Classical sources stress that chariots were used not in the heat of battle but as a means of getting to the fray. Roman armies encountered Gaulish chariots at Sentinum, and, as Arrian avers {Res Tactica XIX.2) that the Romans never practised fighting from chariots themselves, the foot soldiers particularly must have been thoroughly terrified when they met the Gauls. Standing erect in their chariots, the armed enemies came rushing at them with a great clattering of hooves and wheels, frightening the Roman horses by the unfamiliar din. Once the mad rush was over, the warriors dismounted and fought on foot. The attendant kept the chariot at the ready, in order to effect, if necessary, a speedy retreat (Livy, History X.28). A thousand chariots took part in the battle of Sentinum; at Telemon, perhaps the last battle on the Continent in which chariots were used, they were stationed on the wings (Polybius, Histories II.28).
Diodorus Siculus {History V.29.1; 21.5) explains that, when going into battle, the Gauls used two-horsed chariots that carried the charioteer and the warrior. The use of chariots, however, decreased as their prowess and agility as mounted soldiery increased, and chariots were certainly no longer common when Caesar was campaigning in Gaul, although there are a few late chariot burials. His army must have been surprised when, after crossing the Channel, they saw the British chariots drawn up against them. He described the scene. ‘They drive all over the field, hurling javelins and throwing the enemy-ranks into confusion by the terror inspired by the horses and the noise of the wheels. Then they jump down from their chariots and engage on foot.’ Caesar continues, ‘Their daily training and practice have made them so expert that they can control their horses at full gallop on a steep incline and then check and turn them in a moment.. .’ They ‘can run along the chariot pole, stand on the yoke, and get back into the chariot very speedily’ {De Bello Gallico IV.33).
At the battle of Mons Graupius in north-east Scotland (AD 83) Tacitus describes the Caledonians as receiving Calgacus’s speech (a literary device created by Tacitus himself) with an uproar of war-cries and confused shouting, as is their custom. Before the battle began, the charioteers {covinarii) filled the intervening space with noisy manoeuvring. They did not have much success, however, probably because the terrain did not suit that kind of warfare {Agricola 3 5-6).
Finally, as a picture of the Celtic love of flamboyant display, there is the appearance of Bituitus, king of the Arverni, in the Roman triumphal procession after his defeat (121 BC). There the most conspicuous figure was the king himself in his vari-coloured arms and silver-plated chariot, just as he had been when he fought in battle (Florus, Epitome of Roman History 1.37).
World History
