32 THE HORSE IN HISTORY 



steeds." Hiero II. of Syracuse owed practically 

 all his great successes to the fact that he owned 

 horses of considerable value, and to this day 

 figures in marble of horses dedicated by him in 

 commemoration of his victories at Olympia are 

 to be seen in the local museum of Delphi. 



Almost every year attempts are made by 

 wealthy Americans and others to purchase 

 some of these figures, but down to the present 

 such attempts have proved of no avail. 



Plato, again, has much to say upon the horse 

 in its relation to the history of his epoch. Thus 

 in one place he writes : " We must mount our 

 children on horses in their earliest youth, and 

 take them on horseback to see war, in order that 

 they may learn to ride ; the horses must not be 

 spirited or warlike, but the most tractable and yet 

 the swiftest that can be had ; in this way they 

 will get an excellent view of what is hereafter 

 to be their business ; and if there is danger they 

 have only to follow their elder leaders and escape." 



Agrigentum — until 405 B.C., when it was 

 destroyed by the Carthaginians — was famous 

 for its horses. It is said that on one occasion, 

 when one of the best-known citizens, Exaenetus, 

 won the principal chariot race at Olympus, the 

 entire population came forth to meet him, and 

 that he was preceded into the city by 300 

 chariots drawn by pairs of white horses. In- 

 deed some of the most gorgeous monuments 



