Ils 1
CRANIA BRITANNICA. [CHAP. V.
Fi-om Mela we loarn that tlie British chaiiot was a higa, or drawn by two horses. By Dion
it is implied that the chariots were of small size, when he refers to them as di-awn by small
swift horses; which is further confli-med by the representation on medals. Mela says that
the axles were armed with scythes, "fcdcatia axibus;" but that so remarkable a feature, had
it existed, should have been passed over by Otesar, cannot be supposed; especiaUy as in
Pontus (47 B.C.) he came in contact with the scythed chariots, " falcatiE regiaj quadi-iga;," of
Pharnaces, as expressly stated in the history of that war-*. There are no traces of scythes in
the representations on medals, to which reference has been made, as probably those of British
chai-iots, nor have any traces of such appendages been found with those remains of chariots which
have been exhumed. The body was probably open, or but sKghtly enclosed, both in front and
behind, so as to aUow free ingress and egress. At the sides, however, the antyx seems to have
been sufficiently elevated to protect the chai-ioteer and essedarius from the wheels, and was flUed
in, as is likely, with painted wood, or with wicker-work, as we know was the case with the carriages
of another Celtic people, the Cimbri, and at a later period with those of the Irish f . As a
biffa, the essedum was necessarily iwovided with a pole, temo, which was fii-mly fixed to the axle;
both of these, with the spokes and feHoe of the wheel, being of wood. The tii-e of the wheel and
rim of the nave were of ii-on, the latter being sometimes plated with bronze; as seen in the remains
of a chariot found in a barrow at Arras in Yorkshii'e. The diameter of the wheel was two and
a half feet, in an examine from Hamden HUl, Somersetshire; and two feet eight, and two feet
eleven inches, in others from Ai-ras; the spokes, in these instances, varying from twelve to sixteen
in number J. The wood-work seems to have been covered with paint or decorated with colours ;
as is seen iu Propertius, wi-iting many years before the Roman conquest of Britain §. The yoke!
jiiffum, was of wood, and was often adorned with carving, or with embossed or plated metal-work •
as also shown by Propertius, who had probably seen the British ebariot at Rome||. The plated
and enamelled rings, siaticida, phalera, and other metallic furniture and ornaments for the
yokes and harness, were probably imported from the country of the Bituriges in Gaul, as may be
* Ciesar, Bell. Alex. c. 75. The scythed war-chariot seems
to have been an eastern invention, and that not of the earliest
times. Homer makes no allusion to such. They were used
by Cyrus the Younger (Xen. Anab. i. 88) , four centuries, and
by Antiochus the Great in Syria (2 Macc. c. 13, v. 2), two centuries
before our era. The fullest description of them is that
by Livy (lib. xrsvii. c. 40, 41), in his account of the battle of
Magnesia between Antiochus and the Bomans. In addition
to Mela (hb. iii. c. 6.), Frontinus, (Strateg, lib. ii. c. 3. ex. 18)
is quoted as referring to Ceesar's mode of defence against the
scythed chariots of the Gauls,—" Cffisar Gallorum falcatas
quadrigas eädem ratioue palis deftsis excepit inliibuitque."
Frontmus is, however, an indifferent authority, as to a critical
point of this kind. The two other alleged authorities are poets,
who, without corroboration from other sources, cannot be relied
on. Lucan (hb. i. v. 42i)), " Et docilis rector rostrati Belga
covini," where "rostrati" has been introduced by conjecture
for "monstrati;" and Silius Italiens (lib. xvii. v. 417), who,
referring to North Britain, under the poetical name of Thüle,
says—
" incola Thüles
Agmina falcifero circumvenit arta covino."
The notion of the British war-chariots being scythed, seems
to have heen adopted, either from carelessness or as a rhetorical
embellishment, both by modern and ancient writers. Translators
of the classics have often rendered esseditm and eovims
by " scythed chariot," and Murphy (Vit. Agric. c. 3fi) even
renders "covinarii," "the Caledonians in their armed chariots"
! Modern writers on antiquities, as may be seen in the
articles " Covinus", in the Dictionaries of Smith and Eich, generally
describe the British chariot as armed with scythes.
t Strabo, lib. vii. c. 2. § 3. Adamnan, Life of St. Columba,"
by Eeeves, 1857, pp. 74, 171.
t The Hamden chariot-wheela are described hy Sir R. C.
Hoare, "Archajologia," 1826, vol. xxi. p. 39. plate 5. The
most important remains, however, of this kind were found in
two tumuli at Arras, E. E. Yorkshire, by the Eev. E. W.
Stilhugfleet. See Proceedings of the Archseological Institute
at York, in 1840, p. 26, where they are fully described ; as also
in this work, "Description of Ancient British Skull from Barrow
at Arras." Another chariot was found in a barrow at
Balhndalloch, in Moray. Wilson, Archeology of Scotland,
p. 456.
§ Propert. "pietoque Britannia curru." lib. iv. El. 3. v. 9.
II l b . " esseda cajlatis siste Britanna jugis," hb. ii. El. 1 .
V. 76.
CHAP. V.] HISTORICAL ETHNOLOGY OP BRITAIN.
inferred from Pliny and Plulostratus*. The British chariot was much prized at Rome, in the
time of Julius, Augustus, and their successors; much as at the present day the Russian sleigh or
Norwegian carriole are treasured in England, as relics of foreign service or travel. Thus Cicero,
writing to his friend Trebatius, who was serving with Csesar in Britain, advises him to capture
an essedum, and return with it to Romef.
One of three conclusions as to the war-chariots of Britain appears inevitable. Either they
had at one time been common to Gaul and the west of Europe, and had survived only in Britain;
—they had been introduced by Phoenician traders and settlers;—or they were of independent
native origin. If the first, surely unequivocal traces of their employment in battle by other
Celtic populations, would be foimd in history. In favour of the second hypothesis—that of their
Phoenician origin—it may be aUeged that the use of the chariot in battle was peculiarly an
eastern custom. Ancient Egypt is the country in which the war-chariot is first met with, upwards,
probably, of fifteen hundred years before our era J. Prom Egypt their use may have
been carried, by the Canaanitish Hyksos, into Palestine. There are frequent references, in the
Scriptures, to the great number of chariots brought against the Hebrews by the Canaanites,
Hittites, and Philistines §,—Semitic people, closely allied to, if not ethnologicaUy identical with,
the Phoenicians, by whom the iirst idea of the war-chariot may possibly have been conveyed to
Britain. This, however, can only be regarded as conjectural, in the absence of evidence as to
the nature and extent of the relations between the Pbcenician traders and the native Britons,
and of distinct proof that the people of Tyi-e itself ever traded to Britain. The remaining
hypothesis, that they were of independent native origin, is not without difficulty, and is certainly
inconsistent with the low state of material civilization of the period preceding the Belgic settlements
; to which latter alone it seems possible in such case to refer them. If an invention of
the Britons of an age antecedent to that of Julius, we may conjecture that the idea was derived
from the representation of the biga on the Macedonian stater, which they had adopted as the
type of their own coinage, and may then regard it as a skilful adaptation of the Gaulish
cart and smaU British horses to the purposes of war.
METALLURGIC AND OTHER ARTS; BASKET-WORK-, POTTERY.
The variety and abundance of the metallic products of Britain were well known in early
times, and Tacitus and SoUnus in particular insist on them||. Csesar, it is observable, makes no
mention of gold and silver, in enumerating the metallic productions of the island, of which only
tin and iron are named by him Cicero, who derived his knowledge fr"om his brother Quintus,
and from Julius himself, says that neither of the precious metals were found in Britain, and this
* PHny, lib. xxxiv. §48. Philostratus, Imagines, lib. i. c.28.
Vit. Soph. lib. i. § 25. Polemon, 2. Tlie "phalera:" of Caractacus
(Tacitus, Ann. hb. xii. c. 36) were doubtless of the
kind here referred to. The objects found at Poldeu Hill, Stanwick
and other places, are evidently the metallic portions of
horse- and chariot-trappings. They are described in the
section on the metallurgic arts of the Britons, and also in the
description of the skull from the barrow at Arras,
t Cicero, Bp. 7 (5.') B.C.).
X Exodus, c. xiv. v. 7. Homer, II. is. v. 381. Kenrick,
"Egypt," vol. i. p. 196. Though the war-chariot first
appears on the monuments of the eighteenth dynasty, it is in so
perfect a form, that its existence, at least, must be admitted
during preceding dynasties.
§ Dent. e. xx. v. 1. Josh. c. xi. v. 4 ; c. xvii. v. 16, 18^
Judges, c. i. V. 19 ; c. iv. v. 3, 13. 1 Sam. c. xiii. v. 5.
2 liings, c. vii. V. 6. At a later period there is evidence of the
use of the chariot hy the Hebrews themselves, under David
Solomon, and their successors; also by the Syrians. 2 Sam.
c . v i i i . v . 4 . IKings, c.x. V. 26; c. XX. V. 1. 2Chron. c. i. v. 17;
c. ix.v. 25. 11 Tacitus, Vit. Agric. c. xii. Solinus, c. 22.
If B. G. lib. v. c. 12.
M