The only question is how far the equipment was really the ancient warlike custom of the people.

It seems in some respects too elaborate to be the armature of a simple and primitive race.

We may reasonably suppose that at least the scale armor and the unwieldy wicker shields (yeppa), which required to be rested on the ground, were adopted at a somewhat late date from the Assyrians.

At any rate the original character of the Median armies, as set before us in Scripture, and as indicated both by Strabo and Xenophon, is simpler than the Herodotean description.

The primitive Modes seem to have been a nation of horse-archers.