An ancient description of a cavalry charge

[Pat Holscher]

Woe to the bloody city, all lies,
full of plunder, whose looting never stops!
The crack of the whip, the rumbling sounds of wheels;
horses a-gallop, chariots bounding,
Cavalry charging, the flame of the sword, the flash of the spear,
the many slain, the heaping corpses,
the endless bodies to stumble upon!
I will cast filth upon you,
disgrace you and put you to shame;
Till everyone who sees you runs from you, saying,
“Nineveh is destroyed; who can pity her?
Where can one find any to console her?”

Nahum, Chapter 2.

[Joseph Sullivan]

interestingly, despite that and such later items as Byron's Senacharib, "The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold..." according to a fairly comprehensive survey I have been reading of the Babylonian and Assyrian empires, in both cases their wealth was more based on trade and agriculture than war. In fact they went to great trouble to keep the peace and keep the trade routes open. Their financial systems were quite sophisticated, as were the contracts related to trade and finance. They had investment vehicles that went so far as to allocate percentages of profits and losses separately. We know this because everything was kept on clay tablets that are pretty durable (if the library burns, the books just get harder).

[Pat Holscher]

interestingly, despite that and such later items as Byron's Senacharib, "The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold..." according to a fairly comprehensive survey I have been reading of the Babylonian and Assyrian empires, in both cases their wealth was more based on trade and agriculture than war. In fact they went to great trouble to keep the peace and keep the trade routes open. Their financial systems were quite sophisticated, as were the contracts related to trade and finance. They had investment vehicles that went so far as to allocate percentages of profits and losses separately. We know this because everything was kept on clay tablets that are pretty durable (if the library burns, the books just get harder).

Interesting. That would make a lot of sense and dovetails well with such descriptions at the end of the day. No poor nation can really sustain an army, and accounts of their abilities would imply a pretty substantial economy. They probably couldn't have been fighting all the time, or as a sustaining basis of their nation, or they'd have been unable to sustain the effort.

The item about interest is really interesting, as it demonstrates the maxim that "everything started earlier than we suppose".

Recent studies on the Vikings and the Saxons suggest the same thing. They did fight, but they weren't fighting all the time. The Scandinavians were really engaging in a vast amount of trading, fishing and farming, and war on occasion. Even at that, their raids in England were in some ways pioneering agricultural efforts in later stages. Ironically the Saxons who took the brunt of that seem to have done t he same thing earlier on, with much of their invasion of Britain really being much more in the nature of simply settling.

[Couvi]

Recent studies on the Vikings and the Saxons suggest the same thing. They did fight, but they weren't fighting all the time. The Scandinavians were really engaging in a vast amount of trading, fishing and farming, and war on occasion. Even at that, their raids in England were in some ways pioneering agricultural efforts in later stages. Ironically the Saxons who took the brunt of that seem to have done t he same thing earlier on, with much of their invasion of Britain really being much more in the nature of simply settling.

I read somewhere that for every Viking in a raid, there were ten people back home farming, ranching, fishing, building, etc.