1Not even iron is plentiful, as is gathered from the kind of weapons they have. 1Few use swords or larger lances: they carry spears, or 'frameae' in their own word, with a narrow and short iron head, but so sharp and so handy in use that they fight with the same weapon, as circumstances demand, either at close quarters or at a distance. 2The horseman, indeed, is content with a shield and a framea, while the foot soldiers also shower missiles, several apiece, and hurl them to an immense distance, being naked or lightly clad in a short cloak. 2There is no display of finery: only their shields they mark out with carefully chosen colours.
3Few have breastplates, and hardly one or two a helmet of metal or of leather. 3Their horses are not remarkable for beauty, nor for speed. 3Nor are they taught to wheel in varied circles in our fashion: they drive them straight ahead or with a single turn to the right, in a circle so closed up that no one is left behind. 4To one who judges on the whole, there is more strength in the infantry; 4and so they fight intermingled, the speed of the foot soldiers being well suited and matched to the cavalry battle, and these, picked from all the young men, they station in front of the line.
5Their number too is fixed: there are a hundred from each district, and by this very name they are called among their own people, and what was at first a number is now a title and an honour. 6The battle line is drawn up in wedges. 6To give ground, provided you press on again, they consider a mark of strategy rather than of fear. 6They carry back the bodies of their fallen even in indecisive battles. 6To have abandoned one's shield is the greatest disgrace, and it is not lawful for a man so disgraced to attend the sacred rites or to enter the council, and many survivors of wars have ended their infamy with a noose.