MULES. 171 



as a certain fact, that by a cross of the remotest of 

 diflerent races of the ass, the most beautiful produc- 

 tions are obtained. 



Mules were in use and highly esteemed at a remote 

 period of antiquity ; and are mentioned in scripture 

 as of importance in the equipage of princes. Hero- 

 dotus, who is styled the father of profane history, fre- 

 quently speaks of them ; and it is known that they 

 were introduced in the chariot races at the Olympic 

 games in the seventieth Olympiad, about five hun- 

 dred years before Christ. The Romans well knew 

 their value. Pliny informs us, from Varro, that Q. 

 Axius, a Roman senator, paid four hundred thousand 

 sersterces, upwards of thirteen thousand dollars, for a 

 male ass, for the propagation of mules. And he says 

 further, that the profit of a female ass in breeding 

 stock for the same purpose, was estimated in Celte- 

 beria, now the kingdom of Valencia in Spain, at a 

 Hke sum. We may infer from a passage in Tacitus, 

 and in Plutarch's life of lAIarius, that mules were ge- 

 nerally employed to transport the baggage of the Ro- 

 man armies ; and that it is not improbable the superior 

 officers rode those of a high grade, having their horses 

 led except when they engaged an enemy. It seems 

 that the dilletanti of Rome held them in great estima- 

 tion, as we are informed that the mules of Nero and 

 Poppea were shod with gold and silver — not plates, as 

 iron shoes are now formed, but the whole hoof en- 

 closed. 



Columella, who in the reign of the Emperer Claudius, 

 published the most valuable treatise on the husbandry 

 and economy of the Romans that has been handed 

 down to us, has given very particular directions for 

 breeding asses and mules. He was a native of Cadiz, 

 16 



