278 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



most ancient extant specimens of Greek sculpture of the 

 historical period. The quadriga relief which represents a 

 chariot and horses in elevation (Fig. 77) is the most remark- 

 able. The Sicilian horses, to judge by the monuments just 

 cited, as well as the Carthaginian issues of Panormus (Fig. 74 b, 

 p. 255), were cross-bred animals, for doubtless the desire to 

 obtain strength made the Sicilians prefer half-bred to pure 

 Libyan horses. 



It seems almost certain that the white horses which the 

 Sicilian Greeks, like so many other peoples, esteemed for their 

 colour far beyond their true merits, were derived from central 

 Europe, for we have already seen that Dionysius, the despot of 

 Syracuse, purchased some of their best strain from the Veneti, 

 who certainly possessed white horses. In the fourth century 

 A.D. the Sicilian horses were nearly as much esteemed for the 

 circus as the Cappadocian and Spanish 1 . 



South Italy shared with Sicily the fame of her riding horses, 

 and from at least the sixth century B.C. the great cities of Magna 

 Graecia, such as Sybaris, Croton and Tarentum, were renowned 

 for their cavalry, which formed their chief arm in war. Before 

 the fall of Sybaris (510 B.C.) five thousand of her citizens used 

 to ride on horseback in procession on high festivals. 



They taught their horses to dance to music at their 

 banquets, an accomplishment which brought about the de- 

 struction of Sybaris, as the Crotonians before the great battle 

 in which the Sybarites were destroyed caused flute-players 

 to play one of the tunes to which the Sybarite horses were 

 accustomed to dance. As soon as they heard the tune they 

 stood on their hind legs, unseating their masters and rendering 

 them an easy prey to their foes 2 . We have noticed as we 

 advanced that extraordinary docility characterised the Libyan 

 horse and its derivatives, such as the Arab, the Turk of Western 

 Asia, and the little ponies of Java, and we are told by Ibn 

 Batuta 3 that he saw horses (which were certainly Arab) dancing 

 before the Arab sultan of Sumatra, and that he had already seen 



1 Veg., Ars Vet. iv. 6, 2 : Cappadocum gloriosa nobilitas, Hispanorum par 

 vel proxima in circo creditur palma, nee inferiores prope Sicilia exhibet circo. 



2 Athenaeus, xn. 520; Pliny, H. N. vin. 157. 



3 Voyages, Vol. vi. pp. 236-7. 



