WOODEN HORSE OF TROY 29 



opened the gates of Troy, let in their own soldiery, 

 and finally set fire to the city. 



Menelaus is said to have been among the 

 Greeks concealed in the wooden horse. 



If evidence in addition to that already given 

 be needed to prove that the ancient Greeks held 

 horses in high esteem, and that the Grecian con- 

 quests were probably in a great measure due to the 

 help afforded by the possession of horses, notice 

 has only to be taken of the vastness of the space 

 occupied by the Athenian cavalry shown on the 

 Parthenon frieze. 



Indeed at about this period probably no accom- 

 plishment was quite so highly esteemed as horse- 

 manship, with the result that the wealthy classes 

 began to pay special attention to the training 

 their sons received in it, while treatises were 

 published upon the art and how best it might 

 be acquired. 



The first horsemen of whom we have indis- 

 putably authentic records invariably rode bare- 

 back, and, with the exception of the Libyans, 

 used some sort of bit. According to Xenophon 

 — and apparently no other historian of his time is 

 so thoroughly to be trusted for strict accuracy — 

 the Greeks of the fifth century B.C. were almost 

 as fastidious upon the subject of bits and bittings 

 as some hunting men of to-day are. 



