O F H O R S E M A N S H IP. SS 



be gained, or elfe (which was a better dcfign, and a 

 founder way of reafoning) that this horfe-fn'ghtening 

 deity was placed in the courfe, as a touchjlone, to try and 

 prove the refoUition and temper of the horfes ; and to 

 obUge the candidates to bring none into the field, but 

 fuch as by exercife and difcipiine were fo aflured and 

 fleady, as not to let their obedience be fliaken upon 

 the moft trying occafions. 



On each fide of the courfe, from one end to the 

 other, the fpeiflators were placed ; the moft advanta- 

 geous nations being referved for the judges of the 

 games, and other diflinguiihed perfons ; the reft ftand- 

 ing where they could, it being impoflible to affign 

 particular places for the multitude which always at- 

 tended thefe folemn and magnificent diverfions. Again, 

 in that part where the horfes flood which were to run 

 for the prize, a long cable was drawn from one end to 

 the other, and ferved the purpofe of a barrier ; about 

 the middle of the prow above-mentioned, an altar was 

 erected, upon which ftood a brazen eagle, with out- 

 fli-etched wings, and the figure of a brazen dolphin was 

 likewife placed at the entrance of it. Tliis laft was fo 

 contrived, by the powers of mechanifm, that when ihe 

 prefident of the races thought proper to put it in mo- 

 tion, it would afcend at once to fuch an height, as to 

 be vifible to all the fpedlators. This eagle was dedi- 

 cated to Jupiter, the patron god of the Olympic 

 games, as the dolphin was facred to Neptune, the fup- 

 pofed creator of the horfe. The moment the eagle 



fprang 



