En complément d'une étude sur les chevaux, nous pouvons évoquer l'utilisation des charriots de guerre.
En introduction, voici un texte extrait de la plaquette
Rome's Northern Frontier, par Nic Field (cf . Bibliothèque)
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Case study 2 : the Caledonii
Claudius Ptolemaeus' list of the tribes of Britannia, written towards the middle of the second century but based on sources from the end of the previous century, records the Caledonii as a single tribe occupying the Highland massif (Geographia 2.3.8-12). On the other hand, Tacitus (Agricola 10.3, 25.3, 27.1, 31.4), and no doubt primarily his father-in-law, and Dio (77.12.1), to denote the lands and the people north of the Forth or Tay, use the name in a looser, collective sense. It is the latter definition that is followed here.
War-chariot
This was a single-axled vehicle, drawn by two ponies via a yoke-pole and traces, and carrying a charioteer and a warrior. C. Iulius Caesar (Bellum Gallicum 4.24, 33, 5.16-17), who faced war-chariots in southern Britannia, is quite specifie in describing them as a means of transport to enable the warrior speedily to approach or retire from an engagement, which was fought on foot. Yet his praise for their skill in manoeuvring the chariots at high speed, including the ability to walk along the yoke pôle, and his reference to the hurling of missiles from chariots on the move, implies a method of operating not unlike that of the cavalry. Caesar (Bellum Gallicum 5.19) claims that the Gallo-Belgic forces of Cassivellaunus, even when most had been disbanded still included 4,000 chariots. In ail probability, however, war-chariots are unlikely to have been numerous since they will have represented the warrior aristocracy.
In his narrative dealing with Mons Graupius (AD 83), Tacitus (Agricola 35.3) merely says the Caledonian war-chariots noisily manoeuvred between the battle Unes, launching a dense volley of javelins before being pushed aside by the auxiliary cavalry. Intriguingly, however, Tacitus says of the chariot crew that 'the charioteer has the place of honour, the combatants are mere retainers' (Agricola 12.1). It is possible that the Caledonii employed tactics different from those that Caesar had encountered in the south of the island some 130 years before (Bellum Gallicum 4.33). Prior to the decisive clash at Mons Graupius, Tacitus does say the flat space between the two armies was taken up by the noisy manoeuvring of the charioteers' (Agricola 35.3). Whatever, the Caledonii were still employing chariots as a tactical weapon during the northern campaigns of Septimius Severus (AD 208-210). The contemporary historian Dio reports that they went into battle in chariots drawn by 'small, swift horses' (77.12.3), in other words ponies. Today we see their descendants in the heavier, taller British native ponies such as Fell, Dale, and further north the Highland (or Garron).
Archaeological evidence demonstrates that these chariots were small, very light and easily dismantled, their construction exhibiting a standard of carpentry that was extremely high, and equal to anything the Classical world could produce. For instance, a wheel discovered at the fort of Newstead, near Melrose, is constructed of three different types of wood: ash (one-piece felloe), willow (11 spokes), and elm (hub). Also, recent work on the Celtic chariot has re-evaluated its construction. Suspended from the double loops of heat-bent vood, which made up the sides of the vehicle, were leather thongs. These were ittached to the floor of the cab, which was of interlaced leather straps. The whole thus acted as a form of suspension, thereby optimising the speed and inanoeuvrability of the war-chariot".
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Si la langue anglaise présente des difficultés pour certains, nous nous ferons un plaisir d'en traduire des extraits.
'small, swift horses' = petit, vifs
JCE