ROMAN SADDLES 81 



comparison with even the simpler of the feats we 

 see performed to-day, they were then deemed 

 marvellous in the extreme, and people came from 

 far and near to witness them. 



This probably was in a measure due to the 

 general love of riding that prevailed amongst 

 the wealthier classes at that period. Indeed the 

 possession of a large stud of horses was in many 

 parts of Greece, and especially in Athens, con- 

 sidered the hall-mark of what we should term 

 to-day a man of culture, in the same way that 

 the possession of horses, hounds and hawks was 

 supposed to mark the aristocrat in Mediaeval times. 



Thus a man often would be named after the 

 class of horse he owned. Xanthippus meant 

 "He of the dun horses''; Leucippus, " He of 

 the white horses"; and Melanippus, " He of 

 the black horses." 



By the close of the fourth century a.d. the 

 Romans apparently had outgrown their pre- 

 judice against the use of saddles, for at about 

 that time the saddle is referred to with some 

 frequency. Certain it is that in 380 a.d. the 

 famous cavalrymen of Theodosius were mounted 

 on horses provided with true saddles — that is to 

 say saddles with a tree, also with a bow in front 

 and behind. 



