524 THE HISTORY OF THE HORSE 



the narration of his qualifications and the means to be adopted so as 

 to protect him from disease and injury and to preserve him in health. 



The writings of the Athenian general and historian Xenophou prove to 

 what a high degree of perfection the horse at this day had arrived, and the 

 attention he required to keep him in sound condition. The retreat of the 

 10,000 Greeks, after their defeat by the Persians under Cyrus, 401 B.C., 

 shows that in his day Grecian cavalry had become an important branch 

 of their military organization. At this period Xenophou had the same 

 difficulties to contend with as previous horse-owners had complained of, 

 namely the wearing away of the horses' hoofs during long and protracted 

 journeys over rough and stony roads, and for this reason he prescribes 

 treatment calculated to harden the unshod hoof, by causing horses to stand 

 upon rough stoue stable-floors, and upon similarly constructed pavement 

 when groomed outside the stable. He adds: "Those horses whose hoofs 

 are hardened with exercise will be as superior on rough ground to those 

 which are not habituated to it, as persons who are sound in their limbs to 

 those who are lame ". Xenophon also has described the points of a good 

 horse, and the breeding, rearing, and treatment of young horses ; from which 

 it is evident tliat at this period horses were used not only for the sports of 

 the hippodrome and for hunting, l)ut also for war; but as yet they had not 

 been used as beasts of burden, neither had they been yoked to the plough 

 nor engaged in farming operations — the mule, the camel, and the ox per- 

 formed these services. 



Although Greek authors have described the capacities in which horses 

 were employed, they have not given us pictures of the various equine 

 breeds which it is natural to imagine surrounded them. Xenophon certainly 

 has described the horse of his day, and the friezes of the Parthenon now at 

 the British Museum (Plate LXXIV) give us an idea of one equine type, but 

 not of the many which must have existed during the flourishing days of 

 ancient Greece. At the same time the Grecian horse might have been of one 

 type — the one linked to the chariot might have been of the same breed as 

 the one on which the trooper rode in battle, — and if such was the case it 

 must be accounted for on the supposition that the Grecian stock was of 

 Arabian descent, for the statuary of horses discovered in the ruins of Nineveh 

 gives portraitures of these animals very similar to the Grecian horses repre- 

 sented in the Elgin marbles, and consequently both might have originated 

 from a common stock and birthplace. Buflbn considered that Arabia was the 

 centre from which the horse sprang, and this has been the generally accepted 

 opinion. This subject will be recurred to when writing on Arabian horses; 

 let it suffice for the present to give the opinion of an eminent authorityo 

 "It is generally supposed from the omission of all mention of horses while 



