86 WAR-HORSES 



to carry a 1 2 st. man and his equipment, and that which 

 carries a 10 st. man, and except in some French regi- 

 ments of Chasseurs which use Arab horses, the breed is 

 almost identical. Even the Cossacks are now regular 

 troopers and mounted on big horses, instead of the 

 twelve-hand ponies on which they rode from the Don 

 to the Seine. 



In the Graeco-Turkish War the Greek army encamped 

 on the plain where Bucephalus was reared ; but the 

 famous Thessalian horses have now dwindled to the 

 size of ponies, which were ridden by the irregular and 

 local levies of the Greeks. Bucephalus was the most 

 costly war-horse ever bought. The animal came out of 

 a noted stud owned by a Thessalian chief ; and even 

 before its celebrated taming by Alexander, this gentle- 

 man asked Philip ^2,51 8 155. as his lowest price. Pliny 

 says that Philip gave ^435 more than this. It now 

 appears that, contrary to general belief, Bucephalus 

 was a mare. This accounts for the high price paid. 

 Compared with the prices asked for Arab mares of 

 great descent in much later times, the sum demanded is 

 not excessive. But Bucephalus was a good bargain 

 even as a war-horse. She was ridden until she was 

 thirty years old, and then died of wounds received in a 

 battle with Porus, and left her bones in the Punjab. 



