Comment by kragen

To add some historical context, chariots were the dominant battlefield technology throughout the Old World for centuries—maybe like the Bronze Age version of a main battle tank. But in the Iron Age (around 01000 BCE) they were displaced by massed formations with spears, which continued to be the dominant battlefield technology until the Gatling and Maxim guns in the late 01800s (CE). Pompeii is preserved, if that's the word, from 00079 CE, so at that point chariots had been primarily ceremonial for about a millennium, like cavalry is today.