122 INTRODUCTION. 



different horses for steeds of high foreign breeds. 

 There exist, indeed, a few fragments of the writings 

 of veterinarians, which the policy of the govern- 

 ment attached to the army, and these contain some 

 of the most valuable information relating to horses 

 the ancients have left ; but the Roman Italian ca- 

 valry was always despicable, though individually 

 brave ; for, seated on pads or inefficient saddles, 

 loaded with heavy armour and weapons, in all real 

 actions they were obliged to dismount, and could 

 only oppose equally inefficient enemies, pursue or 

 escape, without vigour or celerity ; they never were 

 able to cope with the Parthians, or face the Sar- 

 niatae, excepting by means of their foreign auxi- 

 liaries, Numidians, Germans, or Asiatics ; in general 

 they acted only under cover of the legions, and 

 Caesar himself was so indifferent a cavalry general, 

 that the celebrated Prussian hussar officer, Warnery, 

 has ridiculed his dispositions, where cavalry are con- 

 cerned, with justice. 



If other proof were wanting of the absence of a 

 true appreciation of the importance good breeds of 

 horses are to a state, we shall find it in the absence 

 of all government institutions of the kind, until 

 taught by the misfortunes this neglect had brought 

 upon the empire, some were tardily adopted in the 

 Asiatic conquests. * Private studs there were, but 



* This was rather in the lower empire, under the Byzantine 

 sovereigns, who had retained the studs of Asia Minor chiefly 

 in Cappadocia ; they favoured others in Syria, and in the 

 fourth century obtained their curule horses from a stud kept 



