y4 1 H E HISTORY AND ART 



cate horfes to the Sun. Tacitus fays, the ancient Ger- 

 mans had certain horfes which were confecrated to their 

 gods ; thefe horfes were * white, and exempt from 

 all labour, but that of drawing the facred chariots 

 upon folemn occafions. 



Livy relates, that Pionyfius of Sicily was drawn by 

 four white horfes, as well as Hiero, one of his fuc- 

 cefTors : and this hiftorian exprcfly reckons horfes of 

 this colour among the infignia of royalty, as much as 

 the purple robe, armed guards, and the diadem f. 

 Diodorus X Siculus gives an account of three hundred 

 while horfes, as part of a cavalcade which attended a 

 conqueror at Agrigentum. Romulus § in his triumph 

 had four while horfes harnefled to his car, and the 

 Roman conquerors were generally drawn by fuch in 

 the foiemnities of a public triumph. Nero made his 

 €ntry into Naples drawn by four horfes of this beau- 

 tiful colour. In latter times feveral Chriftian princes 

 adopted, or rather continued the cuftom, which lafted 

 for many centuries, and was obferved with the ut- 



* It is to be remarked, that this colour was held fo facred, and 

 the fondnefs of it was fuch, that it was required in more animals than 

 horfes, and even in robes and garments. It appears from Ammianus 

 Marcellinus, lib. xxv. chap. 4, that in their triumphs and facrifices the 

 Romans chofe white oxen ; and fome writers (particularly Menage) 

 obferve, that if they could not procure oxen which were perfe^/y white, 

 they coloured them with chalk, whence they were called Boves creiati. 



■f Livy, Dec. 3. Lib. xxiv. chap. 5. 



j: Lib. xiii. p. 204, Edit. Rhodom. 



§ Propertius, eleg. i. lib. 4. 



mod 



