GENEALOGY OF THE HORSE, ETC. 
15 
tend to show, however, that the horse was held in veneration, not 
only by the earliest inhabitants, but, as is seen in- literature, later 
generations seemed to have been inspired to a great extent. 
Thessaly in northern Greece was inhabited by chevaliers whose 
cavalry was widely famed. 
The famous charger Bucephalus, of Alexander the Great, was 
out of the stud of Philonicus in Thessaly. The animal was so 
wild, shy and refractory that no one could mount him, and King 
Phillip doubted whether anybody could manage him, but con¬ 
cluded to buy him provided his son Alexander, who was so anxi¬ 
ous to possess so fine an animal, could ride him. Alexander 
succeeded in the attempt, whereupon Phillip paid sixteen talents 
for him. Bucephalus was regarded as an ideal being, endowed 
with the highest virtues of which a horse can be possessed. He 
died in his thirtieth year. In memory of his beloved horse, Alex¬ 
ander erected an expensive monument on the bank of the Hydaspus, 
and on the same spot he laid the foundation of the city Alexan¬ 
dria. This epoch of Alexander the Great suffices to mark a new 
period in the history of the horse. From Macedonia, the coun¬ 
try noted in early ages for its fleet horses, the son of Phillip, like 
a meteor, swept through all the lands in which the horse was held 
in esteem; he conquered the Greeks, Thracians, Scythians, Egypt¬ 
ians, Indians; in one word he established the greatest Asiatic 
reign that ever existed Not only through his conquests, but 
rather by his own personality is his history associated with the 
history of the horse. So closely is the life of Alexander knit 
with the life of Bucephalus that it would seem useless each 
without the other.” 
During the time when the Olympic games were at their zenith, 
the horse rose to veneration, and Zenophon, who protested 
against such idolatry 44 B. C., said, “ the horse is wiser than 
man, for had it gods it would certainly not give them the form of 
a human being, but that of its own, that is, the equine form.” 
In the Olympics, the requirements of man and horse were so great, 
that the training of the horses was indeed an art. The arrange¬ 
ment of the competing chariots was decided by drawing lots. The 
chariot stationed on the outer side of the track was placed far- 
