About the book: 2020 / “The blades of sickle chariots often / So unexpectedly tear bodies in an indiscriminate slaughter, / What to see on earth cut off hands and feet…” - this is how the Roman poet described the deadly effect of chariots with sickles on the battlefield. Chariots with scythe-like blades about a meter long, mounted on wheels on each side of the quadriga, for almost four hundred years - from the battle of the Persians with Greek mercenaries at Cunax (401 BC) to the battle of Pontic troops with Caesar's legions at Zela (47 BC) - were a formidable and effective means of destroying the close-knit formation of enemy infantry, causing serious injuries to enemy soldiers and sowing panic in the enemy ranks. The generals of the ancient world were well aware of the psychological effect of the attack of sickle chariots. Having appeared in Persia, these “heavy tanks” of antiquity were then actively used in the Seleucid state and the Pontic kingdom. Persian chariots with sickles acted decisively against the army of Alexander the Great in the legendary Battle of Gaugamela, and at the Battle of Amnia, the wounds inflicted by Pontic chariots terrified their enemies. In modern times, right up to the 19th century (!), the idea of ​​reviving this type of weapon did not leave the minds of scientists and designers. A NEW BOOK by a leading expert on the military history of ancient peoples, for the first time not only in domestic but also in world literature, recreates in all details history of the combat use of chariots with sickles, their design, weapons, crew composition and equipment.