DIOCLETIAN'S EDICT. a 



J' 



cymbali instar ad solum resonat.' A bad horse was known 

 by the inferior quality of its hoofs and their softness, 

 ' mollis ungulas ; ' while a good one should have them 

 ' carne.'C pleneac.' It will be observed that he refers to 

 Xenophon ; he also follows him in recommending a stable 

 paved with large round stones to harden the feet. In this 

 work, he mentions every article of horse-furniture then in 

 use, but is silent with regard to that for the hoofs. 



In 1827, an edict of the Emperor Diocletian, supposed 

 to have been promulgated about a.d. 300, was discovered. 

 It fixes the maximum rate of wages and price of provisions, 

 and two passages in it give us an idea, not only of the 

 functions and emoluments of the individual who minis- 

 tered to the requirements of sick animals, but also affords 

 another proof that the hoofs of solipedes were not shod. 

 The mulomedicus who clipped the hair and trimmed 

 the hoofs, was to receive for each animal six denarii ; 

 and for currying and cleansing the head, twenty denarii.' 

 Had shoeing been knowm or practised, it must have 

 been mentioned in such an edict as this. And here 

 we may notice, in connection with this hoof-paring 

 among the Romans, that Bonanni has given drawings 

 of two iron objects found at Rome, near the Castra 

 Peregrina, which Montfauqon ^ reproduces as ancient 

 Roman instrimients of farriery. One, he notes, is like 

 the present boutuir or boutavan of the French marechal 



' Martin Leake. Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature, 

 vol. i. p. 196. 'Mulomedicus tonsurae et aptaturae pedum.' ' Eidem 

 deplecorse et purgaturae capitis.' 



"^ Vol. iii. lib. V. cap. 5, pt. 5. Plate 197. 



