130 INTRODUCTION. 



the heroical in speaking of horses, for Catullus evi- 

 dently alludes to horse-shoes in the line where the 

 object is indeed a mule : 



" Ferream ut soleam tenaci in Voragine mula 

 Derelinquit." 



Nero had horses shod with silver, and his wife, 

 Poppaea, had her mules similarly protected \vith 

 gold ; and although Beckman, after Cardamus, 

 would insinuate that these were plates, it still is 

 evident that they were fastened with nails, since, 

 in the life of Caligula, Suetonius expressly notices 

 the iron shoe, with eight or more nails, as remarked 

 by Aldrovandus. * It is probable that the ancient 

 shoe was similar to the present thin plates used in 

 Persia, which may be perforated with nails any- 

 where, and are very like the Turkish, only the last 

 mentioned have a small opening in the middle, but 

 the heel and frog are quite covered. There are in- 

 deed ancient Tahtar horse- shoes of a circular form, 

 apparently with only three nails or fasteners to the 

 outside of the hoof, as may be seen in the brand- 

 marks of the first race of Circassian horses : t this 

 was perhaps the shoe the Tahtars used, and which 

 every horseman could fasten on without the aid of a 

 farrier. There is further evidence in favour of the 

 antiquity and form of the usual shoe, in the circum- 

 stance, that from Ireland to the extremity of Siberia, 

 from Lapland to Abyssinia, from the Frozen Ocean 



* " U. Aldrovandus de Quadrupedibus," fol. p. 50. 

 t " Pallas's Travels." It is the brandmark of the Abassian 

 race of Shalokh. 



