Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 293 



tions render it certain that it was a fully recognized military 

 arm in the seventh century B.C. It will be remembered that 

 the race with the ridden horse was instituted at Olympia in 

 B.C. 648, a fact in itself sufficient to prove that the riding of 

 horses had become a matter of great importance by that time. 

 Moreover when Solon constituted his four new classes at Athens 

 in the beginning of the sixth century, the second, termed 

 the Knights ('Ivr-Tret?), was composed of those who had suf- 

 ficient property to keep a horse, and serve the State on horse- 

 back in time of war. The Knights naturally were a very 

 aristocratic body, and in the subsequent political struggles 

 they are always found on the conservative side. Just as the 

 medieval gentleman was known by his horse, his hound, and 

 his hawk, so the keeping of horses was the mark of an aristo- 

 crat at Athens and in other parts of Greece ; and as the 

 effigy of a medieval knight is often distinguished by his hound 

 at his feet, or sometimes by his falcon on his wrist, so a horse's 

 head often occurs on Athenian tombstones, indicating that the 

 dead was of a knightly family. Nor was this exceptional. 

 Pausanias 1 the traveller " saw not far from the river Crathis in 

 Achaia a tomb on the right of the road with a faded painting 

 of a man standing beside his horse." The hound too occa- 

 sionally got his place on his master's tomb. At Tritia in Achaia 

 the same writer saw a remarkable monument of white marble, 

 adorned with paintings by the eminent artist Nicias: "An 

 ivory chair is seen with a comely young woman seated on it : 

 at her side stands a maid-servant with a parasol. A young 

 and beardless man stands erect, wearing a tunic with a purple 

 robe over it : beside him is his servant holding his darts, and 

 with some hounds in leash. I could not learn their names, 

 but anyone could guess that a husband and wife are here 

 buried together 2 ." 



The archaic black-figured vases 3 and those of succeeding 



1 vii. 25. 13. 2 vii. 22. 6. 



3 British Museum Cat. of Greek Vases, Vol. n. nos. 130, 132 (both show 

 bigae), no. 133 (two youths riding a horse-race), nos. 135, 374, 375 (fight be- 

 tween two warriors on horseback), no. 581 (third horse white), nos. 606, 545, 

 546, 547 (third horse white). 



