THE GREEK RIDING-HORSE. lOI 



ha; and he smelleth the battle afar off, the 

 thunder of the captains and the shouting." * 



It may be appropriate, then, to finish this 

 sketch by setting down what is known of 

 the famous charger of Alexander the Great. 

 The names and characteristics of many 

 horses of gods or heroes have been trans- 

 mitted to us ; but Bucephalas is the only 

 horse belonging to a mortal about which 

 the Greeks have left any particular descrip- 

 tion.^' He was of the best ThessaHan breed, 

 black, with a white star, and very large. As 

 Gellius says, '* Et capite et nomine Buceph- 

 alas fuit." The fact is that, long before this 

 famous animal, a well-known type of Thes- 

 saHan horses had given rise to the name, 

 which means " Bull-head." ^^ This type had 

 small ears set well apart, thus leaving the brow 

 wide and the poll large. '* Some people," 

 says an unknown writer in the '* Geoponics," 

 " reckon among the finest horses those with 

 eyes which are not a match ; such, they say, 



* Cf. Vergil, Georgics, III, 83: — 



Turn siqua sonum procul arma dedere, 

 Stare loco nescit, micat auribus et tremit artus, 

 Collectumque premens volvit sub naribus ignem. 



