f honour to antiquity, and consider
contemporary achievements unworthy to be counted remarkable. There are
those, for example, who call the soldiers of the present day "bowmen,"
while to those of the most ancient times they wish to attribute such
lofty terms as "hand-to-hand fighters," "shield-men," and other names of
that sort; and they think that the valour of those times has by no means
survived to the present,--an opinion which is at once careless and
wholly remote from actual experience of these matters. For the thought
has never occurred to them that, as regards the Homeric bowmen who had
the misfortune to be ridiculed by this term[1] derived from their art,
they were neither carried by horse nor protected by spear or shield[2].
In fact there was no protection at all for their bodies; they entered
battle on foot, and were compelled to conceal themselves, either
singling out the shield of some comrade[3], or seeking safety behind a
tombstone on a mound[4], from which position they could neither save
themselves in case of rout, nor fall upon a flying foe. Least of all
could they participate in a decisive struggle in the open, but they
always seemed to be stealing something which belonged to the men who
were engaged in the struggle. And apart from this they were so
indifferent in their practice of archery that they drew the bowstring
only to the breast[5], so that the missile sent forth was naturally
impotent and harmless to those whom it hit[6]. Such, it is evident, was
the archery of the past. But the bowmen of the present time go into
battle wearing corselets and fitted out with greaves which extend up to
the knee. From the right side hang their arrows, from the other the
sword. And there are some who have a spear also attached to them and, at
the shoulders, a sort of small shield without a grip, such as to cover
the region of the face and neck. They are expert horsemen, and are able
without difficulty to direct their bows to either side while riding at
full speed, and to shoot an opponent whether in pursuit or in flight.
They draw the bowstring along by the forehead about opposite the right
ear, thereby charging the arrow with such an impetus as to kill whoever
stands in the way, shield and corselet alike having no power to check
its force. Still there are those who take into consideration none of
these things, who reverence and worship the ancient times, and give no
credit to modern improvements. But no such consi