522 THE HISTORY OF THE HORSE 



at the Panatliensea, the festival held in honour of Minerva, 1506 B.C. 

 But the horse had been ridden long before this date by Babylonians, 

 by Assyrians, and by Egyptians, and also by the descendants of Ishmael, 

 if we place any faith in tradition. If Chiron was the first to mount a 

 Grecian horse, there is every reason to believe that the Arabians for ages 

 previously had been accomplished equestrians. 



Up to this date the demand for horses had been created by the chase, 

 by pageants, and by war, but the world had not to grow much older before 

 an incentive occurred in the inauguration of the Olympic games. These 

 are said to have been first celebrated in Greece in 1453 B.C., but it was not 

 till 884 B.C., when Iphitus, and after him Choroebus, 776 B.C., renewed 

 these games, that they became a world-famed national institution. The 

 horse did not, however, make his appearance in the hippodrome until 

 the 23rd Olympiad, 680 B.C., when he was ridden, and it was not until 

 the 25th Olympiad that he was yoked to the chariot, and his speed and 

 power of endurance were tested in harness, after which chariot-racing 

 became a dominant pastime of the Greeks. The Olympic games com- 

 prised horse, chariot, and man racing, leaping, throwing the discus, 

 wrestling, and boxing, and for these sports separate areas were set apart: 

 the stadium for the contests in running and wrestling, the hippodrome 

 for horse and chariot racing, &c. Amongst all these games horse-racing 

 and chariot-racing were the most popular, and they embraced various 

 forms of sport: the chariot race with mules, with mares (described by 

 Lausanias), the chariot race wdth matured horses, with four foals, and 

 with two foals, and there was also a horse race, in which boys rode. 



The hippodrome of Greece possessed the same influence as the British 

 turf now exercises in the production of good horses. For performance 

 at these games fleet horses were imported from all parts of the world, 

 studs were established, training - stables built, and running - tracks laid 

 down with as much eagerness Ijy the ancient Greek as by the British 

 owner of race-horses at the present day, and consequently Greece, from 

 its earliest days, became conspicuous as a horse-breeding country. Tacitus 

 describes the celebrated breed of horses that existed at Argolis, and the 

 surrounding country is mentioned by Homer as forming an extensive 

 grazing-ground favourable to the propagation and development of horses. 

 Diodorus Siculus states that in ancient times Macedonia "abounded in 

 horses above all countries in Greece", and that at the royal stud in Bella 

 300 stallions and 30,000 mares were kept. Strabo also informs us that 

 the Cappadoeians paid an annual tribute to the Persians of " 1500 horses, 

 2000 mules, and 50,000 sheep". 



Yet, although Greece was a large horse-rearing country, and horses 



