GAULISH HORSE-SHOES. 137 



Roman and Gaulish armies was merely a cavalry battle, 

 in which were engaged from 20,000 to 25,000 horses, 

 the facts just stated cannot but appear interesting, al- 

 though they may possibly belong to a battle of a later 

 date.'' 



I have not been able to find any more detailed men- 

 tion of these grooved shoes than in this brief notice, and 

 it would be irnportant to ascertain if the groove be really 

 continuous in any, or all of them. If the fact be as is 

 stated, then they probably belonged to the horses of the 

 German cavalry which we know Csesar largely employed 

 to subdue the Gauls. These German shoes we will speak 

 of hereafter. A very careful inspection of the Vingeanne 

 shoes would be most interesting in various ways. 



According to M. Mathieu,'' in the neighbourhood of 

 Alesia, and in the valley of Brenne, the ground can scarcely 

 be dug to the depth of 3 to 6 feet without discovering 

 shoes of small dimensions, and the cover so wide that 

 only a small triangular s[)ace is left for the frog. The 

 excavations for the railway between Paris and Lyons, in 

 the valleys of Armanc^on and Brenne, have exposed 

 thousands even in the brief space separating Ancy-le- 

 Franc from Alesia ; while some have been found below 

 the Roman road leading from Alesia to Agedincum (Sens). 

 This road is supposed to belong to the Augustan era. M. 

 Mathieu considers them to be of two sizes — a very small 

 one, and a larger ; a circumstance which may be accounted 

 for by supposing that the German auxiliaries drew their 

 supply of horses from different parts of Germany. The 



' Vie de Caesar, vol. ii. p. 362. 

 " Recueil de Med. Yeteriiiaire. November, 1868. 



