128 



ARRIAN 



Chap. XXIV. for tliis cliase ; and yet the Libyan boys, some at eight years 

 of age, and others not much older, mounted on their naked 

 steeds,^ and guiding them with a switch, as the Greeks employ 



8. 'Ettj yvfivcUp Tuiv 'Ixiroiv. 



Lucret. L. iv. 



Gens quiE nudo lesidens Massylia dorso 

 Ora levi flectit frffinorum nescia virga. 



Livii L. V. 

 Decad. iv. 



The allusions to the tractable and fleet Numidian horse, and his expert rider, are 

 too numerous in the authors of antiquity for citation of more than a few. The barbs, 

 in the language of our great dramatist, 



will follow where the game 

 Makes way, and run like swallows o'er the plain. 



In the army of Hannibal, the " equi hominesque paululi, discinctus et inermis 

 eques, equi sine frjenis," are eulogized by the Roman historian : and Strabo notices 

 the docility of the African little steeds to be such S>s t airh pafiSiov oiaici^eadai. 



Virgil speaks of the " Numidje infrsni," (^neid. L. iv. 41.) : Silius Italicus 

 of the 



velocior Euris 

 Et doctus virgK sonipes : — L. iii. 



and again, in the first hook of his Punic War : 



Hie passim exultant Numida; gens inscia fra;ni, 

 Quels inter geminas per ludum nobilis aures 

 Quadrupedein flectit non cedens virga lupatis. 



Oppian. Cyneg. 

 IV. 45. 



But the poets of the chase, Oppian and Nemesian, have left us in detail their shape 

 and qualifications : 



oirirSTf S' o5t€ 



Kttl novvoti 'l-mroiai kwoou Srep lOvs eAawetv 

 lirnoiatv Kiivoicnv 'Saoi irepl MavplSa ya7av 

 <}>€pfiovT', f) \ifiviffcnv, ocFoi n^ Kapre'C xfipwi' 

 &yXovrai ipeAioiai fiia^o/jievoio xaAivoD, 

 irelQovTai 8e Kvyoiffiv, oiri) fiporhs riyefioveid. 

 TovviKiV (TrireXaTOt Kilvwv iirt^riTopes 'inirocv 

 riSi Kvvas AeiVouffi (pi\ovs, iritrvvoi t' i\6ci>aiV 

 'Imrois, r)fKlov re jSoA?;, Kol y6(T(piv aptaywv. 



