THE HORSE OF DARIUS 37 



to the north of the River Don, owned immense 

 herds of horses. These they used principally 

 for food, while the milk of the mares they drank 

 and made domestic use of in other ways, a prac- 

 tice long in vogue among the Turko-Tartaric 

 tribes of Central Asia, and said to be still in 

 vogue with them in remote regions. 



Bearing upon early Persia is rather a well- 

 known story that on the death of the famous 

 Smerdis the seven princes who were his possible 

 successors agreed to confer the throne upon the 

 owner of the horse that should be the first to 

 neigh when they all met on the following day. 

 The groom of Prince Darius having been told of 

 this, had recourse to a clever ruse, for on that 

 same evening he led his master's horse to the 

 exact spot where the horses were all to meet on 

 the day following, and there showed the horse a 

 mare. Upon arriving at this spot next day the 

 horse, as we are told, " neighed furiously," so 

 that Darius won his kingdom ! 



We know that Hiero, King of Syracuse, who 

 flourished towards the end of the third and during 

 the beginning of the second century, B.C., won 

 the great Olympic crown with his good horse 

 Phrenicus. In simple language Tacitus describes 

 how the people of Thurii the city built on the 

 ruins of Sybaris about the year 443 B.C. first 

 taught horse racing to the Romans. 



Although towards the end of the second cen- 



