140 ON HORSESHOES. 



account of the great value of the metal and the demand for it to 

 supply their war weapons. And, speaking of war weapons, I 

 recently exhibited this Roman sword ; but time did not allow me 

 any opportunity to introduce it ; and I saw in the local paper 

 mention of it and the remark that it could only have been a 

 dagger on account of its small size. Dr. Smith, in his Dictionary 

 of Greek and Roman Antiquities, gives an illustration of the 

 Greek hoplite and another of the Roman soldier, and remarks 

 " On comparing them we perceive that the several parts of the 

 armour correspond, excepting only that the Roman soldier wears 

 a dagger on his right side instead of a sword on his left," and 

 this sword that I now show is the dagger that Dr. Smith names, 

 and was the only sword with which the rank and file of the 

 Roman legions were armed, and with which they won their 

 Empire of the world. 



This much I have said on the subject of the metal. I re-assert 

 what I have already said, that the Romans did not know of iron 

 previously to their invasion of this island. Let us turn now to 

 the shoe itself. 



I am aware that in the admirably ordered County of Dorset 

 Museum we are shown some " Roman horseshoes;" but are they 

 horses' shoes ? Are they Roman ? How are they known to be 

 so ? Where were they found ? and of what metal are they 

 fabricated ? 



I do not know of any Roman horseshoes in the British 

 Museum ; I do not say there are none there, but that I do not 

 know of them. 



I know many Roman equestrian statues, but none that I know 

 (I speak of real Roman statues) having shoes on the horses' feet. 

 I know of no passage in any Roman or Greek poet, or other 

 writer, speaking of " horseshoes." Surely had they existed such 

 writers as Homer, Menander, Plato, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and 

 others, who searched every corner for their poetical similes, 

 would have made some mention of them ! 



Homer, again and again, speaks of the " solid hoofed horses." 

 I remember, by the way, that I always noticed this was mentioned 



