Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 253 



lords of Greece did not ride their dun-coloured horses, but only 

 drove them in pairs under chariots. From the great docility of 

 the Libyan horse and his descendants it is highly probable that 

 the Libyans from its first domestication could mount it without 

 difficulty, and as they themselves (cf. p. 241) were small, light- 

 built men, their horses could carry them with ease at a date 

 when the European horses, which were not so tall as the Libyan, 

 could not carry for any great distance their large-limbed masters, 

 such as the Sigynnae in the fifth century B.C. or the Acheans 

 some seven centuries earlier. It is thus not at all unlikely that 

 it was from Libya that the practice of riding on horseback first 

 became known to the inhabitants of Greece. 



The islanders from Thera, who planted Gyrene, were not 

 slow in fulfilling the prophecy of Medea 1 that " instead of short- 

 finned dolphins they should take to themselves fleet mares, and 

 reins instead of oars should they ply, and speed the whirlwind- 

 footed car," for Gyrene soon became famous as "the city of 

 fair steeds and goodly chariots 2 ." Pindar glorified her king, 

 Arcesilas, for his victories in the chariot-race, and later her 

 native poet, Callimachus, sang of his " home famed for her 

 steeds 3 ." When Alexander had conquered Egypt and conceived 

 the idea of visiting the shrine of Ammon, the Cyreneans sent 

 envoys to make submission to the world-conqueror, bringing 

 a crown and rich gifts amongst which three hundred war-horses 

 figured prominently 4 . 



Still earlier than the Greeks the Phoenicians had begun 

 to plant colonies along the coast of North Africa, and they 

 therefore soon became possessed of the noble horses of Libya. 

 When Carthage, in the fourth century B.C., first began to 

 coin money it is significant that she placed the horse and 

 palm-tree on her coins (Fig. 74), whilst the horse alone is seen 

 on the issues of Panormus, her most important settlement 

 in Sicily. 



It will be noticed that the horses seen on these coins are 

 not pure-bred, but rather fine cross-bred horses, like the horse 

 ridden by the Libyan woman (p. 244). In reference to that 



1 Find. Pyth. iv. 17. 2 Ib. iv. 1. 



3 Strabo, 837. 4 Diod. Sic. XLIX. 2. 



