38 THE HORSE. 



it cannot be denied that all the points are correctly stated, and 

 the reasons for preference clearly and truly laid down, no one, 

 at all conversant with the horse, can fail to perceive, that the 

 whole advice points to the acquisition, as the most admirable 

 piece of horse-flesh, of a short, round-barrelled, stocky, active 

 beast, well upon his legs, with his hocks fairly under him, with 

 a lofty crest and somewhat heavy forehand, though he insists 

 on high withers. 



In short, his ideal of the horse is the very horse of the Elgin 

 niarbles, something closely allied to the improved English road- 

 ster of the last half century, an animal framed for strength 

 combined with hardiness and quickness, but wholl}'" destitute, 

 or, if not wholh^, nearly so, of blood, stride, or speed. 



In the Greek horse, as in that of Assyria, it is very evident, 

 that there was little or nothing of what we call blood, or affinity 

 to the Arab and Barb, as they now exist, in their native land, 

 much less to the improved strain of the English and American 

 thoroughbred. 



This brings us fairly to the Koman horse ; and here we find 

 the same inferiority of the animal, and of the art or habit of 

 using him, as among the Greeks, only in a yet greater degree. 

 In the early ages of the republic, the cavalry of the Roman 

 armies w^as composed of the youths of the monetary aristocracy, 

 who served on horseback partially at their own expense, enjoy- 

 ing in consequence certain privileges, and exemptions, and a 

 positive rank in the state, second only to the patrician senators 

 and the holders of senatorial ofiices. These men, who were 

 termed equites or horsemen, a word which has been universally 

 and erroneously rendered knights^ giving a false idea of the 

 character and nature of the order, as if the members of it were 

 a chivalric fraternity bound by a vow, instead of a political 

 class, owed their origin, it is said, to Romulus ; who instituted 

 three centuries of youths, whom he called celeres, serving on 

 horseback and acting as his body guard. Their number would 

 appear to have been increased nearly at the end of the mon- 

 archy, by the Servian constitutions, from three, to about eighteen 

 hundred : and all these, the select men of a wealthy class, were 

 bound to serve mounted, at their own charge, wlien the exigen- 

 cies of the public service did not allow a horse to be given them, 



