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FIG: 2. GRECIAN CAR,



FIG. 3. ROMAN CAR

freedom in motion than a fixed yoke would give. The bodies of these chariots, in Egypt at least, were small, usually containing but two persons standing upright. It may be remarked that, as they were so small, they could not have been of much use, and from the small size of the wheels, too, they would be jolted by every little obstacle on the road; and as they were so near the ground, those using them would be exposed to mud and dirt: yet, in spite of these objections, they were used in vast numbers. They were very light, and could be driven at a great speed—nearly as fast as the horses could gallop. They were narrow, and, therefore, suitable to cities in which the streets are still very narrow, and to mountain roads which were often only 4 ft. wide. They suited the period and the people, or their usefulness would not have lasted 2000 years. According to Homer, a strong man could lift a chariot on his shoulders and carry it away. Possibly this would be without the wheels, but even then it could not have been heavier than one of our wheel-barrows.

From Egypt the use of chariots spread into other countries, and they were used in war in large numbers upon the extensive plains of Asia. We read of the 900 chariots of Jabin, king of Canaan; that David took 700 chariots from the kings of Syria, and 1000 from the king of Zobah. Solomon had 1400 chariots, and his merchants supplied northern Syria and the surrounding countries with chariots fetched up out of Egypt at 600 shekels (about £50) a-piece. They were not the first nor the last merchants who have preferred their pockets to their patriotism, and supplied nations who might become their country’s enemies with the weapons of warfare. Solomon, we find, in the Song of Solomon, built a state or wedding chariot of cedar with pillars of gold, probably supporting a canopy. We may also notice the poetic description by the prophet Nahum of the future state of Nineveh, no longer to echo “to the noise of the chariots raging up and down the paved streets, jostling against one another in the broad ways, with the crack of the whip, the rattle of the wheels, the prancing horses and the jumping chariots;” and the remark in another place of “the stamping of strong horses, the rushing of the chariots, and the rumbling of the wheels,” all pointing to the great impression which was made upon the prophet of the wilderness by the carriages and noise of the crowded city.

In a museum of New York is a wheel of an Egyptian chariot, found in a mummy pit at Dashour, by Dr Henry Abbott. It is 3 ft. 3 in. high, the nave is 14½ in. long, and 5 in. in diameter, and worked upon an axle of wood which tapered, and was from 3 in. to 2¾ in. in diameter. The unusual size and length of this axle-arm would be very apparent in so small a vehicle as the Egyptian chariot; the spokes, six in number, are 2 in. by 1⅜ in. at the nave, and taper towards the felloe to 1⅜ in. round; it has a double rim all round. The six inner felloes do not meet as in modern wheels, but are spliced one over the other, with an overlap of 3 in.; the felloes are 1½ in. square. The outer rim is formed also of six felloes, but they are tenoned together, and are pierced all round the lower edge with small holes, through which, we may well conjecture, leather thongs passed, binding the outer to the inner rim. The total depth of the double rim is 3¼ in. by 1¼ in. to 1½ in. in width.

From the ancient sculptures preserved from Nineveh and Babylon, some of which are in the British Museum, we observe the use of chariots was continued in the great plains, for the purposes of hunting as well as for war. The chariots of Assyria were larger than those of Egypt, and would carry three or more persons; they seem, too, much heavier in the build.

The Greeks used chariots, and at the siege of Troy, which Homer has immortalised in his poem, all the chief warriors on both sides are described as going into battle and fighting from their chariots. As years passed on, however, the Greeks no longer used chariots for war, but only for processions in public on state occasions, or in their great races, or for the amusement of their leisure hours. Erectheus, king of Athens, is reported to have been the first to drive four horses in a car; afterwards it became common to use, in the races, four horses attached to each car. The Grecian chariots were all curved in front, and were rather larger and on higher wheels than those used in Egypt. [Plate 1, Figure 2.]

The Roman nation, as it increased in power, adopted the car, which had also been for many years in use by the Etrurians, a neighbouring country to their own in the Italian peninsula. The Etrurians were traditionally the first to place a hood or awning over the open two-wheeled car; they decorated both the car and the awning with that beautiful tracery and ornamental bordering which is familiar to us from the copies of their pottery. The Roman car was chiefly used in the cities, and for purposes of show and state rather than for daily use. A beautiful marble model of one of these still exists at the Vatican in Rome; a copy of it and the horses drawing it is in the Museum at South Kensington. [Plate 1, Figure 3.]

Besides the chariots the Romans had other two-wheeled cars, and four-wheeled waggons of different shapes, and giving different accommodation; but first they were kept for conveying agricultural produce, and for moving goods and baggage, and the better sorts were reserved for the conveyance of the images of their gods and vestal virgins in religious processions. Then came the triumphal processions of successful military commanders, and a variety of vehicles conveyed the conqueror, the captives, and the arms and valuables taken from the enemy. Plutarch tells us that Emilius, the Roman Consul, had 750 waggons in his triumph in the year 170 B.C., bearing the spoils of Perseus, last king of Macedonia. On the column of Trajan at Rome is modelled one of these waggons. It is a large square basket on four wheels, the back a little higher, and the hind wheels also are a very little higher than the front.

Roman history, of the time of Camillus, 350 B.C., mentions a carriage termed a Pilentum, as a splendid four-wheeled carriage with a covering to it, and with seats suspended by straps. The use of these Pilenta was allowed as a special favour to a few great Roman ladies. The Empress Agrippina also had a Carpentum, an elegantly carved carriage on two wheels, the arched covering of which was supported by four female statues; it was drawn by two mules. The Romans also used