320 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTOBY. [Book VIII. 



when a charioteer had been thrown from his place, in the ple- 

 beian games of the Circus, 42 the horses ran to the Capitol, just 

 as if he had been standing in the car, and went three times 

 round the temple there. But what is the greatest prodigy of all, 

 is the fact that the horses of Eatumenna came from Veii to 

 Eome, with the palm branch and chaplet, he himself having 

 fallen from his chariot, after having gained the victory ; from 

 which circumstance the Eatumennian gate derived its name. 43 

 "When the Sarmatse are about to undertake a long journey, 

 they prepare their horses for it, by making them fast the 

 day before, during which they give them but little to drink ; 

 by these means they are enabled to travel on horseback, with- 

 out stopping, for one hundred and fifty miles. Some horses 

 are known to live fifty years ; but the females are not so long- 

 lived. 44 These last come to their full growth at the fifth year, 

 the males a year later. The poet Yirgil has very beautifully 

 described the points which ought more especially to be looked 

 for, as constituting the perfection of a horse ; 45 I myself have 

 also treated of the same subject, in my work 45 * on the Use of the 

 Javelin by Cavalry, and I find that pretty nearly all writers are 

 agreed respecting them. 46 The points requisite for the Circus 

 are somewhat different, however; and while horses are put 

 in training for other purposes at only two years old, they are 

 not admitted to the contests of the Circus before their fifth year. 



CHAP. 66. THE GENERATION OF THE HOESE. 47 



The female of this animal carries her young for eleven 

 months, and brings forth in the twelfth. The connection takes 

 place at the vernal equinox, and generally in both sexes, at 

 the age of two years ; but the colt is much stronger when the 

 parents are three years old. The males are capable of cover- 



42 The games of the Circus were divided into the Patrician and the Ple- 

 beian ; the first being conducted by generals, consuls, and the curule aediles, 

 the latter by the aediles of the people. B. 



43 Eelated somewhat more at large by Plutarch, in his Life of Publicola. 

 B. 



44 Many of these particulars are from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. 

 c. 22. B. 45 Georgics, B, iii. 1. 72, et seq.B. 



45 * See Introduction to vol. i. p. vii. 



46 Varro, de Be Rust. B. ii. c. 7 ; and Columella, B. vi. c. 29, have 

 treated on this subject at considerable length. B. 



47 The materials of this chapter appear to have been principally taken, 

 from Aristotle, Varro, and Columella. B. 



