BOOK VIII. Lxiv. 156-LXV. 159 



his body of its armour, his horse kicked him and bit 

 him till he died; another horse, when its bhnkers 

 were removed and it found out that a mare it had 

 covered was its dam, made for a precipice and com- 

 mitted suicide. We read that an ostler in the Reate 

 district was savaged by a horse for the same reason. 

 For horses actually understand the ties of relation- 

 ship, and a filly in a herd is even fonder of going 

 with a sister a year older than with their dam. 

 Their docihty is so great that we leai-n that the entire 

 cavah-y of the army of Sybaris used to perform a sort 

 of bailet to the music of a band. The Sybarite 

 horses also know beforehand when there is going to 

 be a battle, and when they lose their masters mourn 

 for them : sometimes they shed tears at the bereave- 

 ment. When King Nicomedes was killed his horse 

 ended its hfe by refusing food. Phylarchus records 

 that v/hen Antiochus fell in battle one of the Galatians 

 Centaretus caught his horse and mounted it in 

 triumph, but it was fired with indignation and taking 

 the bit between its teeth so as to become unmanage- 

 able, galloped headlong to a precipice where it 

 perished with its rider. PhiHstus records that 

 Dionysius left his horse stuck in a bog, and when 

 it extricated itself it foUowed its master's tracks 

 with a swarm of bees clinging to its mane ; and that 

 in consequence of this portent Dionysius seized the 

 tyranny. 



LXV. The cleverness of horses is beyond descrip- oiher proofs 

 tion. Mounted javelinmen experience their docihty inhorses!^'^^'' 

 in assisting difficult attempts with the actual swaying 

 of their body ; also they gather up the weapons 

 lying on the ground and pass them to their rider. 

 Horses harnessed to chariots in the circus un- 



