1 82 XENOPHON ON HORSEMANSHIP. 



who are seated on tiers of benches to the left. 

 They are applauding loudly, and one of them 

 shouts, ' Bravo, fine tumbling ! ' (KaAw? tol 

 kvI3l(tt€ltol) . On the right a youth is seen climb- 

 ing up a pole (with a slanting support at one 

 side) ; but whether this is another performance or 

 part of the jockey's display, it is impossible to 

 determine." 



Although we have no evidence of riding in the 

 Heroic age, as I have remarked above (p. 74 and 

 note 71, p. 154), yet at the time when the 

 Homeric poems were composed, riding had 

 reached such a stage of progress that even acro- 

 batic performances on horseback were not un- 

 known. One of the Homeric similes to which I 

 referred in the note just mentioned runs as follows : 

 " As when a man that well knows how to ride, har- 

 nesses up four chosen horses, and, springing from 

 the ground, dashes to the great city along the 

 public highway ; and crowds of men and women 

 look on in wonder ; while he with all confidence, 

 as his steeds fly on, keeps leaping from one to 

 another" (Iliad, xv, 679 ff.). Scenes like the 

 one portrayed in our picture were probably 

 familiar to the writer of those verses. This per- 

 formance seems to be taking place in a regular 

 circus. What has been called a " spring-board " 

 in the description above quoted seems to me to be 

 almost exactly like one of those hollow wooden 



