THE GREEK RIDING-HORSE. 75 



the Olympic games, in which originally the 

 only equestrian contests were chariot races, 

 there was instituted a race for full-grown 

 riding-horses as early as the thirty-third 

 Olympiad (648 B. C.). In battle the chariot 

 had disappeared even before the Persian 

 wars, but its place was not filled by cavalry 

 until after them. The Athenians had no 

 cavalry at Marathon ; and although we know 

 that wealthy citizens kept horses, it is prob- 

 able that they were bred for racing. Doubt- 

 less it was acquaintance with the Persian 

 cavalry that led to the organization of a body 

 of horse at Athens. From the first and 

 throughout its history, it was a corps d' elite ^ 

 selected from the second highest class of citi- 

 zens in order of wealth. The whole body 

 consisted of only a thousand men, one hun- 

 dred from each of the ten Attic tribes ; each 

 hundred was commanded by a phylarch, 

 and the entire corps by two hipparchs. It 

 was under the especial oversight of the 

 Senate; entrance into it, while enforced 

 upon the physically and pecuniarily able, 

 was governed by a strict examination, and 

 the horseman was required to present him- 



