The five Sarnim assembled in council to deliberate upon common interests, and to offer sacrifices in the name of the Pentapolis.  These chiefs were respectively free to make alliances, or to take the field on their own account, but in matters of common importance they acted together, and took their places each at the head of his own contingent.* Their armies were made up of regiments of skilled archers and of pikemen, to whom were added a body of charioteers made up of the princes and the nobles of the nation.  The armour for all alike was the coat of scale mail and the helmet of brass; their weapons consisted of the two-edged battle-axe, the bow, the lance, and a large and heavy sword of bronze or iron.**

* Achish, for example, King of Gath, makes war alone against the pillaging tribes, owing to the intervention of David and his men, without being called to account by the other princes (1 Sam. xxvii. 2-12, xxviii. 1, 2), but as soon as an affair of moment is in contemplation—­such as the war against Saul—­they demand the dismissal of David, and Achish is obliged to submit to his colleagues acting together (1 Sam. xxix.).

** Philistine archers are mentioned in the battle of Gilboa (1 Sam. xxxi. 3) as well as chariots (2 Sam. i. 6).  The horsemen mentioned in the same connexion are regarded by some critics as an interpolation, because they cannot bring themselves to think that the Philistines had cavalry corps in the Xth century B.C.  The Philistine arms are described at length in the duel between David and Goliath (1 Sam. xvii. 5 -7, 38, 39).  They are in some respects like those of the Homeric heroes.

Their war tactics were probably similar to those of the Egyptians, who were unrivalled in military operations at this period throughout the whole East.  Under able leadership, and in positions favourable for the operations of their chariots, the Philistines had nothing to fear from the forces which any of their foes could bring up against them.  As to their maritime history, it is certain that in the earliest period, at least, of their sojourn in Syria, as well as in that before their capture by Ramses III., they were successful in sea-fights, but the memory of only one of their expeditions has come down to us:  a squadron of theirs having sailed forth from Ascalon somewhere towards the end of the XIIth dynasty,* succeeded in destroying the Sidonian fleet, and pillaging Sidon itself.

* Justinus, xviii. 3, Sec. 5.  The memory of this has been preserved, owing to the disputes about precedence which raged in the Greek period between the Phoenician towns.  The destruction of Sidon must have allowed Tyre to develop and take the first place.

[Illustration:  297.jpg A PHILISTINE SHIP OF WAR]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato.