72 



A HISTORY OF CAVALRY. 



[period I. 



I ;'»''l 



to compete for the prize at the Olympic games, and that 

 all these mules were provided with shoes consisting of a 

 plate of silver attached to the hoof by thongs.^ The 

 mules used by Poppea are said, on the same authority, 

 to have been shod with gold. All these statements 

 prove the use of horse-shoes of one kind during the 

 Empire, and although there is no direct testimony to 

 prove that the horses of the cavalry were shod, and in 

 spite of the silence of medals and monuments on the 

 point, some commentators have assumed that the 

 Eomans would have been certain to be as attentive 

 and careful as to their chargers' feet, to preserve 

 them in good condition, as they would be with their 

 baggage animals. 



M. Liskenne argues that without shoes they could not 

 have made the long and difficult marches that must 

 have been necessary in an empire extending from Britain 

 to the banks of the Tigris, and insists that they were 

 supplied with shoes attached to the hoof, and so closely 

 taking its form as not to cause them to be distinguished 

 in monuments or medals. ^ Humbert agrees with M. 

 Liskenne, and says distinctly that the cavalry horses 

 used shoes. ^ Bardin does not seem to agree with these 

 authorities, for he says generally that stirrups and horse- 

 shoes were not used by the Eoman cavalry/ The matter 

 is one that cannot be settled satisfactorily, and must 

 rest on conjecture under any circumstances. There may 

 have been instances, and most likely there were instances, 

 where cavalry horses were provided with the protection 

 to the hoof which was given to draught animals, but it 

 is hardly probable that it could have been an universal 

 custom to shoe all cavalry horses, for if so, positive 

 evidence of the fact would surely have been preserved 

 in some way. 



The earliest positive evidence of the use of horse-shoes 

 nailed to the hoof is that furnished by the skeleton of 

 a horse found in the tomb of Childeric I., with shoes 

 fastened in that way. The tomb was accidentally 



in 



^ Liskenne, ii. 34, 35. 

 1080, 3076. 



2 Ibid. 35. 8 Humbert, 27. * Bardin, 



