OF HORSEMANSHIP. 35^ 



were die firft among the Greeks who applied themfelvcs 

 to the art of breaking horfes. Pliny the Elder gives 

 Bellerophon the honour of having been the firft who 

 mounted a horfe j but his ftory is too abfurd and idle 

 to be eniicled * to any credit, Notwithftanding this, the 

 fame writer declares, that the Theffalians, of all the 

 Greeks applied themfelves moft to this exercife. The an- 

 cient cavalry of Greece, therefore, is to be found inThef- 

 faly. Hiftory farther informs us, that thefe primitive 

 horfemen, in order to acquire knowledge and dexterity 

 in the art, as well as to difplay them upon proper oc- 

 cafions, were aecuftomed to fight with bulls, attacking 

 them with javelins, in order to kill them, and thereby 

 prevent them from ravaging their fields. In this fci- 

 ence of bull-hunting, it is fuppofcd, they were expert, 

 as well as in horfemanfliip, by the affiftance of which 

 they were enabled to attack and deftroy thefe wild and 

 dangerous animals. Pliny fays, Julius Csefar introduced 

 thefe bull-fightings into Rome, and was the firft who en- 

 tertained the people with thefe fpe<5lacles ; nor is it im- 

 probable, that the celebrated Spanijb BuU-feaJis, as they are 

 called, are derived from thefe fports of the Romans, as 

 they took their rife from the Greeks. Be this as it may 

 it is certain that the word Centaur, or to fpeak more 

 properly Hippocentaur, owes its derivation in the 

 Greek language to tliis cuftom of bull-wounding by 

 men, who attacked them on horfeback, the word 

 Hippocentaur, fignifying an Horfeman BuU-wounden 



• Vid. Diod. Sicul.— -Pliny — Palaephatus— Servius in Virg, 



Fa At 



