1 6 THE HORSE IN HISTORY 



but rarely; that cavalry in battle was quite un- 

 known ; and lastly that though the heroes, as they 

 were called, fought mainly in chariots, the great 

 body of the army consisted of well-trained infantry. 

 As time went on horsemanship apparently 

 came to be appreciated more and more, for we 

 read that about the year 648 B.C. — the thirty-third 

 Olympiad — "a race for full-grown riding horses" 

 was inaugurated in addition to the chariot races, 

 and there appear to have been plenty of entries. 

 Then though the war chariot had disappeared 

 almost completely, before the outbreak of the 

 Persian Wars, its place was not taken by well- 

 appointed and well-equipped cavalry until some 

 years later. 



Though little attention need be paid to the 

 Greek legend that Pegasus was the first horse 

 ever ridden — a legend not mentioned in Homer — 

 it nevertheless is interesting to know that this 

 historic animal was supposed to have been foaled 

 in the Bronze Age, and in Libya. That naturally 

 would have been prior to the arrival of the fair- 

 haired Acheans from Central Europe, so one 

 need not be astonished, as several writers 

 obviously are, at finding that when these large- 

 limbed Acheans first appeared the Greeks already 

 knew how to ride. 



