COST OF HORSES 47 



at best never approached within javelin range of 

 an enemy's line of battle during an attack, 



The cost of horses at about this time varied 

 almost as widely as it does now. Thus it was 

 not unusual to pay three minae, the equivalent of 

 about fifteen guineas, for quite a common hack — 

 an extraordinarily high price when we bear in 

 mind the purchasing value of money in those 

 days — while for trained war horses, or for race 

 horses, any sum from ten mince upward was paid 

 frequently. 



Xenophon is known to have given approxim- 

 ately eleven minae for a little war horse that, so 

 far as one can ascertain, did not afterwards fulfil 

 expectations, so perhaps it is hardly astonishing 

 to read that some years later the terms " horse 

 owner" and " spendthrift " came to be deemed 

 more or less synonymous. 



A list drawn up at about this time of the 

 principal defects to be guarded against when 

 inspecting a horse with a view to purchase is 

 interesting, inasmuch as the points looked upon 

 as faults three and twenty centuries ago are with 

 only a few exceptions deemed to be egregious 

 defects to-day. 



The following is the list that was drawn up, 

 so it is alleged, by Pollux : 



Hoofs with thin horn (sic) ; hoofs full, fat, soft 

 and flat — or, as Xenophon termed them, ''low- 

 lying " ; heavy fetlocks ; shanks with varicose 



