Peltasts and chariots at Cunaxa

[koechlyruestow]

But if, of 100 charging horses,95 would decide to commit suicide on the spears of the hoplites, that would be good for the attackers? Would you throw your pony on a spear, even if you had barded it with a lorica squamata? I think not. I would suggest you all take these things too literally. Mostly, both men and horses shy away from a confrontation, those that blinked first lost. Police horses easily run down rioters and knock down the occasional offender that finds himself in their path, but if the rioters are hemmed in and have no way to escape, those horses suddenly shy away. And horses cannot be fooled, if 10.000 hoplites in clancking armour, shields and weaponry and screaming their heads off run towards you through the dust of a battle-field, any horse knows what is coming.