102 XENOPHON ON HORSEMANSHIP. 



was Bucephalas." If this story is true, he 

 had what is sometimes called a " China eye." 

 King Philip bought him from one Philoneicus, 

 a Thessalian, — for thirteen talents, as Plu- 

 tarch says; for sixteen, according to Pliny 

 (from thirteen to eighteen thousand dollars). 

 Either price is probably an absurd exagger- 

 ation, the result of the later reputation of the 

 animal. Evidently the king was not a believer 

 in Xenophon's principle of giving a horse a 

 thorough trial before buying him ; for, says 

 Plutarch, when they brought the king's new 

 purchase into the place where they were to 

 try him, it appeared that he was a fierce and 

 unmanageable beast. '* He would neither 

 allow anybody to mount him, nor obey any 

 of Philip's attendants, but reared and plunged 

 against them all, so that the king in a rage 

 bade them take him away for an utterly wild 

 and unbroken brute. But Alexander, who 

 was by, cried out, ' What a fine horse that 

 is which they are spoiling ! The clumsy cow- 

 ards, they can't handle him.' Philip said 

 nothing to this at first; but when his son 

 kept on grumbling, and seemed to be in a 

 great taking, he said at last, 'Are you find- 



