Essĕdum
rarely
Essĕda, said to be a Keltic word. The name of a
chariot used, especially in war, by the Britons, Gauls, and Belgae, perhaps also by the
Germans (
Georg. iii. 204;
Serv. ad loc.).
According to the account given by Caesar (
B. G. iv. 35) the method of using
the essedum in the ancient British army was very similar to the practice of the Greeks in the
heroic ages, as described in the article
Currus. The
principal difference seems to have been that the essedum was stronger and more solid than the
δίφρος—that it was open before instead of behind;
hence the driver was able to run along the pole (
de temone Britanno excidet,
Juv.iv. 125) and then to retreat with the greatest speed into the
body of the car, which he drove with extraordinary swiftness and skill. From the extremity of
the pole he threw his missiles, especially the
cateia ( Flacc.
Argon. vi. 83). It appears also that these cars were purposely made as noisy
as possible, probably by the creaking and clanging of the wheels (Tac.
Agric.
35; Claud.
Epigr. 4); and that this was done in order to strike dismay into the
enemy. The drivers of these chariots were called in Latin
essedarii
(
B. G. iv. 24). Tacitus (
Agric. 12) observes that the driver of
the car ranked above his fighting companion, which was the reverse of the Greek usage.
The essedum was adopted for purposes of convenience and luxury among the Romans (Propert.
ii. 1, 76; cic.
Ad Att. vi. 1; Ovid,
Am. ii. 16, 49). Cicero (
Phil. ii. 24.58) mentions the use of it by Antonius as a piece of
effeminacy disgraceful to a tribune of the people; but in the time of Seneca it seems to have
become common (
Fr. 48, Hase). As used by the Romans the essedum had no seat for the
driver; the traveller drove himself (Ovid, l. c.), and always, it would seem, with a pair of
horses, whereas with the
cisium the number varied. The essedum, like the
cisium, appears to have been kept for hire at the post-houses or
stations (
Mart.x. 104). See
Mansio.
