ROMAN HIPPOPODES. 



10 



This passage, and the term ' hippopodes,' here used for 

 the first and only time in the ancient veterinary writers, 

 obviously refers to the sandal or solea worn by horses or 

 mules on rare occasions, and to the way in which it was 

 maintained on the extremities by the corrigice, or rather 

 the Jhsciolce, mentioned by Vegetius. That this was really 

 the case, a very fine terra-cotta or baked clay (the kind 

 named ' typi ' by Pliny), now in the British Museum (2nd 

 vase Room, and marked T 337), has been brought forward 

 by Bracy Clark as a proof (fig. 3). The example is cer- 



fig- 3 



tainly, so far as I can ascertain, unique; but taken 

 in connection with what the ancient authors have said in 

 regard to this matter, it would appear to afford conclusive 

 evidence. The age of the tablet is, unfortunately, un- 

 known ; but it belongs to a number which were found 

 about the year 1765, in a dry well, near the Porta Latina, 



