The Athenian cavalry saw a massive rise in use and success following the watershed changes under Pericles, in which the cavalry grew from a mere handful to 1,000 citizen riders - discounting the 200 hippotoxotai (horse-archers) who were neither citizen nor cavalry - and 40 talents was poured into their upkeep. Like much of the Greek world, the time between Plataea in 479 BC and the start of the Peloponnesian War in 431 was a time of transformation. During this era, Athens witnessed (almost) a cavalry ‘revolution’.
It was through the Persian cavalry that the 21.1). The last straw came later, at Tangara in 457. Here, the hired Thessalian cavalry of 1,000 deserted the Athenian cause (Thucydides 1.107-7). No doubt this was a deciding factor in the choice to upgrade the Athenian citizen cavalry.
