Scythed chariot

Andre Castaigne

(1898-1899).

The scythed chariot was a war chariot with scythe blades mounted on each side. It was employed in ancient times.

History

The scythed chariot was a modified war chariot. The blades extended horizontally for about 1 m (3 ft 3 in) to each side of the wheels.

.

The Greek general Xenophon (430−354 BC), an eyewitness at the battle of Cunaxa, tells of them: "These had thin scythes extending at an angle from the axles and also under the driver's seat, turned toward the ground".^{[full citation needed]} Serrated bronze blades for chariot wheels have also been excavated from Zhou-era pre-imperial Chinese sites.

Dismissing completely 17th to 19th century ideas of a

In addition, Nefiodkin has responded to the critic J. Rop, summarising that the ancient historian Ctesias of Assyria is unreliable, and that scythed chariots were developed in order to fight ancient Greek hoplite formations, or more generally, heavy infantry.[4]

Persian wars

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The scythed chariot was pulled by a team of four

(infantry). The scythed chariot avoided this inherent problem for cavalry by using the scythe to cut into the formation even when the horses avoided the men. A disciplined army could diverge as the chariot approached, and then re-form quickly behind it, allowing the chariot to pass without causing many casualties. War chariots had limited military capabilities. They were strictly an offensive weapon and were best suited against infantry in open flat country where the charioteers had room to maneuver. At a time when cavalry were without stirrups, and probably had neither spurs nor an effective saddle, though they certainly had saddle blankets, scythed chariots added weight to a cavalry attack on infantry. Historical sources come from the infantry side of such engagements i.e. the Greek and Roman side. Here is one recorded encounter where scythed chariots were on the winning side:

The soldiers had got into the habit of collecting their supplies carelessly and without taking precautions. There was one occasion when

Agesilaus, who happened to be close at hand with the hoplites.^[5]

The only other recorded example of their successful use seems to be when units of

in 89 BC. (Appian)

Roman encounters

Westminster Pier shows British Celtic queen Boudica in a scythed chariot as commissioned by Prince Albert and executed by Thomas Thornycroft

(completed in 1905).

Despite these shortcomings, scythed chariots were used with some success by the Persians and the kingdoms of the

Stratagems

2,3,17-18) There is a statement in the

Scriptores Historiae Augustae

Severus Alexander LV that he captured 1,800 scythed chariots. This is universally regarded as false.

Late in the Imperial period, the Romans might have experimented with an unusual variant of the idea that called for cataphract-style lancers to sit on a pair or a single horse drawing a "chariot" reduced to a bare axle with wheels, where the blades were only lowered into the fighting position at the last moment. This would have facilitated manoeuvring before battle. This at least is a reasonable interpretation of the rather enigmatic De rebus bellicis section 12-14.

Saharan tribes

In the northern Sahara nomadic tribes called Pharusii and Nigrites used scythed chariots c. 22 AD, as Strabo reports: "They have chariots also, armed with scythes."^[6]

Celtic Britain and Ireland

Regarding the Roman conquest of Britain, contemporary Roman geographer Pomponius Mela mentions:

They make war not only on horseback but also from 2 horse chariots and cars armed in the Gallic fashion – they call them covinni – on which they use axles equipped with scythes.^[7]

There is no accepted archaeological evidence concerning scythed chariots. There are some large heavy scythe blades from late Roman Britain which are too unwieldy for a man to use.

However, a scythed chariot appears in The Cattle-Raid of Cooley (Táin Bó Cúailnge), the central epic of the Ulster cycle of Early Irish literature.^[8]

Leonardo da Vinci

One of Leonardo da Vinci's ideas was a scythed chariot.^[9]

• 
  Detail of the model of the scythed chariot by Leonardo exhibited at

  Museo nazionale della scienza e della tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci

  , Milan
• 
  Detail of the rotating scythes

References

Sources

• Nefiodkin, Alexander K. (2004), "On the Origin of the Scythed Chariots", Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, 53 (3): 369–378
• Rivet, A.L.F. (1979), "A note on scythed chariots", Antiquity, 53 (208), York, UK: University of York: 130–132,
  S2CID 163269832

External links

Media related to Scythed chariots at Wikimedia Commons