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The chariot changed the face of ancient warfare. First in West Asia and Egypt, then in India and China, charioteers came to dominate the battlefield. In 1274 B.C. at Kadesh in present-day Syria - where the untried pharaoh Ramesses II was nearly defeated by the Hittites - some 5,000 chariots were deployed in battle. Its use as a war machine is graphically recounted in Indian epics and Chinese chronicles. Homer's Iliad tells of the attack on Troy by Greek heroes who rode in chariots In 326 B.C. Alexander the Great faced charioteers in northern India, while in 55 B.C., on a Kent beach, Julius Caesar was met by British chariots. Even though the chariot was the favourite conveyance of both gods and kings, there were risks when it was driven at high speed. It is more than possible that the boy pharaoh Tutankhamun died from injuries sustained in a chariot accident. Because of the danger involved, chariot racing attracted hundreds of thousands of spectators. So enthusiastic were they that the Roman emperor Nero could not resist driving his own ten-horse chariot at the Olympic Games- he fell out but still won the prize. Rivalry between groups of spectators at chariot races often ignited urban riots. In Constantinople, in 532 A.D., a three-day disturbance left 30,000 dead. Yet great charioteers like Porphyrius still emerged. He was a champion into his sixties, provoking the comment that 'neither strength nor swift horses know how to win, but the brains of the charioteer.' This unique book traces the rise and fall of the chariot right across the Old World, from Britain to Korea. Illustrated throughout and exploring the chariot's legacy - not least as depicted in Hollywood films - it provides a broad-ranging and fascinating view of the world's first revolutionary war machine.… (more)
User reviews
Cotterell’s history moves around the globe in search of new and inventive source material about chariots. He follows its use from Mesopotamia to Egypt to Europe proper, and then to India and China. While there are great stories and illustrations of chariots, there is no full definitive timeline included. Nor is there a good bibliography, and he even goes so far as to use Homer’s works and the Bible as source material. I would have liked a slightly better scholarly approach to the subject, but the history was interesting nonetheless. Any history buff or military history enthusiast should give this one a look-see.
Cotterell contends that the chariot as a war machine was always used as a mobile archery platform. This is fairly sure for Egyptian and Indian chariots, not quite as plausible for Hittite and Chinese chariots, and pretty dubious for Mycenaean chariots. No Mycenaean chariot examples exist; everything is based on contemporary depictions and literature. All know depictions show Mycenaean chariots with the axle under the center of the car, unlike Egyptian chariots with the axle far to the rear. This would have made the Mycenaean chariot unstable in high speed maneuvers – but suitable for slow turns in tight spaces. The Iliad consistently describes the chariot as a battle taxi – hauling the spear-equipped warrior up to the front, then turned around in readiness to extract him in case of retreat. Cotterell’s arguments for Mycenaean archery chariots are based on the claim that this is what everybody else in the Bronze Age was using theirs for, and also on the slaughter of the suitors at the end of the Odyssey. The idea was Odysseus’ use of the bow was a holdover from an earlier version of the epic, and Homer had to keep it in after warfare styles had changed. Don’t think I buy that.
Nevertheless, there’s a lot of interesting stuff about Indian and Chinese warfare; these are periods I’m not at all familiar with and I am now inspired to do further reading. Fortunately, one of the major strongpoints of Chariot is the outstanding bibliography; not only is there a book list, but references are discussed at length with suggestions for which would be most suitable for an overview and which have details. Sort of kind of recommended.