"These had thin scythes extendingĪt an angle from the axles and also under the driver's seat, turned toward the Older brother Artaxerxes II for the throne. Greek mercenaries fighting for Cyrus the Younger did confront 150 scythedĬhariots at the Battle of Cunaxa in 401 BC, in a contest between Cyrus and his Was camels, the smell of which could not be tolerated by the horses of the Herodotus does not mention chariots in his account of the battle rather, it Them: "everything arms and men, was horribly mangled" (VII.1.31). The Egyptians were said to have held the line against the unfamiliar weapon but were ranked soĬlosely together that they could not move aside as the chariots scythed into Hundred more constructed by allies or converted from other styles, all to be deployedĪgainst Croesus, the fabulously wealthy king of Lydia, at the Battle of Pteria Xenophon relates that one hundred scythed chariots were built, with two Time, such even to this day are the chariots in use in the king's dominions" Scythes about two cubits long and beneath the axles other scythes pointingĭown toward the ground this was so arranged with the intention of hurling theĬhariots into the midst of the enemy. "On both sides of the wheels, moreover, he attached to the axles steel Which made it more stable, with a high turret-like box for the driver, who was It had stronger wheels and a longer axle, Warriors fight from chariots, Cyrus reasoned that the vehicle, itself, could Scythed chariot ( Cyropaedia, VI.1.27ff Arrian, Ars Tactica, XIX). King of Persia, to whom Xenophon ascribes the invention of the Of steel have been fitted to the axles, and that it is the intention to drive Towers are completely panoplied in breast-plates and helmets and that scythes That the horses harnessed to the chariots are covered with mail, while theĭrivers stand in wooden towers and the parts of their body not defended by the Which are not, as before, to stand still facing back as if for flight, but "And again, what would you have done, if you heard that chariots are coming