Cavalry and chariots against infantry

[koechlyruestow]

Since the thread about peltasts and chariots at Cunaxa is getting seriously out of hand on this particular subject, and a couple of replies suggested making a new thread, here it is:

What happened, or might have happened, or could conceivably have happened, when cavalry (or chariots) charged infantry?

It seems there are two schools here, the one claiming that the horses could burst head on into the mass of infantry, bowling them over and trampling them underfoot, and the other claiming that either the horses or the foot-soldiers flinched: in the first case, the cavalry fled, in the second, the infantry fled, chased by the horsemen.

The first school of thought seems, but I am not sure, strongly influenced by the genre of the battle-piece, while the second is probably mostly influenced by C. Ardant du Pic, J. Keegan etc.

I hope that you will use this topic to post sources confirming or falsefying either school of thought, or make a case for a view of your own.

I will fly my colours: I believe the genre of the battle-piece to be extremely unreliable and full of genre clichées, and therefore requiring critical analysis before it can be used. It was not only produced by arm-chair generals, but also by soldiers, some very adamant that what they wrote was exactly what had happened, but that does not necesarily make it true.