Chap. XLI] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 295 personal ambition of favour and fortune. Four hundred of the bravest of the Heruli marched under the banner of the faithful and active Pharas ; their untractable valour was more highly prized than the tame submission of the Greeks and Syrians; and of such importance was it deemed to procure a reinforce- ment of six hundred Massagetse, or Huns, that they were allured by fraud and deceit to engage in a naval expedition. Five thousand horse and ten thousand foot were embarked at Constantinople for the conquest of Africa, but the infantry, for the most part levied in Thrace and Isauria, yielded to the more prevailing use and reputation of the cavalry ; and the Scythian bow was the weapon on which the armies of Eome were now reduced to place their principal dependence. From a laudable desire to assert the dignity of his theme, Procopius defends the soldiers of his own time against the morose critics who confined that respectable name to the heavy-armed warriors of antiquity and maliciously observed that the word archer is introduced by Homer 14 as a term of contempt. << Such contempt might, per- haps, be due to the naked youths who appeared on foot in the fields of Troy, and, lurking behind a tomb-stone, or the shield of a friend, drew the bow-string to their breast, 15 and dismissed a feeble and lifeless arrow. But our archers (pursues the historian) are mounted on horses, which they manage with admirable skill; their head and shoulders are protected by a cask or buckler ; they wear greaves of iron on their legs, and their bodies are guarded by a coat of mail. On their right side hangs a quiver, a sword on their left, and their hand is ac- customed to wield a lance or javelin in closer combat. Their bows are strong and weighty; they shoot in every possible direction, advancing, retreating, to the front, to the rear, or to either flank ; and, as they are taught to draw the bow-string not to the breast, but to the right ear, firm, indeed, must be the armour that can resist the rapid violence of their shaft." 14 See the preface of Procopius. The enemies of archery might quote the re- proaches of Diomede (Iliad, A. 385, &c.) and the permittere vulnera ventis of Lucan (viii. 384) ; yet the Romans could not despise the arrows of the Parthians ; and in the siege of Troy Pandarus, Paris, and Teucer pierced those haughty warriors who insulted them as women or children. 15 NeupV pk» t*a(v ireXaaev, r6^ui Be ffiSrjpov (Iliad, A. 123). How concise — how just — how beautiful is the whole picture ! I see the attitudes of the archer — I hear the twanging of the bow. ly!-e fitbs, vevpi] 5e pey' Ka.x ev > 2Ato S'oiVn-Js.
