What kind of chariot did Leonardo da Vinci study with blades mounted on its wheels?

Leonardo da Vinci studied a scythed chariot with blades mounted on its wheels.

A scythed chariot is an ancient military vehicle fitted with blades or scythes intended to injure people and horses near the wheels. Leonardo’s drawing shows a horse-drawn chariot with rotating blades extending from its sides. His version belongs to his broader studies of weapons and battlefield machines rather than to a documented successful invention.

The idea was not originally Leonardo’s. Scythed chariots are associated with ancient armies, especially those of the Persian Empire and the Hellenistic world. Leonardo revisited the concept during Renaissance investigations of classical military technology and redesigned it using his own mechanical approach.

A common mistake is to call every Leonardo military vehicle a tank or armored car. The scythed chariot is a different concept: it relies on blades sweeping beside the wheels, not on enclosed armor or cannon. Surviving drawings show the proposal, but there is no reliable evidence that Leonardo’s version entered combat.