, and the Welsh, in Knighton 10, it appears evident, that the British tacticks were chiefly applied to fighting on hills, &c. as Caractacus with Ostorius, and Galgacus with Agricola, in an impetuous, but desultory way; and that both the Romans and Saxons conquered by close action, in compact bodies, and the protection of armour. Huntingdon mentions a mock retreat of the Britons in order to draw the Saxons into defiles. 1 Meyrick's Costumes, 19. 4 Meyrick's Armour, i. 55, 56. 2 B. Gall. viii. c. 7. 6 Id. 19, 20. 7 Strutt's Horda, i. 4. 8 Τους ταις Βρεττανικαις νήσοις ενιδρυμένους, οια των αλλων απάντων πλεον αυθάδεια και θυμω νικωμένους. Hist. August. iii. 760. 9 L. ii. int. Scriptor. p. Bed. fol. 180, &c. 10 Dec. Scriptor, 2449, 2464. Tacticks of the Anglo-Saxons. In forming their armies, the following regulations were observed. All such as were qualified to bear arms in one family were led to the field by the head of that family. Every ten families made a tithing, which was commanded by the Borsholder, in his military capacity stiled Conductor. Ten tythings constituted a hundred, the soldiers of which were led by their chief magistrate, called sometimes a Hundredary. This officer was elected by the Hundred, at their publick court, where they met armed, and every member, as a token of his obedience to him, touched his weapon when chosen, whence the Hundred Courts, held for this especial purpose, were called Wapen-takes, a name still retained in Yorkshire. Several Hundreds were called a Trything, corrupted into Riding, and this was commanded by an officer, called a Thrything-man, and the whole force of the county was placed under the command of the Heretoch, or General. When the King did not command himself, an officer was appointed, called the Kyning's-hold, or King's-lieutenant, whose office lasted only during the year. Every landholder was obliged to keep armour and weapons, according to his rank and possessions. These could not be alienated: there were stated times of exercising, and once a year a general review in every county1. They fought with their spiked shields and swords (says Strutt 2), much like the Roman Gladiators. In the battles of Vortimer with Horsa, the Saxons rushed on with such impetuosity, that they routed Catigern's division; but the Britons, under Vortimer, took Horsa in flank, and defeated him. The fugitives repaired to Hengist, who was in vain fighting with Ambrosius and (fas est ab hoste doceri) his wedge.formed army; but in the next year the Saxons remained complete conquerors, by means of their swords and battle-axes 3. Grose, hereafter quoted, shows that the foot with the battle-axes was placed in the van. Thus, while they protected the body with the shield, they struck with the dreadful weapon mentioned. Asser Menevensis says that they usually fought in close phalanx, like the Roman Testudo, choosing, if possible, the higher ground; and it is well known that the Normans obtained the victory at Hastings by enticing them to break through a mock retreat. 4 Tacticks of the Danes. They disposed their armies in the form of a wedge. Cavalry was little regarded in the North; some soldiers, however, who served both on foot and horseback, were commonly stationed in the flanks 5. Tacticks of the Normans, English, &c. Cavalry, among the Anglo-Saxons and Danes, was mostly used to prevent attack in flank, but the Normans introduced the long-bow, and the chief use of cavalry as the main force. Instead of the battle-axe foot in the Anglo-Saxon front, they placed bill-men, crossbow-men, and archers. The tacticks, however, practised in these æras, are given at large, under the reigns, by Dr. Meyrick. The following particulars occur in the Chroniclers. The operations of armies were principally checked by the inhabitants removing provisions, &c. The expenses of the army were paid by the conquered. The dead were sometimes said to be put in salt for concealment of the number killed. It was a rule to cease from warfare upon holy seasons 9. The choice of ground was much valued 10. The strength of the army, viz. the heavy-armed cavalry, was posted in the rear, the van being of foot, as also the centre, or of horse and foot mixed 11. The front rank sometimes received the enemy by kneeling down, fixing their lances en chevaux de frise, and projecting 2 Horda, i. 29. Huntingd. Script. p. Bed. 178. b. 7 Dec. Scriptor, 2678. " Id. 703. 4 Int. 8 Ibid. 1 Meyrick's Armour, i. lxvi. lxvii. XV. Scriptor. 183. 5 North. Antiq. 6 M. Paris, 519, 526. 9 Scriptor. p. Bed. 110. a. 10 Dec. Scriptor. 809. their shields'. Horsemen were endeavoured to be taken by cutting the saddle-girths, and grasping the rider round the neck. Three battalions were most usual both in march and action 3. When the archers had expended their arrows they fell back upon the men at arms 4. Sometimes we find three battalions and a rear guard 5. Upon occasion the archers mixed with the men at arms; and seized the battle-axes from the hands of the enemy 6. Hedges and bushes were especially regarded as protections in drawing up the army, because they prevented them from being so easily broken 7. The posts of honour for the bravest knights was at the bridle of the king's horse 9. The form of a harrow was usual for drawing up the army, even to the extent of a league 9. We also find suburbs burnt; summonses of surrender; the winter employed in transporting provisions and making engines; trees cut down to stop roads; pits and ditches dug, then covered with hay, &c.; reconnoitering; residing in tents out of a town, for fear of fire, because the town had no wall; workmen accompanying the army to build fortifications; honour kept up by punishing disgraceful acts; the armies attended with a mob from all quarters; esquires counted with servants; confession, &c. of the soldiers before action; unwillingness to go to war without the king; the fatigue and heat of the armour, the death of many; resting at night, and seeking security at other times in woods; suburbs set on fire to provoke action; close order; marching in time, and various other particulars 10. ARSENAL. The Romans had arsenals upon all the frontiers, but when the Encyclopedists mention the particular one in the Cælimontium at Rome, they should have added from Herodian 11, that these contained arms more for the publick shows than Both arsenals and armouries occur in the Middle Age 12. use. BAGGAGE. BAGGAGE WAGGONS. The latter conveyance was the Roman Vehiculatio, which Nerva remitted to Italy, and on that account, coins were struck in his honour 13. Hyginus says that beasts of burden were also used; and that, though the modes were various, when the enemy was near, the baggage was often placed in the middle of the army; when approaching, all in one place; when distant, after the legions 14. The soldiers, as appears from the Trajan column, suspended their bundles upon their spears. Froissart notes, that the Scots carried a small bag of oatmeal behind the saddle; that we had baggage, and sumpter horses; but that in extremities, a loaf, in the manner of hunters, was sometimes slung behind; and the baggage at night left in a wood 15. Our armies were encumbered with great quantities of it 16, as ovens, hand-mills (first carried with the army by Edward III. 17), forges for horse-shoes, leather boats for fishing in ponds against Lent; besides hawks, hounds, &c. so as to fill upwards of 6000 carts 18. It was left under the care of the Vexillarii, and burned, if it could not be conveyed away 19. Our Carriage-master-general was the Roman Impedimentorum magister. BEACON. Beacons on the tops of hills are mentioned by Isaiah. The Greek and Roman beacons consisted of bundles of very thin and dry wood placed upon lofty specula or watch-towers, and the notice would travel a hundred miles in half an hour 20. 1 Dec. Scriptor. 1248. iii. 181. 6 Id. 189. 2 Id. 2459. 7 Id. vii. 266. Froiss. i. 58, 80, &c. 4 Id. 363. 5 Froiss. 9 Id. ix. 293. 10 Decem Scriptor. p. Bed. 421, 12 Du Cange, v. Archi15 Froiss. i. 49, 19 Dec. Scriptor. 2449, Scriptores, 905, 2404, 2575, 2582, 1033, 1247, 2453, 2493, 2500, 2614, 2623. 11 vii. 29, p. 239. ed. Paræus. nale, Tarsenatus. 13 Du Cange, v. 50, 65. 16 Grose, ii. 311. 2552, 2624. 17 Froiss. iii. 2. 20 Augustin. de civit. Dei, 342. Tiberius established signals of smoke and fires lit by night, as was usual in the fortification of camps, lest the enemy should make a sudden attack. Collinson makes them large fire hearths of unwrought stones, as at Dunkery Hill, county of Somerset. Mr. Smyth says, that they were originally stacks of wood, but became temp. Edw. III. mere posts and pitch-pots, i. e. cressets at the top of a pole, ascended by a slanting jagged stick. [See the Plate, p. 257, fig. 12.] A tower kept by a hermit, with a light by night, is mentioned for a beacon 4. Three only in Warwickshire gave notice to six adjacent counties 5. Watchmen were placed by night; the hobilers, or lighthorse, serving by day, at different stations, ready to start. Du Cange mentions Beconagium, as a tax to support them; and Carew 6 says, they became obsolete in the sixteenth century through a means of assembling the people in a manner less disorderly. Mr. Nichols mentions a famous beacon at Hinckley, in Leicestershire, which could convey intelligence into the counties of Dorset, Nottingham, Rutland, and Northampton. Dr. Ducarel thinks, that where the towers of churches stand in high situations, and the pinnacles are not alike, that the difference proceeds from beacons having been placed upon them. Among these he places Hinckley church 7. CHEVAUX DE FRISE, were used by the Ancients. They also appear upon coins of the Licinia family. The Lilia were stakes half-buried in the ground in a ditch, and had a gross resemblance to the stamens of the lily, placed in the centre of the petals 9. COUNTERSIGN. This is the pass-word in camps and garrisons. Militemus was one of the Romans 10, though they had tesseræ, or tickets besides [see GUARD, p. 710]. The Anglo-Saxons called it Cumbl, or Cumbol 11. EXERCISE. The Greeks and Romans learned the use of arms with artificial weapons; and the same method was practised in the Middle Age 12. FABRICA, or manufactories of arms, were established in the Roman towns, near the military roads and frontiers; the workmen (Fabricenses) being enrolled and attached to each, under the inspection of Consuls 13. FLOGGING. A Classical military punishment 14 applied to soldiers, who had alienated certain parts of their armour, and committed certain other offences 15. In our army, it was till recently inflicted with switches 16 FURLOUGH. The Roman military Commeatus 17. GANTLET, RUNNING THE. This military punishment is the Roman Fustiarium, where the Tribune, armed with a light stick, struck the first blow, and the whole army followed 18. Among us, the offender, naked to the waist, was struck by each soldier with a switch, a serjeant holding a halberd to his breast to prevent his going too fast, or tied up, and struck by each soldier with a cat 19. GREEK FIRE. This was a composition, employed in the Crusades, to burn ships, &c. said to have been invented by Callinicus, an architect of the seventh century, but probably by Arabian chymists 20. From the ingredients, however, which formed the burning tow, annexed to the Falarica, it appears to be of Oriental, and far more dis Suet. Tiber. lxv. nesse MS. fol. 344. wall, 85. B. Civil. iii. 67.. ophrast. Humerale. 107, 108. 2 Somersetshire ii. 5. 3 Blome's Heraldry, 626. Smyth's Berkeley, Hyr4 Rot. Parl. 6, 7, 8. Henr. VI. 5 Bibl. Topogr. Brit. vii. 69. 7 Bibl. Topogr. Brit. vii. 69. In the Archæologia, vol. i. is a treatise upon 10 Capitolin. in Pertinax. " Lye in voce. 16 Grose's Milit. Antiq. ii. 107. 17 Enc. 18 Polyb. vi. 35. 6 CornBeacons. 8 Cæs. 12 Casaub. in The15 Du Cange, v. 19 Grose, ii. tant extraction, being mentioned by Pomponius Sabinus and Vegetius 1. It cannot, therefore be conceded, that Callinicus invented it. Before this period the Greeks had used fire-ships, which they called xaтabолuρpopo, and adopted for that purpose vessels called xexavoia, whence the Parisians denominated a barge chaland. The term xataCoppupos implies, " carrying fire for the purpose of being ejected," and sharp bolts of βορφυρος iron, covered with tow well oiled and pitched, were thrown to set fire to engines. The vessels selected to carry it were called dgwuoves, and they had erected on their prows large tubes of copper [the siphons.-see Du Cange in voce], through which these fires were blown into the enemy's ships. In land-battles the soldiers blew it through copper tubes. It was sometimes discharged in balls from crossbows and pereires. In appearance it was like a large tun, and its tail of the length of a long spear. The noise which it made resembled thunder, and it seemed a great dragon of fire flying through the air, and giving so great a light with its flame, that the camps were as luminous as in the broad day. As these were fancifully shaped into the mouths of savage monsters, that seemed to vomit a stream of liquid and consuming fire, they gave origin to those tales, so current at the period of the Crusades, of encounters with fiery dragons. The ships were covered with cloths dipped in vinegar, to resist it. In the fourteenth century the use of it was superseded by gunpowder 3. GUARD. Among the Romans, the guard was changed eight times in twenty-four hours, by sound of trumpet. The Consul was at first guarded by his ordinary cohort; afterwards every corps mounted guard around his quarters: three guards were mounted besides; one at the quarters of the Quæstor; the two others at those of two Legates of the Consul. The Tergiductores led the guard, who drew lots which should begin. The first were brought to the Tribune on duty, who distributed the order of the guard, and gave besides to every guard a small tessera called Signum, with a mark, and afterwards the rest did the same. The rounds were made by the cavalry, four for day, and four for night. The first took the orders of the Tribune, who gave them in writing, what guard they were to visit. If they found all right, they only took the tessera which the Tribune had given, and brought it to him in the morning. The Velites mounted guard around the entrenchment, without, within, and at the gates. The Pretorian guards on the Trajan column are distinguished from other soldiers, by wearing the sword on the right side (as in Saumaise on Spartian, p. 135, 136), though the officers have it on the left. They also hold the fore-finger of the right hand, and that arm elevated, in token of fidelity and obedience. The other arm leaned upon the shield. The guard was placed by the sound of the military flutes, and relieved by that of the crooked trumpets 4. In the Middle Ages, the guard in towns and castles appointed a watch at night, but went themselves to sleep 5. King Henry V. went round the guard himself every night. In the year 765, sentinels were obliged, when on 2 Univ. Hist. xvii. 580. • Meyrick's Armour, i. 73. Joinville, i. 137, 323-331. Meyrick's Armour, i. 73-75. In this work ii. 39. is an authentick account of the composition of it, as follows; "Take of sulphur vivum 1lb., of colofany [common resin] 1lb., of pitch used for naval purposes 1 quarter: of.... opoponax [extract of opoponax] 1 quarter, of pigeons dung well dried 1 quarter: let all the before mentioned be well pulverized, and then resolve them in turpentine water, or oil of sulphur vivum aforesaid; and then put them altogether into a strong glass vessel, the mouth of which should be well closed, and put that vessel for fifteen days in a hot oven; afterwards distil the the whole in a distilling vessel, in the manner of spirit of wine, and keep it for use. In another place the same writer [J. Ardene, an eminent surgeon temp. Edw. III.] states, that the Greek fire chiefly consisted of turpentine water slowly distilled with turpentine gum, and • Enc. that it was ignited by throwing water upon it." Id. p. 40. s Froissart. 6 Elmham, p. 46. |