SCYTHIAX HOUSES.] 



THE HOESE, AXD 



[geeek horses. 



So universal was this the practice, that it is 

 understood that the very name of Persia, by 

 which, ever afterwards, that country became 

 known, was taken from Peeesh — a word in 

 Chaldee and Hebrew ; signifying a horseman. 

 Both in the plains of Assyria and Persia, vast 

 numbers of horses were reared. We read in 

 some authors, of no less than 150,000 feeding 

 on one vast plain near the Caspian Gates. 

 The ancient Persian horse was esteemed a 

 gift of the highest value. Alexander the Great 

 considered the present of one, the noblest that 

 could be made. That this animal was one of 

 great beauty, is unquestionable. Vegetius 

 says — The Persian horses surpassed other 

 horses in the pride and gracefulness of their 

 paces, which were so soft and easy as to please 

 and relieve, rather than fatigue the rider. 

 Their pace, it seems, was as safe as it was plea- 

 sant ; and when they were bred on a large scale, 

 they constituted a considerable part of their 

 owner's revenue. The Nyssean horses, which 

 the kings of Persia used in their expedi« 

 tions, were celebrated as the finest in the 

 world. 



About 500 years before the birth of Christ, 

 Darius undertook his expedition against the 

 Scythians — a people possessing neither towns 

 Bor fields, but living, like the modern Tartars, 

 in movable camps, upon the milk and flesh of 

 their numerous herds. The country of this 

 people was notliiug more than a rude waste, 

 including, with Tartary, most of the present 

 empire of Eussia. They therefore had nothing 

 valuable to lose with an enemy, because they 

 had nothing to defend; and their force con- 

 sisted entirely of cavalry. Here, then, in this 

 barbarous region, the horse seems to have been 

 completely subjugated, and to have formed the 

 principal strength of the Tartars in repelling an 

 invasion of their territory. Notwithstanding 

 the excellence of the Persian cavalry, Darius was 

 forced to retreat ; and, before he reached the 



exercise, with the most simple habits and diet. Such an 

 education was the very best to enable a man to become 

 a subduer and trainer of horses. In his twelfth year, he 

 accompanied his mother to the court of his grandfather 

 Astyages, where everything was of tlie most luxurious 

 description, calculated to enervate, effeminise, and deceive. 

 But Cyrus resisted the temptations with which he was 

 encompassed, and gained for himself the admiration of 

 the sovereign and nobles of Media. When about sixteen, 

 he accompanied his grandfather to the war against Evil- 



Danube, suffered great loss and hardship. 

 When Xerxes, the succeeding Persian monarch, 

 and son of Darius, invaded Greece, he ha6 

 80,000 horse ; which, with his 1,700,000 foot, 

 took him seven days and seven nights to cross 

 the Hellespont. In northern Africa, in Mauri- 

 tania, Libya, and Numidia, horses were nume- 

 rous ; but they are described as having been 

 slightly made, and requiring little or no 

 attention from their owners. Passing into 

 Arabia, there is no mention whatever made by 

 ancient writers of the horses of this country ; 

 and it was not till the later periods of the 

 Jewish monarchy that they became numerous 

 in Palestine. Indeed, generally speaking, 

 Asia Minor had no ancient celebrity for its 

 horses, with the exception of the country 

 around Colophon, between Ephesus and 

 Smyrna, where there was a strong and ac- 

 complished cavalry. This force was deemed 

 invincible ; and was frequently employed as 

 mercenaries by other nations, when engaged 

 in war. 



Passing into Europe, we find that, in Greece, 

 the art of riding the horse, and most probably 

 the arrival of the animal himself, did not long 

 precede the Trojan war. This country lies 

 between the thirty-sixth and forty-first de- 

 grees of northern latitude, and is surrounded 

 by seas, except upon the north, where it is 

 bounded by Epirus and Macedonia. Its 

 original inhabitants were Pelasgians, of wliose 

 origin but little is known, but whose tribes 

 are supposed to have extensively settled in 

 both Europe and Asia. The early inhabi- 

 tants of Greece, however, are not so much to 

 be distinguished by their respective localities 

 as by their several tribes ; for it is found, that 

 as circumstances required, most, if not all of 

 them, migrated from one place to another. 

 The Pelasgi, however, chiefly occupied the 

 Peloponnesus (now the Morea), from which they 

 ramified iuto Thessaly and other parts. They 



Merodach, the successor of Nebuchadnezzar, and regent 

 of Babylon, who had wantonly invaded the territories of 

 Astyages. In this war, his conduct was marked by such 

 wisdom and valour, that he materially promoted the suc- 

 cess which attended the Median army. After this, he 

 returned to Persia, and remained with his father 

 till he was forty years old, when he was recalled to 

 Media, to undertake the military command under his 

 uncle Cyaxares, who was only one year older than him- 

 self. —Ed 



