Produced by Turgut Dincer, Christian Boissonnas and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) THE HORSE IN HISTORY [Illustration: THE KNIGHT, DEATH AND THE DEVIL _From an engraving by Albert DÃ¼rer_] THE HORSE IN HISTORY BY BASIL TOZER AUTHOR OF âPRACTICAL HINTS ON RIDING TO HOUNDSâ ETC. WITH TWENTY-FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON _First Published in 1908_ INTRODUCTORY NOTE After directly helping on the progress of the world and the development of civilisation almost from the time when, according to Nehring's interesting studies, the wild and primitive horses of the great Drift began to exhibit distinct differences in make, shape and individual characteristics, the horse has reached the limit of its tether. For with the dawn of the twentieth century, and the sudden innovation of horseless traffic, any further influence that it might have exercised upon the advancement of the human race comes rapidly to a close. That the horse's reign is overâthough it is sincerely to be hoped that horses will be with us still for many yearsâthe statistics issued recently by our Board of Agriculture in a measure prove. For in those statistics it is stated that the number of horses in the United Kingdom decreased during last year alone by no less than 12,312, and later statistics show that the decrease still continues. In the following pages, therefore, the writer has striven to trace the progress of the horse from very early times down to the present day mainly from the standpoint of the effect its development had upon the advancement of the human race. For this reason though a selected number of the most famous horses that lived in the centuries before Christ, and between the time of Christ and the period of the Norman Conquest, and that have lived within the last nine centuries, have been mentioned, the horses of romance and mythology have for the most part been passed over. Every effort has been made to obtain information that is strictly accurate, a task of no small difficulty owing to the mass of contradictory evidence with which the writer has found himself confronted in the course of his researches. To the best of his ability he has winnowed the actual facts from the mass of fiction that he has come upon in the writings of some of the earlier historians, and to some extent in records, manuscripts and private letters of more recent times to which he has had access. B. J. T. BOODLE'S CLUB, 1908. CONTENTS PART I FROM VERY EARLY TIMES TO THE CONQUEST CHAPTER I PAGE Rameses; early Egyptian chariotsâHorses of Babylon and of LibyaâErichthonius; horse of Job; horses of SolomonâEarly circus ridingâDancing horses of the Sybarites; the Crotonians' stratagemâHomer's âIliadâ; Menesthus; early wageringâPatroclus; Achilles; Euphorbus; HyperenorâHorses and chariots of the ThraciansâAncient Greeks and horsemanship; decline in the popularity of war chariots; inauguration of cavalryâXenophon on horsemanshipâWhite horses 1 CHAPTER II Increasing interest in horsesâHerodotus; Thucydides; war chariots of the PersiansâHorses represented on coinageâWooden horse of TroyâThe Parthenon frieze; Greek artâPlato; white horsesâThe procession of Xerxes; horses and men sacrificedâThe horse of DariusâHorse racing introduced among the RomansâXenophon and SimoâEarly horseshoes, bits and bitting; ancient methods of mounting 23 CHAPTER III Xenophon disliked the âAmericanâ seatâCavalry organised by the AtheniansâCost of horses twenty-three centuries agoâAristophanes; Aristotle; Athenians' fondness for horse racingâAlexander the Great; BucephalusâStory of Bucephalus; his deathâFamous painters of horses: Apelles, Pauson, MiconâMythical flesh-eating horses of DiomedâHannibal's cavalry of 12,000 horseâCoinsâPosidonius; horses of the Parthians, Iberians and Celtiberians 45 CHAPTER IV Virgil on the points of a horseâCÃ¦sar's invasionâAbolition of war chariotsâPrecursor of the horseshoeâNero's 2000 mules shod with silver; PoppÃ¦a's shod with goldâThe Ossianic and Cuchulainn epic cycles; Cuchulainn's horsesâThe Iceni on Newmarket Heath; early horse racing in BritainâHorses immolated by the Romans; white horses as prognosticatorsâCaligula's horse, Incitatus; Celer, the horse of Verus; the horse of Belisarius 67 CHAPTER V Mahomet encourages horse-breedingâProcopius; a misstatementâEarly allusion to horse racesâFigures of horses cut on cliffsâRoland and his horse, VeillantiffâOrelia, Roderick's chargerâTrebizond, Alfana; Odin's mythical horse, SleipnirâHorse fighting in IcelandâSome horses of mythology: Pegasus, Selene, Xanthos, Balios, Cyllaros, Arion, RekshâArab pedigrees traced through damsâInfluence of the horse upon historyâCourage of Julius CÃ¦sar's horses 86 PART II FROM THE CONQUEST TO THE STUART PERIOD CHAPTER I The Conqueror's cavalryâHorse fairs and races at SmithfieldâKing John's foolish fadâThe Persians and their horsesâRelics of Irish art; what they indicateâSimon de Montfort the first master of foxhoundsâThe king's right to commandeer horsesâSir Eustace de Hecche; Battle of FalkirkâMarco Polo and white horses; curious superstitionsâEdward III. and Richard II. encourage horse breedingâBattle of Crecy 107 CHAPTER II Richard II.'s horse, Roan BarbaryâThoroughbred English horses characteristic of the nationâChaucer; Cambuscan's wooden horseâDon Quixote's Aligero ClavilenoâHorse race between the Prince of Wales and Lord ArundelâThe Chevalier Bayard; his horse, CarmanâThe Earl of Warwick's horse, Black SaladinâJoan of ArcâKing Richard's horse, White SurreyâCharles VIII. of France's horse, SavoyâDame Julyana BernersâWolsey's horsemanshipâQueen Elizabeth's stud 127 CHAPTER III Inauguration and development of the Royal StudâExportation of horses declared by Henry VIII. to be illegalâSale of horses to Scotsmen pronounced to be an act of felonyâRiding matches become popularâFerdinand of Arragon's gift of horses to Henry VIII.âHenry's love of huntingâKing Henry stakes the bells of St Paul's on a throw of the diceâSome horses of romanceâHorse-breeding industry crippled in Scotland 148 CHAPTER IV North America without horses when Columbus landedâScarcity of horses at the Conquest of MexicoâFrancisco Pizarro; his cavaliers terrify the IndiansâEmperor Charles V. sends horses to King Edward VI.âDavid Hume, âa man remarkable for piety, probity, candour and integrityâ; his practices in connection with horse racingâQueen Elizabeth fond of racing; condition of the Turf during her reignâStallions fed on eggs and oystersâLord Herbert of Cherbury's antagonistic attitude towards the TurfâSome horses in Shakespeare's playsâPerforming horse and its owner publicly burnt to deathâHorses trained by cruelty 168 CHAPTER V King Henry VIII. and Queen Elizabeth passionately fond of huntingâJohn Selwyn's remarkable feat in the hunting field; the monument at Walton-on-ThamesâDon Quixote and his steed, Rosinante; Peter of Provence's wooden horse, Babieca; Clavileno and the Cid's horseâMary Queen of Scots' favourite horsesâQueen Elizabeth's retinue of 2400 horsesâArundel, Aquiline, BrigadoreâThe horses of Anatolia and SyriaâSir Robert Carey's historic ride from London to Edinburgh in sixty hoursâThe horses of Napoleon I. 187 PART III FROM THE STUART PERIOD TO THE PRESENT DAY CHAPTER I Arrival of the Markham Arabian, the first Arab imported into EnglandâNewmarket village founded by James I.âDecline of the âgreat horseââThe Royal StudsâJames I. organises a race meeting on the frozen River OuseâSuperstitious beliefs concerning horsesâJames I. meets with a grotesque riding mishapâProsperity of the TurfâRiding match between Lord Haddington and Lord SheffieldâThe Turf vigorously denounced as âan evil likely to imperil the whole country's prosperityâ 202 CHAPTER II First races of importance run at NewmarketâRaces in Hyde ParkâThe Helmsley Turk and the Morocco BarbâRacing introduced into HollandâImportation of Spanish stallions into EnglandâPrince Charles's riding master, the Duke of NewcastleâIncreasing cost of horsesâMarshal de Bassompierre; his loss through gambling, Â£500,000 in a year; Sir John FenwickâSir Edward Harwood's pessimismâCromwell's IronsidesâArmour discardedâThe opposition to stage coaches; Mr Cressett's theory; Charles II. favours their adoption 222 CHAPTER III The Commonwealth's âordinance to prohibit horse racingââRevival of racing under Charles II.âThe King a finished horsemanâThe figure of BritanniaâThe Royal MaresâFormation of the thoroughbred studâThomas Shadwell's cynical description of life at NewmarketâSpread of horse racing in IrelandâJockeys at Newmarket entertained by Charles II.âSir Robert Carr; the Duke of Monmouth's connection with the TurfâAnnual charge for horses of the Royal household, Â£16,640âNewmarket under the _rÃ©gime_ of the Merry Monarch; the Duke of Buckingham 242 CHAPTER IV Arrival of the Byerley TurkâRoman Catholics forbidden to own a horse worth over Â£5âHenry Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, on the manners of the ageâKing William III.'s death due to a riding accidentâThe Duke of Cumberland's breeding establishment in Queen Anne's reignâArrival of the Darley ArabianâThe Godolphin ArabianâRoyal Ascot inaugurated by Queen AnneââDockingâ and âcroppingâ condemned by Queen Anne; attempt to suppress these practicesâThe story of EclipseâSome horses of romanceâCopenhagen and Marengo 261 CHAPTER V A retrospective summaryâThe beginning of the endâSuperstition of the horseshoeâThe Bedouins and their horsesâSome classic thoroughbreds of modern timesâHorses hypnotisedâThe Derby and the OaksâHorse racing in MongoliaâConclusion 281 INDEX 295 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS The Knight, Death, and the Devil _Frontispiece_ From an engraving by Albert DÃ¼rer. Combat between Amazons and Attic heroes. Fourth century, B.C. 19 From a Greek vase in the British Museum. Greek coins showing horses in the early centuries before Christ 27 The Emperor Trajan, showing Roman style of riding 33 From Richard Berenger's âThe History and Art of Horsemanship.â The Emperor Theodosius, showing saddle 33 From Richard Berenger's âThe History and Art of Horsemanship.â A Parthian horseman, showing Parthian style of riding bareback 33 From Richard Berenger's âThe History and Art of Horsemanship.â Sarmatian horse and warrior, meant to represent horse and rider in armour made of plates of bone or of horse-hoof 33 From Richard Berenger's âThe History and Art of Horsemanship.â A portion of the Parthenon Frieze, executed by Phidias about the year 440 B.C. 39 Roman soldier about to adjust âstockingâ used in place of shoes 44 From Richard Berenger's âThe History and Art of Horsemanship.â Roman soldier about to mount on off side 44 From Richard Berenger's âThe History and Art of Horsemanship.â A Mauritanian horseman, showing how the Mauritanians and Humidians rode without saddle or bridle 44 From Richard Berenger's âThe History and Art of Horsemanship.â Alexander the Great on horseback, about 338 B.C. The figure is believed to represent Bucephalus 55 From a bronze in the British Museum. Persians fighting with elephants against the Romans, about the time of Pyrrhus, 280 B.C. This picture has been wrongly attributed to Raphael 62 From an engraving. Caligula on horseback. About 37 A.D. 79 From a figure in the British Museum. Bayeux tapestry supposed to represent the Battle of Hastings, 1066 110 Statue of Colleoni by Verrocchio in Venice 203 From a photo by R. Anderson, Rome. Van Dyck's famous picture of Charles I. on horseback in the National Gallery, London 225 From a photo by Franz HanfstÃ¦ngl. Oliver Cromwell on horseback 233 After the painting by Van Dyck. Horses of the Cavaliers, seventeenth century. From a painting in the possession of his Majesty King Edward VII. 243 From a photograph by Franz HanfstÃ¦ngl. The Duke of Schonberg on a typical charger of the early seventeenth century 257 After the painting by Sir G. Kneller. Flying Childers, bred by Mr Leonard Childers in 1715, is said to have been âthe fastest horse that has ever livedâ 269 From a photograph by A. Rischgitz. Mr O'Kelly's Eclipse, the most famous thoroughbred stallion ever foaled, 1764 273 After the painting by G. Stubbs. Napoleon at Wagram 279 From the famous painting by Vernet at Versailles. From a photo by Neurdein frÃ¨res. Wellington's famous horse, Copenhagen 280 From an engraving (Photo by A. Rischgitz). Flying Dutchman, foaled 1846 285 From a life-size painting by Herring. By kind permission of the Earl of Rosebery. From a photograph by W. E. Gray. SOME WORKS CONSULTED Of the many volumes the writer has consulted whilst engaged in compiling this book, the following are among the more important. The list is arranged alphabetically, according to the authors' names. To the authors or editors, as the case may be, and to the publishers of these works, the writer here begs to acknowledge his very deep indebtedness for the assistance he has derived from consulting the volumes named. ARRIAN (F.)ââThe Anabasis of Alexander.â AUREGGIO (E.)ââLes Chevaux du Nord de l'Afrique.â AZARA (F. DE)ââThe Natural History of the Quadrupeds of Paraguay and the River La Plata.â BERENGER (R.)ââThe History and Art of Horsemanship.â BLOUNT (T.)ââAntient Tenures.â BLUNT (W. S.) âBedouin Tribes of the Euphrates.â BOUSSON (M. A. E.)ââEtude de la ReprÃ©sentation du Cheval.â CHARRAS (J. B. A.) âHistoire de la Campagne de 1815.â CHOMEL (C.)ââHistoire du Cheval dans l'antiquitÃ© et son rÃ´le dans la civilization.â CHURCH (A. J.)ââRoman Life in the Days of Cicero.â COOK (T. A.)ââThe History of the Turf,â and âEclipse and O'Kelly.â DARWIN (C. R.)ââVariation of Animals and Plants.â ERMAN (A.)ââLife in Ancient Egypt.â EWART (J. C.)ââThe Multiple Origin of Horses and Poniesâ; âA Critical Period in the Development of the Horseâ; and âThe Penicuik Experiments on Breeding between Horses and Zebras.â FITZWYGRAM (Sir F. W. J.)ââHorses and Stables.â FLOWER (Sir W. H.)ââThe Horse.â GAST (E.)ââLe Cheval Normand et ses Origines.â GILBEY (Sir W.)ââHorses Past and Present,â and âThe Great Horse, or War Horse.â GREENWELL (W.)ââBritish Barrows.â HADDON (A. C.)ââThe Study of Man.â HALL (H.)ââThe Horses of the British Empire.â HAYES (M. H.)ââPoints on the Horse.â HOLM (A.)ââThe History of Greece.â HORE (J. P.)ââHistory of Newmarket.â HUME (D.)ââImperial History of England.â HUME (D.)ââThe History of the House of Douglas.â JONSON (B.)ââThe Alchemist.â JOWETT (B.)ââThucydides.â LODGE (E.)ââIllustrations of British History.â MAYNE (C.)ââOdes of Pindar.â MITCHELL (T.)ââThe Comedies of Aristophanes.â MONTFAUCON (B. DE)ââAntiquities.â MORGAN (H.)ââThe Art of Horsemanship.â MURRAY (D).ââLife of Joan of Arc.â NEWCASTLE (DUKE OF)ââObservations on Horses.â PETRIE (F.)ââHistory of Egypt.â PIETREMENT (C. A.)ââLes Chevaux dans les Temps Historiques et prÃ©-Historiques.â PLUTARCHââLife of Alexander the Great.â PRESCOTT (W. H.)ââThe Conquest of Mexico.â REYCE (R).ââBreviary of Suffolk.â RIDGEWAY (W.)ââThe Origin and Influence of the Domestic Horse,â and âThe Early Age of Greece.â RUSKIN (J.)ââThe Queen of the Air.â SCHLIEBEN (A.)ââThe Horse in Antiquity.â SIDNEY (S.)ââThe Book of the Horse.â SOTHERBY (W.)ââGeorgics of Virgil.â SOUTHEY (R.)ââIliad of Homer.â STREET (F.)ââThe History of the Shire Horse.â STRUTT (J.)ââSports and Pastimes of the People of England.â TASSO (T.)ââJerusalem Delivered.â TAUNTON (T.)ââFamous Horses.â TRIMMER (Mrs M.)ââNatural History.â TWEEDIE (Mrs ALEC.)ââHyde Park: Its History and Romance.â TWEEDIE (W.)ââThe Arabian Horse.â UPTON (Capt. R. D.)ââNewmarket and Arabia.â VAUX (Baron C. M. de)ââA Cheval. Etude des Races FranÃ§aises et EtrangÃ¨res.â WHITE (C.)ââHistory of the Turf.â WITT (C.)ââThe Trojan War.â YULE (Sir H.)ââMarco Polo.â Standard classics consulted have for the most part been omitted from this list. The writer wishes in addition to thank his friend, Dr William Barry, the distinguished classical scholar, for the trouble he has taken in helping to revise some of the earlier of the proof sheets; Professor William Ridgeway, of Cambridge, the famous historian and archÃ¦ologist, for letters containing advice that has proved of use; Mr Theodore Andrea Cook, the most trustworthy authority we have upon the history of the Turf and the modern thoroughbred, for letters of introduction, etc.; and the Directors of the British Museum and the Directors of the National Gallery for allowing photographs to be taken for reproduction. For the sake of convenience the centuries B.C. are alluded to in the same way that centuries A.D. are alluded to, that is, one century in advance. Thus 550 B.C. is spoken of as the fourth century B.C.; 250 A.D. as the third century A.D., and so on. THE HORSE IN HISTORY PART I FROM VERY EARLY TIMES TO THE CONQUEST CHAPTER I Rameses; early Egyptian chariotsâHorses of Babylon and of LibyaâErichthonius; horse of Job; horses of SolomonâEarly circus ridingâDancing horses of the Sybarites; the Crotonians' stratagemâHomer's âIliadâ; Menesthus; early wageringâPatroclus; Achilles; Euphorbus; HyperenorâHorses and chariots of the ThraciansâAncient Greeks and horsemanship; decline in the popularity of war chariots; inauguration of cavalryâXenophon on horsemanshipâWhite horses Though according to the more trustworthy of our naturalists hoofed animals do not occur until the Tertiary Period in the history of mammals, there can be no doubt that from an epoch almost âso far back that the memory of man runneth not to the contrary,â in the literal meaning of that legal phrase, the horse has played a prominent part in the development of the human race. Reference is made incidentally to âthe horses of Abrahamâ by the author of a historical novel published recently; but then even the most pains-taking of writers of fiction is apt to err in minute points, and can one blame him when the lands over which he travels, and the subjects of which he treats, are so numerous and vary so widely? For we know from Genesisâalso from certain other later sources that may be depended upon for accuracyâthat though the prophet had creatures of divers kinds bestowed upon him, yet the horse probably is one of the few animals he did not receive. Many of the important and famous victories won by RamesesâSesostris as the Greeks termed himâand by other monarchs of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties, most likely would have proved crushing defeats but for the assistance they obtained from horses. As it happened, however, Ramesesâwhom recent writers declare to have been a very barefaced âboomsterââsucceeded with the help of his horses in marching triumphant through many of the outlying territories in Africa as well as in Asia. * * * * * We have it on the authority of Professor Flinders Petrie and other distinguished historians that Aahmes I.âa king of the seventeenth dynasty who drove out the Hyksosâreigned from 1587 to 1562 B.C., and chariots do not appear to have been used in Egypt prior to his accession. Indeed, as Professor Owen himself has pointed out, horses are not found represented on any of the monuments of the very early Egyptians, so that apparently the Egyptians of the eighteenth dynasty, whose monuments probably are the first to show horses and chariots, must have been the first to turn their attention seriously to the employment of horses for useful purposes. And yet from further statements made in Genesis it seems certain that a native Egyptian king who flourished somewhere about the time of Jacobâthat is to say between 1800 and 1700 B.C.âowned many horses and chariots. The Egyptians apparently did not mount horses until a very late period in their history, and even the chariots they constructed were, until many years had passed, used only in time of war. The lower classes, if one may call them so, used only the ass, a beast that must have been popular amongst the Egyptians for centuries before horses were even heard of in Egypt. From Genesis we gather too that Pharaoh made Joseph drive in his second chariot; but the Egyptians who bought corn from Joseph and gave horses in exchange for it belonged probably to the well-to-do class that in time of war was compelled to provide the king with almost as many horses and chariots as he needed, or at any rate as many as he asked for. In the records of Babylonia it is stated that horses were first employed in the great city about the year 1500 B.C. The Libyans, however, must have broken horses to harness some centuries before this, and indeed learnt to ride them with some skill, for it is proved beyond all doubt that the women of Libya rode horses astride at any rate so far back as the seventeenth century B.C., and that in addition to this horses were at about that time being driven in pairs by the Libyans, to whom even the four-horse chariot cannot have been quite unknown. It has not been proved, from what I have been able to ascertain, that in Neolithic times horses were already tamed, but some remains of horses discovered at Walthamstow, in Essex, are said to date back approximately to that period and to indicate for that reason that horses were domesticated in the Neolithic Age. Evidence does exist, however, that in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages horses of a type that closely resembled that of the horses of the PalÃ¦olithic Age were to be found in several parts of Europe. The Trojans, as most of us know, bred horses very largely indeed, so much so that we read of King Erichthonius, who in the thirteenth century B.C. was in his heyday, that he became ârichest of mortal menâ and the possessor of âthree thousand mares which pastured along the marsh meadow, rejoicing in their tender foals,â a statement that indirectly recalls the fine lines in Longfellow's âThe Minnisinkâ: âThey buried the dark chiefâthey freed Beside the grave his battle steed; And swift an arrow cleaves its way To his stern heart! One piercing neigh Arose,âand on the dead man's plain The rider grasps his steed again.â Erichthonius, according to Virgil, was the first to handle a four-in-hand, for in the third book of his âGeorgicsâ we are told how âBold Erichthonius first four coursers yok'd And urg'd the chariot as the axle smok'd.â Rather a risky proceeding and one from which we may conclude that bold Erichthonius would have flouted the axiom promulgated recently by the more prudent members of a well-known coaching club that âno team ought to be driven faster than ten miles an hour, upon an averageâ! * * * * * Though allusions to the horse are made repeatedly in the Bible, they give us little or no insight as to the horse's influence upon the nations and their development. The notorious steed of Job that when among the trumpets exclaimed âHa! Ha!â and then winded the battle afar off and fretted itself unduly upon hearing âthe thunder of the captains and the shoutingâ has been described by several writers, but no two descriptions appear to tally. Solomon, according to the âBook of Kings,â must have owned quite a large stud, for we read that he had horses brought out of Egypt, and that a chariot came up and went out for six hundred shekels of silver, a horse for a hundred and fifty, âand so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Syria, did he bring them out.â The Hittites, whom Professor Jensen assures us were Indo-Europeans, are also shown to have had horses when they made their way into Northern Palestine, probably at some period prior to 1400 B.C., but trustworthy information about the horses and how the Hittites treated them is not obtainable. As for the horses in the Mycenean Periodâthe Bronze Age of Greeceâthe monuments of that epoch bear testimony to the esteem in which they were held. The indigenous people of Greece were presumably the Pelasgians, and these monuments remain to bear testimony that such a people once existed. In a like manner do the gravestones of the Acropolis of MycenÃ¦ bear indisputable evidence, for upon three of them at least are to be seen sculptured in low relief a chariot, a pair of horses, and a driver, the date of this particular sculpture being approximately the fourteenth century B.C. * * * * * It seems practically beyond dispute that before the year 1000 B.C. no people rode on horseback except the Libyans, though chariots must have been used quite 2000 years before that. Yet by the time Homer wrote his poems horsemanship was becoming common amongst a section of the Greeks. Indeed by that time feats of skill on horseback upon a par with the antics we see performed to-day in circuses were at least known, and probably they were often watched and greatly liked. Listen, for instance, to the following Homeric simileâthe translation is almost literal:â âAs when a man that well knows how to ride harnesses up four chosen horses, and springing from the ground dashes to the great city along the public highway, and crowds of men and women look on in wonder, while he with all confidence, as his steeds fly on, keeps leaping from one to another.â There are two references at least in Homer to âfour male horses yoked together,â but the practice of driving four-in-hand certainly was not common in the eighth century B.C., or probably until long after. The above reference, however, to feats of skill performed on horseback, recalls to mind a story, probably more or less true, that has to do with the luxurious people of Sybaris, in Southern Italy. In the early centuries before Christ, so it is related, this people trained all its horses to dance to the sound of music, to the music of flutes in particular. The inhabitants of Croton having heard of this, and being sworn enemies of the Sybarites, determined to take advantage of the information and attempt to conquer their foe with the aid of strategy. For this reason they provided all the musicians in their own army with flutes in place of trumpets and the other instruments they had been in the habit of using, and then without delay declared war upon the Sybarites. The latter, to do them justice, responded at once, in spite of the condition of lethargy to which the life of luxury they had been leading was supposed to have reduced them. No sooner did they approach the Crotonian lines, however, than âa great part of the army,â as we are told, âset up a merry tune,â which had the effect of stampeding the Sybarites' horses, for âthey instantly threw off their riders and began to skip and dance.â As a natural consequence the Sybarite army was taken at a disadvantage and quickly routed with great slaughter, âvery many horses being killed during the engagement, to their owners' dismay and grief.â * * * * * This strange story may be in a measure exaggerated, but probably it is based on truth, in which case it proves that the Greeks of Magna GrÃ¦cia at any rate made use of cavalry before the rest had attempted to do so. Also we know that in the year 510 B.C. the Crotonians destroyed Sybaris entirely. The Assyrians too, at about this period, evidently had well-appointed cavalry, for Ezekiel speaks of their being âclothed in blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses,â and goes on to give particulars which, in so far as they relate to the mode of life in vogue with these desirable young men, are calculated to shock the susceptibilities of prudish persons, and to amuse others. In the light of the Higher Criticism Homer's âIliadâ is believed to have been written by various hands, and incidentally the Criticism throws useful light upon the horse in his relation to the history of the nations known to have flourished in the very early centuries before Christ. One need not here describe such steeds as Agamemnon's mare, swift Ãthe, that was given to him by his vassal, Echepolus of Sicylon, and subsequently driven in the chariot race by Menelaus; or Phallas, the horse of Heraclios; or the horses of the Pylian breed of which Homer speaks at length; or Galathe, Ethon, Podarge or any of the other steeds of which Priam's eldest son, âmagnanimous and noble Hector,â was so justly proud. Also the horses of mythology do not possess great interest for the majority of modern readers other than classical scholars. That Homer himself, however, had sound knowledge of the qualifications which go to make up what in latter-day English we probably should term a âfinished charioteerâ is shown by the following rather well-known lines that here are translated almost literally:â âBut he who in his chariot and his steeds Trusts only, wanders here and there Unsteady, while his coursers loosely rein'd Roam wide the field; not so the charioteer Of sound intelligence; he, though he drive Inferior steeds, looks ever to the goal While close he clips, not ignorant to check His coursers at the first, but with tight rein Ruling his own, and watching those before.â Menesthus, emphatically one of the finest of the many fine riders spoken of in the âIliad,â or, as Homer himself describes him, âforemost in equestrian fame,â is typical of the horsemen of that period. In the âIliadâ too we find what I believe I am right in stating to be the first direct historical allusion to wagering on horse races. But the medium current on racecourses in those days was not coin. The odds apparently were laid in âkitchen utensilsââas a lad with whom I was at school once construed the line, to his subsequent discomfitureânamely, cauldrons and tripods. Such, at least, we are led to infer from the paragraph in the twenty-third book of the âIliad,â which, according to William Cowper's blank verse translation, edited by Robert Southey, runs somewhat as follows:â âCome nowâa tripod let us wager each, Or cauldron, and let Agamemnon judge Whose horses lead, that, losing, thou mayst learn.â Or more euphoniously, as Lord Derby has it: âWilt thou a cauldron or a tripod stake And Agamemnon, Atreus' son, appoint the umpire To decide whose steeds are first?â The cauldrons and tripods referred to were of course of great value, and, as trophies, highly prized by competitors in the races and other competitions calling for a display of skill and daring. There is another allusion in the âIliadâ to the presentation of a tripod as a great reward for valour. It occurs in the eighth book, and the passage goes more or less like this: âLet but the Thunderer and Minerva grant The pillage of fair Ilium to the Greeks, And I will give to thy victorious hand, After my own, the noblest recompense, A tripod or a chariot with its steeds, Or some fair captive to partake thy bed.â I recollect how at school this passage, with several others, used to be rigorously excluded when Homer was being construed, with the result that Kelly's famous âKeys to the Classicsâ used afterwards to be produced surreptitiously, and the âcensoredâ lines turned carefully into English. * * * * * From what Homer tells us elsewhere, and from additional sources, we may conclude that of all the races that bred horses and took just pride in them in the early centuries before Christ the Thracians were probably the most renowned. The brilliant horsemanship of ânoble Patroclus of equestrian fame,â the amiable and staunch friend of Achilles, must not be passed unmentioned; nor the deeds of prowess that are attributed to Euphorbus, âfamous for equestrian skill, for spearmanship, and in the rapid race past all of equal ageâ; nor yet the deeds of Hyperenor whose skill in handling horses may be likened to the skill of Rarey in our own time. The following lines from the âIliadâ are of interest here because they serve to indicate to some extent the style of harness and useless trappings that must have been in vogue amongst the wealthy in Homer's day:â âSo Hera, the goddess queen, daughter of great Cronos, went her way to harness the gold-frontleted steeds; and Hebe quickly put to the car the curved wheels of bronze, eight spoked, upon their axletree of iron.â Then: âGolden is their felloe, imperishable, and tires of bronze are fitted thereover, a marvel to look upon; and the naves are of silver, to turn about on either side. And the body of the car is plaited tight with gold and silver straps, and two rails run round about it. âAnd a silver pole stood out therefrom; upon the end she bound the fair golden yoke, and set thereon the fair breast-straps of gold, and Hera led beneath the yoke the horses, fleet of foot, and hungered for strife and the battle-cry.â It has been argued that about the time of Homer gold and silver were deemed to be comparatively of small value, and that therefore the trappings described were not so costly as one naturally would conclude they must have been. Upon this point opinions are about equally divided. Professor Ridgeway tells us that by comparing the foregoing description with actual specimens of chariots and horse trappings that have been found in Egypt we can form an accurate impression of the appearance that was presented by the original old chariots, and form also an idea of the way they were put together, while the plaiting with straps of gold and silver recalls at once the floor of the Egyptian chariot with its plaited leather meshworkâprobably the forerunner of leather springs. * * * * * Though Odysseus and Diomede are known to have mounted their Thracian horses, we have it on irrefutable evidence that at this period chariots were still generally used, so that most likely horses were ridden but seldom. Indeed the Homeric poems provide us with probably as much authentic information as to the methods of managing and breeding horses that were in vogue in Greece, in Thrace, and in Asia Minor in the very early years before Christ, as any half-dozen other volumes put together that purport to deal with the ways and customs of a period of which, when all is said, little enough is known. Naturally the Thracians had in those days some of the best horses that could be procured, while those they drove in their war chariots are said to have been quite unrivalled. That they possessed very many chariots is proved by Homer's realistic account of the slaying of Rhesus, the Thracian king, with a dozen or so of his bravest followers, and the episode in connection with that incident. Indeed when Odysseus and Diomede had captured Dolon, the Trojan spy, the latter at once declared that there were âalso Thracians, new-comers, at the furthest point apart from the rest, and amongst them their king, Rhesus, son of Eioneus,â adding that his were âthe fairest horses that ever I beheld, and the greatest, whiter than snow, and for speed like the winds. His chariot too is fashioned well with gold and silver, and golden is his armour that he brought with him, marvellous, a wonder to behold.â Apparently most of the horses bred by the Acheans at about this time were either dun-coloured or dapple. _Xanthos_ signifies Dun, and _balios_ dapple; but then we have to remember that _xanthos_ was used frequently to denote also the colour of gold. Achilles' steeds were mostly dapple-dun, and they had more or less heavy manes. They belonged most likely to the breed so popular among the SigynnÃ¦ of central Europe about the fifth century B.C. Certainly Homer makes it plain that in the early Iron Age horses were bred in many parts of Greece; that, though driving was a common practice, riding was indulged in but rarely; that cavalry in battle was quite unknown; and lastly that though the heroes, as they were called, fought mainly in chariots, the great body of the army consisted of well-trained infantry. As time went on horsemanship apparently came to be appreciated more and more, for we read that about the year 648 B.C.âthe thirty-third Olympiadââa race for full-grown riding horsesâ was inaugurated in addition to the chariot races, and there appear to have been plenty of entries. Then though the war chariot had disappeared almost completely, before the outbreak of the Persian Wars, its place was not taken by well-appointed and well-equipped cavalry until some years later. * * * * * Though little attention need be paid to the Greek legend that Pegasus was the first horse ever riddenâa legend not mentioned in Homerâit nevertheless is interesting to know that this historic animal was supposed to have been foaled in the Bronze Age, and in Libya. That naturally would have been prior to the arrival of the fair-haired Acheans from Central Europe, so one need not be astonished, as several writers obviously are, at finding that when these large-limbed Acheans first appeared the Greeks already knew how to ride. At the same time they seldom did ride their dun-coloured little cobs, preferring, apparently, to drive them in pairs in chariots. That the Libyans were finished horsemen centuries before the Greeks learnt how to ride has already been mentioned; though whether or no the Greeks were first taught horsemanship by the Libyans is a question still debated by students of ancient history. * * * * * In the north-west of Asia Minor the Libyans had dark bay horses with a white star upon the forehead about the year 1000 B.C., and a hundred or so years later horses of this breed were largely imported into various parts of Asia Minor. Indeed some of the more enthusiastic of the modern historians who have studied closely the descent of horses from generation to generation persist in maintaining that even in Great Britain and Ireland modern horses with this white star upon the forehead have in their veins some Libyan blood! How this can well be when we know almost without doubt that until towards the close of the Bronze or the beginning of the Iron Age the horse was hardly made use of at all by the inhabitants of these islands, I leave it to more learned men to decide among themselves. It is remarkable that whereas from very early times horses of Asiatic-European breeds have proved more or less unmanageable except when bitted, the horses of Libya are known to have been controlled quite easily by nosebands only. Some of the nosebands, or rather halters, used in early times were made of plaited straw, and to-day halters of almost similar make and pattern are still employed in certain of the more remote parts of Ireland. The bits found most suitable for Asiatic-European horses were made first of all of horn, then chiefly of bone, later of copper, and finally of bronze and iron. Homer, in his âIliad,â alludes to bits of bronze placed between the horse's jaws, and this probably is one of the first instances of literary evidence we have that a thousand years before Christ's birth horses were controlled by bits. Of course Xenophon has much to say upon the question of bits and bitting, and his capital treatise on horsemanship throws valuable light also upon the horse in its relation to the history of that epoch, as we shall see. Upon one point in particular in this connection Xenophon lays great stress. He maintains it to be imperative that every horseman shall possess two bits for his horse or horses, one with links of moderate size, and one with sharp and heavy links, bidding us at the same time remember that âwhatever sorts of bits be used, they should be flexible, for where a horse seizes a rigid bit he has the whole of it fast between his teeth ... but the other sort is similar to a chain, for whatever part of it be taken hold of, that part alone remains unbentâthe rest hangs.â So that apparently bits single- and double-jointed, and therefore flexible, were used in the early Iron Age by the people of North-Western Europe. [Illustration: COMBAT BETWEEN AMAZONS AND ATTIC HEROES. FOURTH CENTURY, B.C. _From a Greek vase in the British Museum_] * * * * * By the beginning of the fourth century B.C. many, though not all, of the Greek and the Macedonian mounted soldiers had come to consider some sort of covering for the horse's back to be necessary to their equipment; and so long previously as the eighth century B.C. horse cloths had been adopted by the Assyrians, a people sufficiently wise to realise from the first that a horse with something on his back is more comfortable to sit upon than one without. These early races probably would have employed cavalry several centuries sooner than they eventually did, but for the difficulty they experienced in arming themselves to their complete satisfaction when mounted. Such peoples, for instance, as the Egyptians, the Assyrians, and the Greeks of the Mycenean or Bronze Age, habitually protected themselves with the aid of large and oblong shields when they fought on foot, but on horseback these shields proved cumbersome. Possibly that was the reason that when the Normans and other Teutonic races began to fight on horseback they so soon discarded their round and clumsy shields in favour of a shield broad at the top and tapering downward, the shape of shield we see on the Bayeux tapestry. With regard to the war chariots in use before this time, we may be quite sure that even the very first employed had not wheels cut from solid blocks as some are represented as having, though possibly the most primitive of the agricultural chariots were so constructed. For the rest, the early chariots of the Egyptians of the eighteenth dynasty, and in use in India under the Vedic Aryans, and amongst the Hittites, the Assyrians, the Persians, the Libyans, the Mycenean Greeks, the Homeric Acheans, the Gauls of Northern Italy and in Gaul itself; also among the ancient Britons and the early Irish, had wheels with a hub, a felloe, and spokes, the latter from four to twelve in number. And inasmuch as this information bears indirectly upon the horse in his relation to early historical records, it is not out of place here. To return again to the question of harness, we have it on the authority of Herodotus that âthe Greeks learned from the Libyans to yoke four horses to a chariot,â and we know already that before the time of Herodotus, who wrote in the fifth century B.C., the Greeks had found Libyans riding astride horses and driving sometimes two-horse and occasionally four-horse chariots. At that timeâabout 632 B.C.âthe Greeks were planting Cyrene. White horses were in ancient days at all times largely in demand among the people of the various nations; and while Pindar alludes incidentally to white horses being ridden by the Thessalians in his time, Sophocles, writing half-a-century or so later, describes a Thessalian chariot that was drawn by white horses. One of the regions in which white horses were bred, probably in great numbers, was the banks of the Caspian where the River Bug flows from it, for Herodotus states clearly that âaround a great lake from which the River Hypanis (called now the Bug) issued, there grazed wild white horses.â Those particular animals possibly may have been in reality only tarpans in their winter coats, and not actually horses. The point has been argued more than once, but has never been quite settled. A white horse famous towards the close of the fifth or early in the fourth century was Kantake, of the notorious Prince Gautama, but nothing need be said about it here, trustworthy records being unprocurable. The great cities of Magna GrÃ¦ciaâSybaris, Tarentum, Croton, and so onâobviously had formidable cavalry in the sixth century B.C.; Sicily and Southern Italy being almost equally renowned for the riding horses obtainable there. The statagem to which the Crotonians had recourse in 510 B.C. to bring about the fall of Sybaris has been described, and it is said that for some years prior to the destruction of the city some five or six thousand of the inhabitants were in the habit of riding in procession on horseback upon the occasions of the great festivals held there. CHAPTER II Increasing interest in horsesâHerodotus; Thucydides; war chariots of the PersiansâHorses represented on coinageâWooden horse of TroyâThe Parthenon frieze; Greek artâPlato; white horsesâThe procession of Xerxes; horses and men sacrificedâThe horse of DariusâHorse racing introduced among the RomansâXenophon and SimoâEarly horseshoes, bits and bitting; ancient methods of mounting As we gradually approach the time of Christ we find increasing interest being taken in horses by the kings and great chiefs of different countries, for the value of cavalry in war was now quickly becoming manifest. In the early days of the Homeric or Iron Age the Celts of Noricum and the Danube, though still retaining chariots, had begun to ride on horseback, and by the third century B.C. these Celtic tribes already possessed well-trained and very formidable cavalry. As a natural result the demand for still better horses grew steadily, and soon it became common to import horses into the Upper Balkan, and countries beyond the Alps, from the Mediterranean area. Perhaps the best description of a chariot race at Delphi is to be found in the _Electra_ of SophoclesâSophocles flourished in the third century B.C. At about the same period Herodotus tells us that the SigynnÃ¦, the only tribe north of the Danube that he mentions by name, had âhorses with shaggy hair five fingers long all over their bodies.â These horses were âsmall and flat-nosed and incapable of carrying men, but when yoked under a chariot were very swift.â Consequently the natives drove them largely in chariots. Though Herodotus does not allude to the colour of these small, flat-nosed horses, there is reason to believe that dun was the colour most prevalent at about this time. With regard to the horses of Northern Britain Dio Cassius says that two of the chief tribesânamely, the Caledonians and the MÃ¦atÃ¦ââwent to war in chariots, as their horses were small and fleet,â while when the Gauls passed into Italy, towards the beginning of the fourth century B.C., they drove chariots but did not ride, in which respect they resembled the SigynnÃ¦ north of the Danube. Thucydides, writing at the end of the third century B.C., speaks with interest on the subject of horses' hoofs, pointing out that the reason so many of the cavalry horses of the Athenians went lame towards the close of the Peloponnesian War was not that they had been wounded, as some historians have averred, but owing simply to their not being shod. This was after the Spartans had occupied Decelea and suffered their heavy loss. Alcibiades, in the third century B.C., had many horses, and in the sixth book of âThucydidesâ he tells us in his speech that he sent into the lists no less than seven chariots, adding that âno other man ever did the likeâ; and later he goes on to mention that he won the first, second and fourth prizes. Apparently Alcibiades knew his world, and if so it would seem that his world was not unlike the world we know to-day, for in another passage he sententiously yet philosophically tells us that we âmust not expect to be recognised by our acquaintance when we are down in the world; and on the same principle why should anyone complain when treated with disdain by the more fortunate?â This particular sentence is according to the translation of âThucydidesâ by the late Professor Jowett, who leaves us to infer what we please concerning the sociological views held by Alcibiades. Among the first to employ war chariots with scythes intended to mow down the enemy were the Persians, if historical records are to be trusted, and we read that the chariots they used in the battle of Cunaxa, in 401 B.C., were provided with sharp blades, while in after years the people of Syria had war chariots with spears as well as scythes. Thus in the bloody battle fought between Eumenes of Pergamus, and Antiochus of Syria, to mention but a single instance, Antiochus had four-horse chariots with scythes and spears in his front line of battle, whereupon Eumenes purposely âcreated terrorâ amongst these horses, with the result that they turned suddenly and dashed back into the lines of Antiochus, spreading devastation and death on all sides in their own ranks. Certain it is that upon that occasion many horses were cut to pieces by the scythes, but for a full and graphic description of what happened I must refer the reader to the thirty-seventh chapter of the immortal âLivy.â * * * * * The esteem in which horses, especially war horses, were held in the centuries that immediately preceded the coming of Christ may to some extent be gathered from the prominence accorded to them when coins to be used as the circulating medium began to come into general vogue. Thus on the first of the Carthaginian coinsâthey were struck in the third century B.C.âwe find represented a horse upon one side, a palm-tree upon the other, while on the coins of the important Sicilian settlement, Panormus, a horse is shown. I have tried to disentangle from a mass of only semi-trustworthy records the true origin of the well-known saying: âHe has Seius' horse in his stable.â So far as one can ascertain, it is traceable to the fates of the various ill-starred owners of the horses of GnÃ¦us Seius, from Seius down to Anthony. Plutarch says that the famous Philip II. loved to commemorate his Olympian victories by stamping the figure of a steed upon some of his coins, and certainly he was devoted both to horses and horse racing. We read too that between 359 and 336 B.C. he entered both chariots and riding horses for the Olympian competitions. [Illustration: GREEK COINS SHOWING HORSES IN THE EARLY CENTURIES BEFORE CHRIST _1, 3. Agrigentum. 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9. Syracuse. 8. Asia Minor and Greece. Philip of Macedon. 10. Hellenestic period. Hiero of Sicily_] Similarly a proportion of the Sicilian coinage bore the impression of a horse, and many of the great chariot races are commemorated on coins. Several of the Agrigentine coins, for instance, show a quadriga driven by winged Nike, in commemoration probably of the victory of ExÃ¦netus, while some of the coinage of Syracuse dating back so far as 500 B.C., and even earlier, represents a four-horse chariot upon the face of the tetradrachms, and, on the didrachms, a man riding one horse and leading another. Some of the drachms show merely a man mounted. Indeed we are told
{'title': 'The Horse in History by Basil Tozer', 'source': 'Project Gutenberg', 'lang': 'en'}