6i6 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



time of Constantine the Great, the horses of the Cata- 

 phracti, or heavy-armed cavalry, were covered with de- 

 fensive materials, consisting either of scale-armour, or of 

 plates of metal which had different names, according to 

 the parts of the body they protected. This corps of 

 cavalry was only formed in the later days of the Roman 

 empire, when the discipline of the legions had been de- 

 stroyed, and the chief dependence began to be placed 

 upon horsemen. The Roman cavalry before this time 

 had worn metal breastplates, or loricae. This weighty 

 armour, while it defended the warrior and his steed, 

 necessarily impeded cavalry manoeuvres, and increased the 

 tendency to foot-lameness in the horses from want of 

 shoeing. It is about this period that we find extempor- 

 aneous devices to protect the hoofs most frequently men- 

 tioned. The cumbrous protection, however, appears to 

 have been soon given up ; for we find Vegetius wondering 

 by what fatality it happened, that the Romans, after hav- 

 ing used heavy armour so late as the time of the Emperor 

 Gratian (a.d. 376), should, by laying aside their breast- 

 plates and helmets, put themselves on a level with the bar- 

 barians, who were now commencing to sap the foundations 

 of the empire. May not the reason for the apparent dis- 

 regard of armour, which causes this writer to wonder, be 

 found in the circumstance, that the great weight imposed 

 upon the unshod hoofs, together with the rapidity of move- 

 ment necessary to enable them to contend with such agile 

 and unencumbered foes, rendered it imperative that this 

 extra load should be dispensed with, in order to spare their 

 horses as much as possible, and to follow or attack on 

 more equal terms those whom we have assumed to possess 



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