454 
HORSES IN ANCIENT TIMES. 
event of their electing from among themselves a king, to allow him 
“ to multiply to himself horses/’ and thereby loster a lust of 
dominion and belligerent propensities, at the same time also 
creating, what the lawgiver wished much to prevent, too fre¬ 
quent a communication with Egypt. Egypt was undoubtedly, 
in the most early times, the great breeder of horses : the Old 
Testament proves it by many references. At Jacob’s funeral 
in Judea, there came forth from Egypt “ chariots and horsemen, 
a very great company.” The Hebrews were pursued into the 
Red Sea by Egyptian horsemen ; horse and rider were there 
overwhelmed. Solomon, several centuries afterwards, obtained 
all his horses from Egypt. With this testimony concurs the 
account given by the Greek writers; according to them,Sesostris 
[or Sesonchosis, as others write his name] was the first who 
taught men to tame horses and to ride them. In Solomon’s 
days the price of a single horse from Egypt was 150 shekels, 
which, according to Bishop Cumberland’s calculation of the 
shekel*, is about £17 10s. of our money—a great sum in those 
times. In the days of Xenophon, 600 years later than Solomon, 
the price of a good horse was about 50 danks, or £27 10s.— 
at least such was the price paid by Senthes the Thracian to 
Xenophon for the steed whereon he rode during his retreat from 
Babylon. Next after the Egyptians, the Assyrians became the 
celebrated cavaliers of the ancient world. These people are re¬ 
peatedly alluded to by the Jewish prophets, not only as excelling 
in the beauty of their horses and skill of their horsemen, but 
also in all the showy apparatus of equestrian garniture. Their 
proficiency, however, in this branch of the military art, took 
place long after the Egyptians had invented and brought it 
to some degree of perfection, while the Medes, Assyrians, and 
Persians, possessing more gold and silver, from their more en¬ 
larged empires, were decked and bespangled more with blue, with 
purple, and with gold, “ clothing their horsemen most gorge¬ 
ously.” Persia became latterly most renowned for its horse- 
riding. Xenophon declares that, before the age of Cyrus, Persia 
had, from its want of wealth, or the mountainous character of 
its soil, no horses; but that, after his time, from the personal 
example, and encouragements, and recommendations of their 
king, every man in Persia rode on horseback; so much so, in¬ 
deed, that it is understood that the very name of Persia, by 
which ever afterwards their country became known, was taken 
from Peresh, a word in Chaldee and Hebrew, signifying a 
* If we take Xenophon’s valuation of the shekel, as containing 7J oboli, 
as stated in Lib. I of his Expedition of Cyrus, it makes the price much 
I«ss, about of 6 5s. 
