42 THE HORSE OF AMERICA. 



herds of animals, asses and swine, birds also of every kind, ex- 

 cept geese and the gallinaceous tribes." 



Here we have from the very highest authority the pivotal fact 

 that there were no horses in Arabia at the commencement of the 

 Christian era. This does not rest upon argument, nor is it a 

 deduction from some condition of things that might have existed; 

 but it is a distinct declaration of what Strabo saw with his own 

 eyes and wrote down when he saw it. It must, therefore, stand 

 as an undisputed fact, until some reputable authority is brought 

 forward to contradict it. This description from Strabo applies 

 to that rich portion of Arabia, bordering on the Eed Sea along 

 its full length. With the fact established, circumstantially and 

 historically, that there were no horses in Arabia at the beginning 

 of the Christian era, it now remains to consider how and when 

 they were first introduced in that country. 



Philostorgius, a distinguished Greek theologian, born A.D. 425, 

 as related in the preceding chapter, wrote an ecclesiastical his- 

 tory, which is no longer extant, but fortunately Photius, at one 

 time patriarch of the Eastern church, born A.D. 853, prepared an 

 epitome of it. This epitome of Philostorgius comes down to 

 A.D. 425, and is to be found in the Lenox Library of this city, 

 bound up in the same volume with Sozomen's Ecclesiastical 

 History. I will here quote literally from this epitome so much 

 as is pertinent to the question before us. Constantius was then 

 on the throne of the Eastern Empire, and labored for the pro- 

 motion of the Christian religion. 



" Constantius sent ambassadors to those who were formerly called Sabaeans, 

 but are now known as Homeritae, H tribe descended from Abraham, by Keturah. 

 As to the territory which they inhabit, it is called by the Greeks Magna Arabia 

 and Arabia Felix, and extends t > the most distant part of the ocean. Its 

 metropolis is Saba, the city from which the Queen of Sheba went forth to see 

 Solomon. . . . Constantius, accordingly, sent ambassadors to them to 

 come over to the Christian religion. . . . Constantius, wishing to array 

 the embassy with peculiar splendor, put on board their ships two hundred 

 well-bred horses from Cappadocia, and sent them, with many other gifts. . 

 . . The embassy turned out successfully, for the prince of the nation, by 

 sincere conviction, came over to the true religion." 



Other facts might be quoted from this epitome, showing that 

 Theopholis was made a bishop and placed at the head of this em- 

 bassy and that, he remained in Arabia Felix several years, prose- 



