s of development under the British
constitution, are less capable of acquiring an inherent vitality?

The age of Belisarius was deeply imbued with the military spirit of the
middle ages; and Belisarius was himself as proud of his accomplishments
as a daring horseman, a good lance, and a stout bowman, as of his
military science. Cavalry was the favourite portion of the army in his
day, and he shared in the general contempt felt for infantry. The
horsemen were sheathed in complete steel; and their helmets,
breast-plates and shields, were impenetrable even to the shafts of the
Persians, who drew their bow-strings to the right ear, and threw
discredit on the prowess of the Homeric archers.[13] The Roman officers,
as must always be the case where cavalry is the principal arm, were
remarkable for personal courage and impetuous daring; and perhaps in the
whole annals of Rome there cannot be found another period in which
headlong rashness was so universally the characteristic of the generals
of the Roman armies.

The favourite position of Belisarius on the field of battle was to
figure like Richard Coeur-de-Lion as a colonel of cuirassiers, not
like Marlborough, to perform the duties of a commander-in-chief.
Procopius prefaces an account of one of his rashest combats by declaring
that he was not in the habit of exposing himself unnecessarily, but on
the occasion in question, he owns that Belisarius fought too much like a
mere soldier in the front rank.

The whole Gothic army advancing to besiege Rome had passed the Tiber
before Belisarius was aware that his troops, stationed to defend the
Milvian bridge, had abandoned their post. On going out to reconnoitre,
he fell in with the enemy. Instead of retreating, he led on the cavalry
that attended him to the charge. He was mounted on his favourite
charger; the Greeks called it Phalion, the barbarians Balan, from its
colour: it was a bay with a white face. Balan was perfectly broken to
his hand, and his armour, wrought by the skill of Byzantine artists, was
too light to incommode his powerful frame, yet tempered to resist the
best-directed arrow or javelin. The person of Belisarius was soon
recognised in the Gothic army, and the shout spread far and wide to the
javelin-men and the archers, "At the bay horse! At the bay horse!" The
bravest of the Gothic chiefs placed their lances in rest, and rushed
forward to bear down the Roman general. The guards of Belisarius, in
that trying ho