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The most important service among the ancients being the miHtary, 

 they had various methods of trying the dispositions of" Horses, thereto 

 pro[)Osed, rejecting such as proved to be of a timid or vicious and ob- 

 stinate temper. One of their modes of discovering the degree of 

 courage and temper possessed by a Horse, was to ring a bell, or make 

 other loud and sudden noises in his ears, observing his behaviour under 

 such circumstances. 



Cast troop Horses, worn out and no longer fit to serve, were, on their 

 dismission, branded on the jaw, with the figure of a circle or wheel ; 

 and it was the custom for private owners of Horses, to burn into their 

 flesh, certain figures or marks, as letters of the alphabet, denoting their 

 breed and country, or to whom they belonged ; or to stamp them with 

 the figure of a centaur, or the head of a bull. 



As in modern times, sovereign princes and persons of the most illus- 

 trious birth, have ever been proud of the distinction of being patrons 

 of the Horse, and of excelling in every branch of that science which 

 relates to him, so it has been from the earliest antiquity. In Homer 

 and virgil we find the title of tamers and breakers of Horses, bestowed 

 on the most renowned chiefs and heroes, as the highest possible com- 

 mendation : and the art of horsemanship was not regarded as a light 

 or merely ornamental accomplishment, but one of solid use and indis- 

 pensable necessity in the great business of Avar. Thus the skill in 

 managing Horses in the two branches of riding and driving them in 

 chariots, was a qualification requisite to a warrior of the highest com- 

 mand. This also descended through all ranks and degrees of those 

 who fought on horseback, in itself a mark of distinction : and upon all 

 occasions, the art of riding was judged of such consequence, that 

 Plutarch declared it to be, * equally reprehensible and absurd in one 

 who pretended to ride, to be ignorant of the rules of equitation, as it 

 would be in a person untutored in music, to undertake to play upon 

 the pipe.' — And Suetonius affirms, that, amongst the Romans, in the 

 time of Julius Cccsar, himself a most expert and distinguished horseman, 

 to be ignorant of the science of horsemanship, reflected so much dis- 

 grace, as to give rise to the proverb neqiie equitare, nee Uterus scire, 

 neither to be able to ride, nor to read the alphabet. 



E 2 Amongst 



