312 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



As by the end of the Republic and the first century 

 of the Empire Rome was mistress of a large part of the known 

 world, and was in a position to obtain not only the best horses 

 within her own vnde bounds, but also to acquire their best steeds 

 from those tribes who did not own her sway, and, as in the first 

 century of our era, chariot-racing had become a furious passion 

 at Rome, and immense sums were spent on it by the four great 

 factions of the Blue (Veneta), the Green (Prasina), the White 

 (Albata), and the Red (Russata), so named from their distinc- 

 tive colours, it is obvious that if we could ascertain what was 

 the best breed of racers at this time, we would be justified in 

 concluding that this was the best in the known world'. 



In 1903 several fragments of a long Latin ^ inscription were 

 found at Rome, built into a wall to the north of the castle of 

 St Angelo. They turned out to be part of a document of which 

 other fragments had already been publishedl The inscription 

 had been set up in honour of Avilius Teres, a renowned 

 charioteer in the second half of the first century A.D., and it 

 contains a recital not only of his racing career and how he first 

 drove for the Blue (Veneta) and then changed to the Green 

 (Prasina), but what is more to our purpose it gives a list not 

 only of the horses' names which he steered to victory, but also 

 mentions the breeds to which each belonged. Although the 

 inscription is very incomplete, yet in forty-two cases adjectives 

 giving the horse's nationality can be read. Thirty-seven horses 

 are described as Afer, i.e. from that part of Libya comprised 

 in the Roman province of Africa and in the modern Barbary 

 States ; one is styled Maiirus, Mauritanian, one Hispanus, one 

 Gallus, and two Lacoties, i.e. Lacedaemonian. Consequently 

 thirty-eight out of forty-two are actual North African horses, 

 whilst from what we have seen of the history of the horses of 

 Spain we know that the South Spanish horses at this time 

 were almost purely Libyan, and Caesar's evidence respecting the 

 Gallic horses and the constant importation of first-rate horses 

 from the south by the Gauls in the two centuries before Christ 



1 Suet. Calig. 55 ; Vit. 7. 14 ; Dom. 7. 



2 jjeuue Archeologique, 1903, Juillet et Aout, no. 160, p. 160. 



3 Corp. Inscript. Lat., vi. 10053, 10054, 83943. 



