PARTHIANS AND IBERIANS 65 



said that Hannibal's horsemen were superior even 

 to the Italian and the Roman cavalry, which was 

 high praise. 



Probably from about the year 200 B.C., possibly 

 from an even earlier period, the Romans used 

 spurs, apparently the common prick spurs which 

 remained in vogue until towards the middle of 

 the thirteenth century a.d. Some half-a-century 

 later, or about the year 150 B.C., there were 

 issued in succession a series of Gaulish silver 

 coins, the majority of which bore upon one 

 side the impression of a horseman, though com- 

 paratively few showed the chariot at one time so 

 generally represented on coins. 



This leads naturally to the inference that the 

 popularity of the chariot was already waning. 

 Chariots, however, continued to appear upon 

 the gold coins made in imitation of the gold 

 stater of Philip II. of Macedon, coins that bore 

 on the face Apollo's head, on the reverse a two- 

 horse chariot. 



Exceptionally fine horses, probably with Liber- 

 ian blood in them, must have been owned by the 

 Iberians and Celtiberians at about the period 

 the Stoic philosopher Posidonius was travelling 

 in Western Europe, and when he incidentally 

 visited Spain — about the year 90 b.c. Posi- 



