280 THE HOUSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



the Romans first learned horse-racing (certamina equoruiri) 

 from that city. The Tarentines especially prided themselves 

 on their horsemen, which formed their chief arm in war and 

 one of which was the type on their coins from the end of the 

 fifth century B.C. down to the Roman conquest in B.C. 272. 

 That the best horses of Tarentum were well-bred with a large 

 admixture of Libyan blood is put beyond doubt by a marble 

 fragment procured near Tarentum 1 and now in the British 

 Museum (Fig. 78). The length of the horse's head from the 

 end of the mane over the forehead to the lip is 0*46 m., the 

 height from the bottom of the cheek-bone to the top of the head 

 is 0'34 m. ; the lower lip is gone, and the ears are broken. The 

 bridle, as usual in such cases, was probably added in bronze, as 

 is shown by rivet-holes. From a comparison with Tarentine 

 coins and other considerations the fragment may be placed in 

 the latter half of the fourth century B.C. The head differs from 

 that of the horse of Selene from the Parthenon (p. 299) in the 

 greater length of its fore-part, from which Prof. Michaelis 

 was disposed to infer that the Tarentine horse was of more 

 slender proportions, and furthermore it shows more faithful 

 representation to nature than is seen " in that wonderful com- 

 bination of idealism and realism which is so conspicuous in 

 the head of Selene's horse." The bony ridge below the eye, to 

 which are attached the masseter and zygomatic muscles, is more 

 strongly marked in the Tarentine than in the Parthenon horse ; 

 the nose is slightly curved, the eye is large though not so 

 prominent as in the latter, whilst on the other hand the eyes 

 of the famous bronze horses from St Mark's at Venice lie deep 

 in their sockets, and are overshadowed by rather strongly marked 

 brows. The mane in the Tarentine fragment is cut short, but 

 is not so stiff as is usual with Attic horses, and it falls more 

 freely, hanging in a double forelock over the forehead, as is also 

 the case in several slabs of the Parthenon. If we compare the 

 Tarentine head with that of one of the colossal horses from the 

 Mausoleum (p. 305) and with that of a horse from the Amazon 

 frieze of the same monument, we at once see that the ideal 

 Tarentine horse in the second half of the fourth century B.C. 



1 A. D. Michaelis, Jour. Hell. Stud., Vol. m. (1882), pp. 234-9, PI. xxiv. 



