ISO HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



(plate 2). In a four-wheeled vehicle, drawn by two mules, 

 are no less than four persons, exclusive of the driver. Two of 

 these are seated, face to face, in the inside ; and two, back 

 to back, on the roof. The passengers upon the top of 

 the vehicle are all provided with hoods which fall down 

 upon the back; and the driver wears the Gaulish bracae 

 or trowsers. The centre figure of the upper group is 

 seated in what resembles, in some degree, the body of the 

 common chariot, or biga, while the personage in the rear 

 is seated upon what seems to be a chest, perhaps contain- 

 ing luggage. He carries what appears to be a securis, 

 or long-handled axe, which is, unluckily, broken ; but I 

 think may be nevertheless recognized as an axe. The 

 whole gives a striking and interesting picture of the equip- 

 ment and arrangement of a travelling party in Gaul, not 

 to be found, in all probability, elsewhere ; and it may 

 doubtless be depended upon as a very faithful representa- 

 tion.' Mr Smith believes the carriage to be the rheda or 

 petorritum, of which Cicero,' Ausonius,^ Isidore,^ Quin- 

 tilian,'* Juvenal, and Martial speak. He then adds: 'The 

 custom of shoeing horses among the ancients has been 

 much discussed pi-o and con. If it could remain an un- 

 settled question after the repeated discovery of iron horse- 

 shoes themselves, among unquestionable Roman remains, 

 the indications of the nails are so decidedly marked in the 

 feet of the rnules in the Vaison monument, as to leave no 

 doubt that the artist intended to show that the mules were 

 shod ; and we may conclude that the shoeing of horses, 

 as well as very many more inventions in the useful arts, 



' Oratio pro Milone ; Philippica Secuuda ; Attico Epist. 

 " Epist. vii. ^ Origiiium, 1. XX., c. xii. " Instit. i. 5. 



