HORSES AMONG THE GREEKS, ROMANS, AND BRITONS. 299 



Hog manes. Horsemen were also employed by both nations, but they were evidently not thought 

 so important as Horses and chariots for warlike purposes. 



In the earlier period of Greek history, and in Homeric times, the art of riding was utterly un- 

 known to the Greeks, for if a man was seen on horseback he was supposed to be a Centaur. Down 

 to 500 B.C. riding was not practised by the Greeks, although it was well known to the Barbarians. As 

 we get close to the year mentioned, we hear of Persian cavalry ; for instance, the great question with 

 regard to the battle of Marathon (490 B.C.) is, What were the Persian cavalry doing] And at the 

 same period we find that cavalry had become an important arm in Northern Greece. Throughout all 

 the times of Greek pre-eminence, Horses were mainly used for the purpose of the chariot. The utmost 

 care and attention were devoted to their breeding, and the greatest expense incurred in the main- 

 tenance of a stud, which was a luxury possible only to the very richest persons, and almost entirely 

 beyond the means of private individuals. The greatest horsekeepers, and consequently winners in 

 the chariot-races, were almost entirely princes and ruling families. 



After 450 B.C. we begin to hear of riding and of cavalry in Greece proper, side by side with 

 charioteers. Books were written on the art, one of which, from the pen of Xenophon, is still extant. 



The case is totally different when we turn to the history of Rome during the same period. In the 

 early regal times, and in the first centuries of the Republic, cavalry was the most important arm of 

 the military service. It was naturally composed of the aristocracy, who alone could bear the expense 

 of a Horse. It was only when a rich middle class had sprung up, and were denied the aristocratic 

 privilege of serving on hoi-seback, that the heavy-armed infantry, which in later times won all the great 

 Roman victories, came first into existence. As they increased, the cavalry decreased in importance, 

 and the typical Roman soldier was what was called in mediaeval times a man-at-arms. 



The native breeds of Horses in Britain, before the Roman conquest, are known to us merely from 

 a reference to them by Caesar, that they were powerful and well suited for purposes of war by their 

 stature and training. They were used in the battles of the Romans, yoked to the chariots. They 

 were evidently considered of great importance, since they appear on some of the early British coins 

 as, for example, those of Cunobelin. After the conquest of Britain by the Angles, Jutes, and Saxons, 

 the Horses demanded more attention than before. Athelstan thought the preservation of the native 

 breed of sufficient importance to call for a legal enactment to prevent the export of Horses, excepting 

 as presents. Saddle-horses were employed, according to the testimony of Bede, in England in the 

 early part of the seventh century, and from the notices in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle it is evident that 

 they were frequently used by the Danes for purposes of transport from one part of the country to 

 another ; and in the song of the fight of Maldon, we read of Goderic flying from the field on a Horse, 

 on which "his lord had ridden down to the battle. 



The first attempt on record to improve the native breed, by the introduction of foreign blood, 

 was by the importation of " running Horses " from Germany in the time of Athelstan ; in whose reign 

 also many Spanish Horses were imported. William the Conqueror, who owed his success in the 

 Battle of Hastings to his cavalry, paid great attention to the English breed. In his time, Professor 

 Bell tells us, " Roger de Belesme, Earl of Shrewsbury, imported the elegant and docile Spanish Horse, 

 and bred from it on his estates in Powisland ; and it is recorded that the Horses of that part of Wales 

 were long celebrated for their swiftness, a quality which they had doubtless derived from this happy 

 mixture of blood. The heavy panoply of mail, however, with which the warriors of this and of 

 succeeding ages at once protected and loaded both themselves and their steeds, sufficiently attests that 

 the cavalry must have been mounted on Horses of great strength and size ; and there is no doubt that, 

 until the universal employment of firearms rendered such a protection in a great measure unavailable, 

 the speed and figure of the War Horse must have been sacrificed to the qualities of power and en- 

 durance. The beautiful Horses on which many of our light cavalry regiments are now mounted, 

 although endowed with considerable strength, would have been crushed beneath the weight of metal 

 by which both the knight of olden time and his Horse were so heavily laden." 



King John paid great attention to the improvement of the breed for agricultural purposes ; and 

 to him, according to Youatt, we are indebted for our Draft Horses. He imported no less than a 

 hundred Flanders stallions, which probably laid the foundation of the strength and size which are the 

 eminent characteristic of our Horses of war and labour. Edward III. was a zealous patron of the 



