Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 113 



on, although from the circumstance that two different terms 

 are used for mules hemionos (' half-ass ') and oureus it might 

 naturally be inferred that these hybrids were both true mules 

 (the offspring of a mare by a male ass), and jennets (the off- 

 spring of a she-ass and a male horse), but this apparently was 

 not the case, since both terms are applied to the same animals 1 , 

 and it seems certain that hemionos was a true mule and not 

 a jennet, since the second prize in the chariot-race was a mare 

 in foal with a mule (hemionos) 2 . 



Mules played a leading part in agriculture and the other 

 ordinary avocations of life, being regularly employed for drawing 

 waggons 3 , for hauling timber 4 and for ploughing, and preferred 

 for the last-named purpose to oxen 5 . 



Leaving aside for the moment the Homeric evidence 

 touching horses in Asia Minor let us return to the regions 

 lying north of the Illyrians and Thracians. We have already 

 described the little, large-headed, shaggy horses of the people 

 who lived on the north of the Danube in the time of Herodotus. 

 We shall now show that down to the time of Julius Caesar's 

 campaigns in Gaul this same small ugly breed of horses was 

 the only one possessed by the tribes of Germany, for although 

 in Caesar's time the Germans used horses for riding, his descrip- 

 tion shows that these native horses were of a very inferior 

 kind. " They admit traders into their country rather because 

 they want persons to purchase what they themselves have 

 captured in war than .through any desire to buy imported 

 wares. Moreover, foreign horses, in which the Gauls take 

 special delight and for which they pay large sums, the Germans 

 do not employ, but their own native-born horses, which are 

 bad and ugly, they train to endure the severest toil by daily 

 exercise. In cavalry actions they frequently jump off their 

 horses and fight on foot, and they train their horses to remain 

 where they stand, and if need arise they betake themselves 



1 Of. II. xxin. 115 with 121, and xxiv, 702 with 716. 



2 II. xxni. 265-6: tirirov ^BtjKev 



e&re dS/^TTji', /3/>^0os TjfJ.iovov Kvtovaav. 



3 II. vn. 332, xvii. 742, xx!V. 702. 



4 II. xxm. 121. 8 II. x. 352. 



R. H. 8 



