INTRODUCTION. 125 



post roads ; and it \vas in imitation of the govern- 

 ment, that Pegasidae or fast going horses became 

 fashionable among the great. * 



Copying, no doubt, from nations possessed of 

 great droves of horses, we may believe the legionary 

 cavalry marked theirs on the thigh ; for it was the 

 practice to fix similar brandmarks upon the horses 

 of the circus, not as the property of individuals, but 

 as attached to one of the four factions of the chariot 

 races. Several of these are distinctly marked in 

 bas-reliefs and other ancient monuments, and are 

 here represented : 



g -ft K XI 



But the Imperial government, without foreseeing 

 it, was nevertheless the first cause in Europe of the 

 improvements in domestic horses, by permitting as 

 much as possible the remounts of the foreign co- 

 horts, stationed often at opposite extremities of the 

 empire, to be drawn from the native region of each ; 

 and we may judge, as stallions were mostly used in 

 the cavalry service, how much, for example, in 

 Britain, Alas and cohorts of Dacians, Mauritanians, 



* See the Notitia Imperil. Pancirolus. We may also men- 

 tion here the classification of horses in the old monastic insti- 

 tutions: they were divided into, 1st, Manni, large geldings 

 for the superiors ; 2d, Runcini^ runts, small nags for servants ; 

 3d, Sumernarii, or sumpter-horses to carry baggage ; and 4th, 

 Areni, plough-horses on the church lands. 



