PLEASURE HORSES OF THE GREEKS 49 



have done, though the fable of Achilles' love for 

 his horse named Xanthus makes a pretty enough 

 story. On the other hand, it is quite possible 

 that Xenophon may have been fond of horses 

 not merely because of the amusement they 

 afforded him or the pleasure he derived from 

 riding and hunting. 



For the rest the Greeks, in common with the 

 people of most of the warlike nations in those 

 early days, enjoyed possessing horses mainly 

 because they served to enhance life's pleasure, 

 and were of practical use in war. 



Certainly it may be said of Xenophon that 

 he did not preach the doctrine of kindness to 

 horses without himself practising it thoroughly, 

 also that he was ever ready to rebuke severely 

 all who ill-treated their own horses or his. 



Apparently the Greeks of about this era did 

 not keep what we should term to-day pleasure 

 horses, though they affected pleasure horses in 

 the sense that they kept race horses. With the 

 death of Xenophon we lose touch, to some extent, 

 with the progress of the horse in history, but the 

 thread is taken up again in the Roman period 

 when Varro, writing in 37 B.C., furnishes certain 

 details that are of interest, Virgil adding to them 

 a little later in his " Georgics." 



After that we find instructive comment in the 

 writings of Calpurnius and Columella in the first 

 century A.D. ; in those of Oppian and Nemesian 

 D 



