CYNEGETICA, I. 205-227 



warlike wild beasts. How " in the battle doth the war- 

 horse * hearken to the martial note of the long trumpet 

 that makes the din of conflict ! How with unwinking '^ 

 eyes doth he look upon the dense array of armed 

 warriors, the gleaming bronze, the flashing sword ! 

 He hath learned also when it behoves him to stand 

 and anon to charge ; and he hath learned to hearken 

 to the watchword of mighty captains. Often, too, 

 he calmly brings nigh to the towers the warfare ** of 

 men with soaring shields, when athwart the heads 

 of men shield presses upon shield, what time they 

 are fain to sack the city of the enemy and fashion 

 aloft a plain with their shields of sevenfold hides, 

 daedal and dense and many-bossed ; in front the 

 sunlight glances from the bronze and straightway 

 behind great space of sky lightens with rays refracted. 

 To horses beyond all mortal creatures cunning Nature 

 has given a subtle mind and heart. Always they 

 know their own dear charioteer and they neigh when 

 they see their glorious rider and greatly mourn ^ their 

 comrade when he falls in war. Ere now in battle a 

 horse has burst the bonds of silence and overleapt 



viroTTTepoy to virb irrepov ; (2) the assumption that Opp. used 

 the fern, termin. -eacrav with a neuter (for the converse 

 cf. Nicand. T. 139 ^poXoeuroi ^x'3»''?5i Colluth. 83 irepbvqv 

 dv6evTa) ; (3) taking vrepov to be (as in Procop. De ned. 

 ii. 8) = Lat. pinna but here as denoting not a defensive 

 propugnacuhim but the testudo, x^^'^^'V (for which cf. Arr. 

 Tact. 11. 4; 36. If.). On the other hand drjpiv, which 

 Boudreaux reads (apparently with some ms. authority), 

 makes 5. aair. viroirT. a simple metonoray for the x^^'-^i'V- 

 Cf. Luc. ill. 474 Ut taraen hostiles densa testudine muros 

 Tecta subit virtus arraisque innexa priores Arma ferunt 

 galearaque extensus protegit umbo. 



' Cf. Tryph. 14; Verg. Aen. xi. 89 Post bellator equus 

 positis insignibus Aethon It lacrimans guttisque humectat 

 grandibus ora ; Solin. xlv. 13. 



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