EARLY HISTORY OF HORSEMANSHIP 223 



of saddles for post-horses is prescribed, 1 and the first repre- 

 sentation is upon the Theodosian column, where, according to 

 Montfaucon and others, the tree appeared with a high pummel 

 and an equally exaggerated cantel. 



Many writers have stated that the saddle-tree was described 

 by Zonaras as having been in use in the year 340 A.D., when 

 Constantine was killed by a fall from his horse. But there is 

 nothing in Zonaras to justify the belief that the saddle-tree was 

 indicated. The author 2 uses the words e/cTreTrrw? r/}? eSpa?. The 

 word eSpa occurs twice in Xenophon's work on riding (chap. v. 

 sect. 5, and chap. xii. sect. 9), and means, primarily, a sitting 

 place, the back of the horse where the rider sits. Although the 

 word after Xenophon's time was used for the saddle, either 

 with or without a tree and at the time Zonaras wrote his history 

 (later than the year 1 1 18 A.D., to which date he brings it down) it 

 signified a complete saddle it was the proper term for the historian 

 to use in writing of any age ; and we must still look upon the 

 Theodosian code and column as the first proofs that we have 

 of the existence of the saddle-tree. 



The author of the article upon ' the horse ' in the eighth 

 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, says : ' Vegetius, who 

 wrote on the veterinary art nearly 400 years B.C., speaks of the 

 saddle-tree.' I have found the passage of Vegetius referred to, 

 and give the words of that author. 3 ' Primum igitur ut pinguia; 

 sint jumenta, tarn in curulibus quam in sellaribus decet.' 

 Doubtless the word sella was used for the saddle after the tree 

 was in use, but it was likewise employed to designate the seat 

 of the horseman long before the wooden tree was known. No. 

 one can tell when Publius Renatus flourished, and no authority 

 pretends to assign him to any particular era. The first edition 

 of Ars Veterinaria was issued at Basle in the year 1528 (Jo. 

 Fabro.), and it is now the generally accepted opinion that it is 



The Theodosian Code was promulgated in 438. 



2 Zonaras, lib. viii. Paris, 1687 ; according to Beckmann, ii. 265. 



3 Vegetii Renati Artis Veterinarian (Schneider, Lipsise. MDCCXCVIII.), 

 Lib. IV. cap. vi. 



