GOTHIC HORSEMEN 121 



On the whole it is difficult to ascribe to the 

 Romans any advance in the art of horseman- 

 ship except in the matter of draught. The 

 heavy engines which correspond to a modern 

 siege train required not only draught beasts — 

 oxen possibly, but also the paved causeway. 

 The Roman road for horse traffic was as big an 

 invention in its effect on civilization as the 

 steam railway of our modern transport. 



The Northern Let us turn back to the 

 Northern Ancesiors of both Greeks and Romans, 

 ihe Heimskringla shows the ancestral home 

 of the Norse to have been in Russia. By the 

 time they colonized Scandinavia, they were 

 discarding the chariot, were fighting on horse- 

 back, and had waggons as well as sleighs. A 

 Bronze age waggon at Copenhagen differs little 

 in structure from those in use to-day. This 

 waggon confirms the stories of gods heroes and 

 kings riding and driving powerful horses at 

 least as large the big Duns of modern Scandi- 

 navia. The theory of scrawny little ponies 

 appears to the sheer nonsense. The evidence 

 points indeed to a more general and more 

 advanced practice of horse management than 

 than either the Greek or the Roman. 



The Gothic Horsemen. While the Romans 

 made no special advance in horsemanship the 



