21 



Seneca could write cooly siimulis facibusque, of" the goads and firebrands, 

 with which the wretched victims were tortured in order to make them 

 go forward. 



Saddles, it has been observed, were a convenience unknown to both 

 ancient Greece and Rome. Instead of these, certain cloths or furniture 

 were thrown across the Horse, on which, fastened with a circingle, the 

 rider sate. The whole horse furniture or trappings, composed of various 

 materials, as leather, cloth, or the skins of wild beasts, and for the 

 use of the rich and great, frequently adorned with gold, and silver, and 

 jewels, were styled epiphia or ephippia : the Horses also were decked 

 out on particular occasions, with rich collars and various devices, some- 

 times hearing helis, AA'hence ]:)robably the phrase of bearing the bell, 

 and the application of that word to the turf, in the early period of 

 Horse-racing in this country, when races were styled bell courses. The 

 ornament of a bell, in both ancient and modern times, may have been 

 the symbol of victory or superiority. 



JS' either stirrups, nor any appendage of similar use, seem to have pre- 

 ceded the discovery of saddles; and we learn from J///^ywr;'«/t;5, that the 

 Scvthians, and those nations in the habit of being much on horseback, 

 were afflicted Avith inflammations, and painful tumours in their legs, oc- 

 casioned by their dependent posture, and the Avant of a support for the 

 feet. Galen also aflirras the same of the Roman soldiers. Destitute 

 of the assistance of the stirrup, the ancients had recourse to various 

 methods of mounting the Horse, in Avhich they Avere governed by im- 

 mediate expedience. For example, they Avere sometimes obliged to 

 vault on horseback, in Avhich exertion soldiers generally used the aid of 

 their spears. Some taught their Horses to kneel for their accommoda- 

 tion. Persons of consequence AAcre lifted on horseback, and assisted to 

 dismount, by their slaves or grooms. Horse-blocks, and steps or ladders, 

 Avere also in ancient use ; and mounds of stones AA^ere piled on certain 

 spots of the public road, for the convenience of the traveller, the erec- 

 tion and care of AAliich, formed a branch of the duty of those officers 

 Avho superintended the highAvays. This Avant of the aid of the stirrup, 

 certainly induced the necessity of great activity in the horseman, by 



Avhiclt 



