THE HORSE HISTORY. 459 



carried ambition to display at the public races of Greece so far 

 as did Alcibiades. He distinguished himself by the great num- 

 ber of horses kept only for the races. He sent seven chariots 

 at one time to the Olympic games, at which contest he carried 

 off the first, second, and third prizes. This victory had never 

 been equaled, and was the theme for a celebrated ode by the 

 distinguished poet, Euripides. 



The interest aroused among citizens of Greece and neigh- 

 boring countries by these feats of horsemen and their teams of 

 two, three, and four trained horses, is manifest by artists and 

 poets, while statues were erected in honor of the victors, and 

 even of the horses. 



A Monument to a Mare. In the sixth book of Pausa- 

 nias we are told of a monument erected in honor of the mare 

 Aura. Her rider having fallen off at the beginning of the race, 

 the mare continued to run us if he had been on her back. She 

 outran all competitors, and at the final sound of the trumpets, 

 near the close of the contest, she rounded the goal as if con- 

 scious that she had won the race, and presented herself proudly 

 before the judges. When we consider that these games were 

 attended by the flower of Greece, and that the audiences were 

 entertained by the finest orators, historians, and poets the world 

 had then produced, we can appreciate to some extent the impe- 

 tus that must have been given to the business of breeding and 

 training a class of horses possessing the style, speed, docility, 

 and endurance demanded in the contestants of these world- 

 renowned games. Herodotus read his history at these games to 

 all Greece. His contemporary, the famous Athenian orator, 

 Lysias, chose the occasion of these games to congratulate the 

 Greeks on the reconciliation of their States. 



The Greek Horse Improves those of Southern 

 Europe. I have enumerated some of the influences in Greek 

 civilization that led to the improvement of the horse in the 

 southern part of Europe. The type of horse developed in 

 Greece became that of Eastern Asia, Thrace, Macedonia, and 

 the more distant countries bordering on the Mediterranean Sea. 

 Wherever the commerce of Greece extended, it carried a knowl- 



