Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/62

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CHAPTER II.


the horse with the romans. their cavalry. pliny, camel shoeing. silence of roman hippiatrists in regard to shoeing. cato, varro, horace, virgil, lucan, claudianus, fitzstephen. roman roads, and couriers. columella, julius pollux. diocletian's edict,hoof instruments, apsyrtus, palladius, vegetius renatus, renatus flavius. polybius. carbatinai and embattai. solæ ferrea. catullus, scaliger, suetonius. gold and silver solea. extravagance of the romans. caligula, nero, poppaea, and commodus. theomnestus. solea spartea, and the glante ferreo. hippopodes. chariot-racing. opinions as to the existence of shoeing with the ancients. montfauçon, winckelmann, fabretti, camerarius, pancirolus, vossius, pegge, smith, heusinger, rich. supposed negative evidence of written history and sculpture. temporary shoes and other expedients to preserve the hoofs in japan, china, manilla, singapore, etc. straw shoes. iceland and central asia.

The Romans began to use the horse at a very early period, but not with much advantage until seven hundred years after he had been introduced into Greece; so that the Greeks were well advanced in the management of that animal, and skilled in its employment long before the Romans. For this reason it is that we find much in the writings of the latter that was borrowed from the older civilization; while their system of equitation and general care of the horse was altogether Grecian. During a long time, and even up to a comparatively late date, the army