<story><title>Is This a Tank?</title><url>https://acoup.blog/2022/05/13/collections-ancient-tanks-chariots-scythed-chariots-and-carroballistae/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>natch</author><text>Fascinating, but the author missed a couple of the most interesting aspects of the chariot.&lt;p&gt;Number one, wheels. The ancient war chariot is a prime early example of how the adage that you should not reinvent the wheel is poor advice. Chariot builders had to reinvent (so to speak) and hone and advance the wheel greatly for use in chariots, because the wheels needed to be robust and light to an extent that wheels had never been before.&lt;p&gt;And why did the wheels need to be so light? That brings us to the second interesting thing that the author didn’t mention, which is the fact that horses of the time were smaller, not having yet been bred up to the size needed for rideability in battle. Therefore, instead, horses were used to pull chariots. And the chariots had to be light to make them nimble, and because the horses (and mules in some cases, sure, but that is neither here nor there) were not the huge steeds that we have today.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>btilly</author><text>Another reason why they needed to be light is that the harness was not invented until around 500 AD.  Therefore those horses were pushing on a bar which was literally cutting their windpipes off.  This severely limited the poor beast&amp;#x27;s strength.&lt;p&gt;We can tell when the harness was invented because horse drawn carts suddenly double in size.  It&amp;#x27;s amazing how much more work a horse can do when it can breathe!</text></comment>
<story><title>Is This a Tank?</title><url>https://acoup.blog/2022/05/13/collections-ancient-tanks-chariots-scythed-chariots-and-carroballistae/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>natch</author><text>Fascinating, but the author missed a couple of the most interesting aspects of the chariot.&lt;p&gt;Number one, wheels. The ancient war chariot is a prime early example of how the adage that you should not reinvent the wheel is poor advice. Chariot builders had to reinvent (so to speak) and hone and advance the wheel greatly for use in chariots, because the wheels needed to be robust and light to an extent that wheels had never been before.&lt;p&gt;And why did the wheels need to be so light? That brings us to the second interesting thing that the author didn’t mention, which is the fact that horses of the time were smaller, not having yet been bred up to the size needed for rideability in battle. Therefore, instead, horses were used to pull chariots. And the chariots had to be light to make them nimble, and because the horses (and mules in some cases, sure, but that is neither here nor there) were not the huge steeds that we have today.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>automatic6131</author><text>&amp;gt; The ancient war chariot is a prime early example of how the adage that you should not reinvent the wheel is poor advice&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d imagine that &amp;quot;reinventing the wheel&amp;quot; is much better advice 5000 years ago.</text></comment>