I/O XENOPHON ON HORSEMANSHIP. 



Athenian gentleman. In another place he says : 

 " We must mount our children on horses in their 

 earliest youth and take them on horseback to see 

 war, in order that they may learn to ride ; the 

 horses must not be spirited and warlike, but the 

 most tractable and yet the swiftest that can be 

 had. In this way they will get an excellent view 

 of what is hereafter to be their business ; and if 

 there is danger they have only to follow their elder 

 leaders and escape" (Republic, 467 e, Jowett's 

 translation). This heroic treatment, it must be 

 remembered, is Plato's proposal for the ideal state, 

 and it does not prove that boys were ever actually 

 taken to see battles by the Athenians. The great 

 physician Galen, of the second century a. d., 

 advised that boys should begin to learn to ride at 

 the age of seven (De val. tuend. i, 8 ; ii, 9 ) . 

 Such a boy seems to be represented in our picture. 

 But probably in ancient Athens boys began to ride 

 between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, which 

 were the years especially devoted to training in 

 gymnastics. At eighteen they were eligible for 

 the cavalry, and began to learn to use weapons 

 on horseback. This picture well illustrates the 

 method of attaching the bit to the bridle (see 

 p. 146). 



Page 26. A coin of King Alexander of Mace- 

 don, 498-454 B. c, now in Berlin. From 

 Baumeister, p. 950. Note the large size of the 



