CHAPTER XIII 



SADDLES 



Any one who examines, however casually, Greek 

 and Roman coins, vases, bas-reliefs, or sculptures, 

 cannot fail to notice that horsemen are invariably 

 represented as riding bare-back or on a simple 

 cloth. Saddles, properly so-called, were unknown 

 to ancient Greece and Rome ; the pad or saddle- 

 cloth was the forerunner of the saddle, and this 

 was secured upon the horse's back by one, two, 

 or three girths. A sarcophagus found at Clayo- 

 mense shows a pad thus secured with a surcingle. 

 Trojan's Pillar and many other monuments bear 

 similar evidence of the use of the housing, or pad, 

 which was called by the Greeks Epkippion, and 

 by the Roman Ephippium — a latinised form of 

 the Greek word. It is believed that a saddle with 

 a tree did not come into use among the Romans 

 until the fourth century a.d. 



These pads, or housings, were guiltless of 

 stirrups or any equivalent thereof, Galen refers 

 to the swellings and "defluxions," to use the word 

 of an old translator, to which the Roman cavalry 

 were subject, and which were due to the attitude 

 maintained for hours together on horseback with 

 hanging legs. The rider mounted with the aid of 

 his spear shaft ; his slaves gave him "a leg up," 



