ARMY. Among nations of antiquity all men capable of bearing arms were liable to be called on to serve as soldiers, with the ex ception of the Egyptians, Indians of Aryan race, and the Israelites. In the first two of these nations the warrior formed a separate class or caste of the community, ranking next in dignity and influence to that of the priests. In Egypt the military caste shared with the king and the priests the whole of the soil. The members of the caste were interdicted from all handicrafts. The Egyptian infantry was mainly composed of archers. Foreign auxiliaries were also employed, but kept in a strictly subordinate position, except under the last native kings of Egypt; and the different policy pursued by them was without doubt in a measure to blame for the easy conquest of t by Cambyses. In India the members o the warrior caste were called Kshatriyas, and after the complete subjugation of the non-Aryan inhabitants whom they found in the peninsula when it was invaded by them. seem generally to have lived an indolent life. Among the Israelites the only portion of the male population exempt from military serv ice was of the tribe of Levi. In the other tribes all men above 20 might be called upon to serve in the army when occasion required. At first the army of the Israelities consisted en tirely of infantry. David introduced chariot eers, and Solomon added a regiment of cav alry. In later times an Egyptian auxiliary cavalry is sometimes found serving in the Jewish armies. The beginning of a standing army was made by Saul, who raised a body guard of 3,000 men. After the captivity a new organization developed itself under the Maccabees. John Hyrcanus raised an army of foreign soldiers, chiefly Arabs.
From the monuments found in the valleys of the Euphrates and the Tigris we learn that at an early date the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Medes possessed armies of infantry, cavalry, and charioteers and divided into light and heavy armed troops, distinguished by dress, equipment, and arms. But is was after the establishment of the Persian empire that the army system of the East attained its highest point of development. When the Persians had extended their empire over almost the whole of western Asia it was necessary to maintain a standing army to keep down con quered tribes and to guard the frontiers. The various sections of this army were each levied in the province to which it belonged, and were partly stationed in fortified towns, partly dis tributed over the country districts. Their pay was derived from the revenues of the province, but their commanders were wholly in dependent of the satraps or provincial gover nors. 'Yearly reviews were held in order to see that they were constantly kept in a state of effi ciency. The troops of the standing army in cluded a light and heavy infantry, as well as strong bodies of cavalry, part of whom were clad in armor. The subdivisions of the army (both cavalry and infantry) were according to the decimal system. Originally all the forces were Persians, but in later times Asiatics and Greeks were also enrolled. Express messengers, stationed throughout the empire at the distance of a day's journey from one another, formed the means of communication between the dif ferent parts of the army. In addition to this provincial force the king had a body-guard of 10,000 men, called the immortals, from the fact that their numbers were always kept full. When great expeditions (such as the inva sions of Greece) were undertaken a levy of the whole people was made. Fifty-six nations, according to Herodotus, were represented in the levy made by Xerxes for his celebrated Greek expedition.
In the small free states of Greece the armies consisted of a civic militia, in which it was the right and duty of every freeman to serve. In times of emergency the slaves also were armed. The Greek armies often consisted exclusively of infantry. Athens never had more than 1,000 cavalry. The foot soldiers were divided into hottitai, or heavy-armed, whose equipments consisted of a long lance, a sword, and a large shield; peltastai, armed with a short spear, and carrying a small round shield; psifoi, carrying no shields, and armed only with javelins, bows and arrows, or slings; and gymnItes, also without shields, and chiefly composed of slaves and foreigners. The age for military service was 20 to 40 at Athens and 20 to 60 at Sparta. In Athens, however, ev youth was enrolled at the age of 18, altho:g not liable to be called on for active service till he had reached the age of 20. The command of the Athenian army was divided among 10 generals, who were elected for oneear, one by each of the 10 Attic tribes, each of whom had the chief command in turn for one day, when they were all present with the army. To obviate the manifest inconvenience of this arrangement nine of the generals were some times left behind, and sometimes one of 'the archons called the Polemarch took the field, in which case the duties of a commander-in chief were in a great measure left to him.
Until after the Peloponnesian War Athenian soldiers received no pay, but from that date a small pay was given to those in the field. At Sparta the command of the army belonged to the two kings, and usually two armies were formed, each king having the command of one of them. When only one army was formed one of the kings remained at home. Although in Sparta, as in Athens, the army consisted of the free citizens generally, yet, as in the former city it was always kept ready for war, it constituted a kind of standing army. It was divided into five morns or regiments, one for each tribe. After the time of the Peloponnesian War it became more and more common for all the Greek states to employ mercenary troops, and the Greeks themselves often entered into foreign service. The Mace donian standing army was created by Philip, and from the time of Alexander was composed chiefly of mercenaries. The Carthaginian armies consisted in large part, and indeed mainfY; of mercenaries. The body-guard of the general, called the *sacred band,* was, however, entirely made up of Carthaginians by birth, but was distinguished less by its valor than by the splendor of its equipments. In the army of Hannibal, Gauls, Iberians,. and Ligurians formed the main force; Numidian cavalry hovered on the wings i Balearic stingers and elephants led by Ethiopian masters were drawn up in front. In Rome every citizen from the age of 17 to 46 was bound to serve in the army till he had made 16 (or in emer gencies 20) campaigns on foot or 10 in the cavalry, and no citizen could become a candi date for any magisterial office unless he had been 10 years on foot or 5 mounted. During the best times of the Roman army the troops were selected with great care, and the disci pline and training of the legions were admir able, so that the Roman infantry (of which the legions were mainly composed) was the best the world had yet seen. The Roman cavalry, on the other hand, was numerically weak, and was excelled by the Numidian, and still more so by the Parthian. Pay was given to the Roman troops from the time of the siege of Veii (406 B.O. When the Roman empire in the West fell to pieces, in conse quence of the repeated inroads and settlement within its borders of German tribes, there was an end for the time to all regular army organi zation in western Europe. The forces by means of which the Roman empire had been gradually dismembered consisted, like the Persian hordes that 1,000 years before had conquered western Asia, of armed nations; but a new military organization, greatly in ferior, however, to that of the Romans, grew up in process of time out of an institution com mon to all the German tribes. This was the practice followed by the chiefs of gathering round themselves bodies of retainers con stantly ready to fight under them, in the expectation of being rewarded out of the spoils of conquest. As long as the Germans were confined to their original settlements outside the Roman empire these bodies of retainers bore a small proportion to the total strength of the armed population; but when extensive conquests of land were made within the Roman empire more or less of the conquered territory was always seized by the conquerors, and the personal retainers of the conquering chiefs were often so richly rewarded that the retinues of the chiefs were rapidly swelled by the ad hesion of those who hoped for equal gain. At first these grants were looked upon simply as rewards for past services, but they soon came to be given and received as pledges of future service, every person receiving a grant being bound to serve his chief in war whenever called upon. In this way the feudal system, as it is called, gradually arose, and feudal armies finally superseded the national levies of the German tribes. When Charles Martel conquered the Saracens at Tours in 732 the transition twin national to feudal armies was i not yet accomplished, but was almost com pleted under Charlemagne at the end of the same century. The chief strength of the feudal armies lay in tl, men-at-arms, who were all mounted, hcaN Ily armed, and pro tected by bhicitib anti defensive armor. After the introduction of firearms, shields and armor ceased to be an effectual protection, personal valor and bodily strength became of less mo ment, disciplined armies were found to be necessary, and the knights entered these armies as officers. The military forces of the small states that rose up in Italy from the 12th century resembled those of the states of ancient Greece in being at first nothing more than a civic militia. In later times hardly any troops were used, but mercenaries were employed, led by condottieri, and these at last were superseded by standing armies.