302 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



this account, says Strabo, the Arcadian breed of horses is most 

 excellent, as is likewise that of Argolis and that of Epidaurus. 

 Doubtless it is one of those famous Arcadian horses that we 

 see on a medal dedicated " to the Arcadians " by one Veturius, 

 sometime after the establishment at Mantinea of the cult of 

 Antinous, in the reign of Hadrian \ That bay was the colour 

 of the best Argive and other horses of the Roman world is 

 rendered certain by the description of the steed of Gnaeus 

 Seius, whose owners from Seius down to Antony came to such 

 miserable ends, that he gave rise- to the proverb used of an 

 unlucky man, He has Seius' horse in his stable^. This horse 

 bred in Argos was of first-rate strain, of " unusual size, carried 



Fig. 86. Coin of Philip II of Macedon, showing a jockey on a race-horse. 



his neck well, was of a bay colour, had a flowing mane, and far 

 excelled in every other good point that a horse can have." As 

 in Homeric days, so in later times, mule-breeding was carried on 

 in all parts of Peloponnesus, except in Elis^ and flourished espe- 

 cially in Arcadia^ The large uninhabited areas in Aetolia and 

 Acarnania in Strabo's time rendered this district no less suited for 

 horse-breeding than the plains of Thessaly^ Thrace had been 

 famous for its horses and chariots in Homeric days. At what time 

 the horseman finally displaced the chariot we have no means of 

 judging, but it is probable that from at least the sixth century 

 the war-chariot had been superseded by mounted men. In the 



^ Head, Historia Numorum, p. 373. 



2 Aulus Gellius, Noct. Att. iii. 9. 3: magnitudine iuusitata, cervice ardua, 

 colore poeniceo, etc. 



3 Pans. V. 9. 2 ; cf. v. 5. 2. * Strabo, loc. cit. s Ibid. 



