460 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



edge of a mighty people, made more powerful by her ships and 

 horses. A better knowledge of the history of the nations bor- 

 dering on the Mediterranean, doubtless, would show that the 

 influence of the highly bred horses of the Greek Empire has 

 improved the horses of every land in Southern Europe that has 

 felt the elevating power of Greek civilization. The language, cus- 

 toms, and learning of the Greeks had much to do in improving 

 the people of the Roman Empire, and the ide;is mid tastes of 

 the Greek manifested themselves among the Romans in their 

 religion and games, races and feasts, art and literature ; their 

 highest attainments in art, oratory, poetry, agriculture, horse- 

 manship, and seamanship became models for the Roman people. 



The Ideal Greek Horse was described by Xenophon in 

 a masterly manner, and we find in the writings of T. Varro a 

 description of a horse so like that of Xenophon's ideal that the 

 Roman must have been familiar with the writings of Xenophon; 

 and as each wrote the best description of the horse of his day 

 and country, it is a reasonable inference that the ideal of 



The Roman Horse was not very unlike that of the Greek. 

 Varro says : " We may prognosticate great things of a horse if, 

 when running in the pastures, he is ambitious to get before his 

 companions, and if coming to a river he strives to be first to 

 plunge into it. His head should be small and bony, his limbs 

 clean and compact, his eyes bright and sparkling, his nostrils 

 open and large, his ears placed near each other, his mane strong 

 and full, his chest broad, his shoulders flat and sloping back- 

 ward, his barrel round and compact, his loins broad and strong, 

 his tail full and bushy, his legs straight and even, his knees 

 broad and well knit, his hoofs hard and tough, and his veins 

 large and swelling over all his body." This was written in the 

 century before Christ. Virgil, in the century after Christ, 

 speaks in his florid style of the horse taken from pursuits of 

 war, and his powers turned to the advantage of agriculture. 



Had not the irruptions of Goths and Vandals, soon after, 

 swept away every record of science in the Eastern and West- 

 ern Hemispheres, the history of the development of the horse in 

 Southern Europe would not have been so unsatisfactory as it is. 



