194 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



Their strong build and want of speed in spite of their cross of 

 'Arab' blood proves that the substrate of the breed is the 

 primitive horse of Upper Asia, and though frequent crossing 

 may have made bay and chestnut common colours, it is likely 

 that there is in their veins much of the blood of the ancient 

 Nisaean horses of Armenia and Media, ' the largest ' horses of 

 the Persian empire. 



As the Parthian horses, which were both grey and also 

 commonly dun, were descended from the Nisaean breed, and 

 resembled it in appearance, we may conclude that the Persian 

 horses of the fifth century B.C. were dun, white, or grey. But 

 we have just seen that dun and white especially characterised 

 the horses of Upper Europe and Upper Asia in classical and 

 medieval times. From this it would appear that the Nisaean 

 horses bred in Armenia were of the Upper Asiatic, i.e. Turcoman 

 stock, and that by 600 B.C. and probably far earlier, the latter had 

 made its way down into Palestine, where, as we have just seen, 

 it still forms the chief element in the ordinary horses of the 

 country. The Median empire had been absorbed into the 

 Persian, but as the horses bred on the Nisaean plain in Media 

 were of the same stock as those of Armenia, and by some were 

 said to have been brought from the latter country, we may con- 

 clude that they were also of the Upper Asiatic stock, though 

 probably modified and improved by another strain, as we shall 

 presently see. It is also highly probable that the horses of 

 the other great monarchies of western Asia absorbed into the 

 Persian empire were mainly of the same Asiatic stock. 



Though the Lydians in the time of Croesus (560 546 B.C.) 

 were admirably furnished with cavalry, they themselves held 

 that the horse was not a native, but an imported animal, as 

 is demonstrated by an incident mentioned by Herodotus 1 . When 

 the Persians advanced on Sardis, the space in front of the city 

 was filled with serpents, which were eagerly devoured by the 

 horses. Disturbed by the portent Croesus sent to the Tel- 

 messian soothsayers, who declared that it presaged invasion 

 and conquest by a foreign host, for (said they) "the snake is 

 a child of the land, but the horse is an enemy and a stranger." 



1 I. 78 : X^o^res 6<piv elvan 7175 TratSct, LTTTTOV Se Tro\^fJ.i6v re Kal eir'r]\v8a. 



