274 DISSERTATION ON THE 



the outfide hoife, and that next to him There 

 is a particular defcription of this matter in the 

 Military Chariot, defcribed by Zenophon *. " They had 

 " ftrong compadt wheels that could not eafily be 

 " broken, and long axle-trees which would not be 

 " liable to an overturn." This dimenfion of the 

 wheels, and this length of the axle tree, accounts for 

 every action of the chariot, which would be otherwife 

 inexplicable ; namely, the driving in full career upon 

 all kinds of ground, over heaps of arms and flaugh- 

 tered bodies, without being expofed to (otherwife a 

 common accident) an overturn. It is from this length 

 that we meet with defcriptions of the axle groaning 

 under the weight of two fuperiour heroes. — It is this 

 length of the axle which allows room for fuch a 

 breadth in the car, as gives fpace for a warrior to 

 ftand and acft on either fide the driver. But this mat- 

 ter is put out of difpuie by the examples to be found 

 in the ancient coins and marbles ; you there fee the 

 wheel on the fame perfpeclive bafe with the outfide 

 horfe. The head of the axle was capped with a nut 

 or box to fecure the wheel upon it, which nut was 

 ufually in the form of a Lion's, or Leopard's head. 



The Temo, or pole, called by the Greeks 'Pujuo? t> was 

 fixed to the axle-tree, and tied to it by two ftrength- 

 ening cheek-pieces, as at c in fg. A, which I have taken 



* Zenophon CyripcEd. lib. vi. 17. 

 ■j- Iliad, V. 729. 



8 from 



