33.
Their mode of fighting with their chariots is this: firstly, they drive about in
all directions and throw their weapons and generally break the ranks of the
enemy with the very dread of their horses and the noise of their wheels; and
when they have worked themselves in between the troops of horse, leap from their
chariots and engage on foot. The charioteers in the mean time withdraw some
little distance from the battle, and so place themselves with the chariots that,
if their masters are overpowered by the number of the enemy, they may have a
ready retreat to their own troops. Thus they display in battle the speed of
horse, [together with] the firmness of infantry; and by daily practice and
exercise attain to such expertness that they are accustomed, even on a declining
and steep place, to check their horses at full speed, and manage and turn them
in an instant and run along the pole, and stand on the yoke, and thence betake
themselves with the greatest celerity to their chariots again.
C. Julius Caesar. Caesar's Gallic War. Translator. W. A. McDevitte. Translator. W. S. Bohn. 1st Edition. New York. Harper & Brothers. 1869. Harper's New Classical Library.
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