50 THE HORSE IN HISTORY 



in the third century ; and in those of Apsyrtus, 

 Pelagonius and Palladius in the fourth century. 



When all is said, Xenophon's information most 

 likely is by far the most trustworthy of any that 

 has been handed down to us, in the same way 

 that his descriptions certainly are the most ac- 

 curate. Only a few fragments of the book by 

 Simo, written probably about the year 460 B.C., 

 remain ; yet even those fragments contain peculiar 

 statements. 



Thus in addition to insinuating that Thessaly 

 was the only region famous for horses in the 

 centuries before Christ an assertion indirectly 

 gainsaid by Xenophon he didactically remarks 

 that the colour of a horse ought not to be taken 

 into consideration when the animal's qualities are 

 being summed up, a statement that the majority 

 of the early writers openly repudiated, and that, 

 as most of us know, is in every country deemed 

 devoid of truth at the present day. 



Though particulars are difficult to obtain, there 

 is reason to believe that the horse named after 

 the Thracian river, Strymon owing to its having 

 been bred in that vicinity and that was immolated 

 by Xerxes before his invasion of Greece, was, as 

 usual, a white horse. 



By exactly what route horses were introduced 



