CHARIOT, a vehicle used in ancient times either for pleasure or in war. According to the Greeks, it was invented by Minerva; while Virgil ascribes the honor to Erichthonius, a mythical king of Athens, who is said to have appeared at the Panathenaic festival, founded by him, in a car drawn by four horses. The ancient chariot had only two wheels, which re volved upon the axle, as in modern carriages. The pole was fixed at its lower extremity to the axle, and at the other end was attached to the yoke, either by a pin or by ropes. The Greeks and Romans seem never to have used more than one pole, but the Lydians had car riages with two or three. In general the chariot was drawn by two horses. Such was the Roman biga, but we also read of a triga, or three-horse chariot, and a guadriga, or four horse one. In ancient warfare chariots were of great importance; thus we read of the 900 iron chariots of Sisera as giving him a great advantage against the Israelites. The Philis
tines in their war against Saul had 30,000 char iots. The sculptures of ancient Egypt show that chariots formed the strength of the Egyp tian army. We have also numbers of sculp tures which give a clear idea of the Assyrian chariots. These resembled the Egyptian in all essential features. In modern times the name chariot has been given to a kind of light tray r eling carriage now out of vo e. An Etruscan chariot, in part reconstructs may be seen in the Metropolitan Museum,New York. Con sult Darember? and Saglio,