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The heyday of the war chariot, a two-wheeled wooden machine pulled by horses, was the Bronze Age (c.3000-1000 BC), during which it was the vehicle of the ancient world’s elite mounted warriors. The greatest chariot battle of all was that of Qadesh, fought in 1274 BC, which saw the Egyptians and Hittites wrestling for control of wealthy Syria. Altogether, the Egyptians and Hittites deployed some 5,700 chariots for the engagement.
‘Chariot’ entered English, via Old French, by the 14th century. One of the earliest references to the chariot as an ancient military vehicle, as opposed to a wheeled conveyance more broadly, came in the English composer John Marbeck’s 1581 A Booke of Notes and Commonplaces: ‘A Chariot was a certeine Engine of warre, made with long and sharpe pikes of yron, set in the forefront.’
A later example may be found in Psalm 46:9 of the King James Bible (1611): ‘He maketh the wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.’
Not all chariots were the same. The Egyptian chariot, being a vehicle for mobile archery, was of relatively light construction for two occupants: a driver and a bowman. The Hittle vehicle, by contrast, was more ruggedly built, bearing three men: a driver, a spearman, and a shieldbearer.
Chariots were eventually superseded by cavalry, but their occasional use persisted. For example, the Persians employed scythed chariots at the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC, but these proved ineffective against Alexander the Great’s Macedonians.
The chariot also figured in a Roman military ritual, the Triumph, which was a grand parade honouring a victorious general. The chosen commander rode a four-horse chariot through the streets of Rome, followed by his soldiers.
