Military Weapons of Ethiopians During the 5th Century BC

Herodotus described the military weapons and appearance of the ancient Ethiopians who dwelt above Egypt and who as allies of King Xerxes I participated in the second Persian invasion of Grece (480-479 BC) as follows:

“The Ethiopians had skins of leopards and lions tied upon them, and bows made of a slip of palm-wood, which were of great length, not less than four cubits,¹ and for them small arrows of reed with a sharpened stone at the head instead of iron, the same stone with which they engrave seals: in addition to this they had spears, and on them was the sharpened horn of a gazelle by way of a spear-head, and they had also clubs with knobs upon them. Of their body they used to smear over half with white chalk, when they went into battle, and the other half with red ochre.”²

Reference Notes

1. This means a long-bow the height of a man. ↩︎
2. Herodotus (1890) The History of Herodotus. Volume II. Book VII. Chapter 69. Translated into English by G. C. Macaulay. Digitally printed by Gutenberg 2001. MacMillan and Co.: London and New York. ↩︎