is said by Herodotus of the Persian cavalry taking any part in
the battle, although he mentions that Hippias recommended the Persians
to land at Marathon, because the plain was favorable for cavalry
evolutions. In the life of Miltiades which is usually cited as the
production of Cornelius Nepos, but which I believe to be of no authority
whatever, it is said that Miltiades protected his flanks from the
enemy's horse by an abatis of felled trees. While he was on the high
ground he would not have required this defence, and it is not likely
that the Persians would have allowed him to erect it on the plain.

But, in truth, whatever amount of cavalry we suppose Datis to have had
with him on the day of Marathon, their inaction in the battle is
intelligible, if we believe the attack of the Athenian spearmen to have
been as sudden as it was rapid. The Persian horse-soldier, on an alarm
being given, had to take the shackles off his horse, to strap the saddle
on, and bridle him, besides equipping himself (Xenophon), and when each
individual horseman was ready, the line had to be formed; and the time
that it takes to form the Oriental cavalry in line for a charge has, in
all ages, been observed by Europeans.

The wet state of the marshes at each end of the plain, in the time of
year when the battle was fought, has been adverted to by Wordsworth,[50]
and this would hinder the Persian general from arranging and employing
his horsemen on his extreme wings, while it also enabled the Greeks, as
they came forward, to occupy the whole breadth of the practicable ground
with an unbroken line of leveled spears, against which, if any Persian
horse advanced, they would be driven back in confusion upon their own
foot.

[Footnote 50: _Greece_.]

Even numerous and fully arrayed bodies of cavalry have been repeatedly
broken, both in ancient and modern warfare, by resolute charges of
infantry. For instance, it was by an attack of some picked cohorts that
Caesar routed the Pompeian cavalry--which had previously defeated his
own--and won the battle of Pharsalia.

INVASION OF GREECE BY PERSIANS UNDER XERXES

DEFENCE OF THERMOPYLAE

B.C. 480

HERODOTUS

The invasion of Greece by Xerxes is the subject of the great
history written in nine books by Herodotus. His object is to show
the preeminence of Greece, whose fleets and armies defeated the
forces of the Persians after these latter had triumphed over the