${& ate. $'

AN ESSAY

On the Knowledge of the Ancients respecting the
Art of Shoeing the Horse, and of the probable
period of the Commencement of this Art.

BY BRACY CLARK, F. L. S.

MEMBER OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, &C.

2nd EDITION.�LONDON, 1831.

The necessity which there appears for protection to the feet of
horses used much on the road, would naturally lead to a belief that
this art had been practised from very early times, and nearly, or
quite coeval with their first subjugation to the use of mankind, and in
proof of which many passages have been adduced from the writings
of the ancients which were thought to favour such an opinion. It
does not however appear that these passages, when properly ex-
amined, do at all confirm such an apprehension; and we shall now
proceed to the consideration of some of the most interesting and re-
markable of them.

As being one of the most ancient, and frequently brought forward
on these occasions, we shall first advert to the expression of Homer,
who, in describing the car of Neptune, uses the epithet " brazen-
footed" to the horses attached to this car, which has led several of
the learned into the belief that these ancients were not unacquainted
with modern shoeing, and that these horses were actually shod with

ft/if//,,,/ OS iff .t,-f dt'rrris- /,//f!/;/,■ i- fh/i-f.- .

shoes of brass.* And in the eighth book of the Iliad, v. 41, 42, are
employed nearly the same phrases in his description of the Car of
Jupiter and its horses, when this deity is introduced as about to
descend from Mount Ida to decide the fate of the contending armies
of the Greeks and Trojans. And it is the expression x^a^^K07ro^ ^t7r7�
in these two passages which has led many into the belief that these
horses had on shoes of brass, and consequently that the ancients
were acquainted with this art of shoeing. And that this belief,
though not universal, has been very generally prevalent, may be
gathered not only from the opinions of the learned, but also from
other sources. In one of the finest paintings of Lebrun, the cele-
brated French artist, which we saw in the Louvre, we noticed that
there were shoes upon the feet of the horse of St. Paul, and with
most prodigious large calkins, which were lifted up high in the air in
terror at the lightning which attended his conversion. Bourgelat
also appears to have been fully of this opinion. And our excellent
Dr. Johnson, in the Rambler, makes his virtuoso possess " a horse-
shoe broken on the Flaminian way." The learned Vossius also per-
fectly acquiesced in this sentiment.

It is not, however, from the language of poetry that it would be so
proper to form decisive conclusions upon this matter, as figurative
language will often admit of such very different interpretations : we
shall therefore leave our direct proofs of their ignorance in this
respect till we come to the more plain prose writers of succeeding
times who have expressly treated of the horse himself, and where
the proofs, we believe, will be of a nature the most indubitable. All
we desire here, in adverting to these passages, is, to give some pro-
bable account of the causes or reasons which have led to those sin-
gular expressions of their poets.

"Ev0' sXdwv, vtt' 6^�<70t riTiKTKero )(a\icoTr6c' 'ittttw,
'QiKvirira, ■^pvcrioKriv kQtipricnv kojjlomvte. Iliad, lib. xiii. 1. 23,24.

�2f SITTOV, VTT 6-)(�<T(t>l TITVGKITO XoXkOIToS' "7T7TW,

'QiKvirira, xpv<jtoi<nv Wdpriaiv kojUowvte. lb. lib. viii. v. 41.

Another, and a stronger passage, as it is supposed, than the above,
in favour of this belief in their knowledge of the art of shoeing,
occurs in the eleventh book of the Iliad, 1. 152, and which led the
learned Didymus and Eustathius fully to embrace the opinion that
they used shoes.

YiiZoi fxiv 7te�ovc oXskov (pevyovrac; avayKj],

Ittttuq S't7T7rr)ac, (virb Si atpiatv S>pro kovIti

'Ek 77-eSis, ti)v S)Qaav ipiySsTTOi ttoSeq i7T7ra>v)

XaXicty Sr}'i6h)vr�g' arap ^pdwv ' Ayafiifivw

Allv airoKrdvwv tireS, 'Epyetotcrt keXevwv. ]. 150.

" Pedites quidem pedites interficiebant, fugientes necessitate,
Equites vero equites, (ab ipsis autem excitatus est pulvis
E campo, quem excitabant grave strepentes pedes equorum)
iEre csedentes. At rex Agamemnon
Semper interficiens insequebatur Argivos adhortans." 1. 150.

Dr. Samuel Clarke, not quite embracing this opinion of shoes, was
led to suppose that a whole line was somehow omitted, and that the
expression x^a^^KW S^owvi-sc did not allude to the feet of the horses, but
to the weapons or arms of the men who laid waste the flying enemy;
and which interpretation is generally adopted: and to establish this
view of the matter, he formed into a large parenthesis the preceding
line, and punctuated the passage as seen above, giving a Latin trans-
lation of course, in conformity with this view of the subject, which we
have also subjoined.

Now if it were true, and admitted for a moment, that the ancients
did not understand shoeing, of which demonstrative evidence will
appear hereafter, then nothing could have been more natural to a
people so circumstanced, and whose whole dependance was placed in
the powers and strength of the natural hoof to endure labour, to
extol, and hold in the highest estimation, this very necessary pro-
perty, and to give it preference and higher value than any other, as
without it the horse was to them nearly useless; and it would assu-
redly be the first part to fail them if not so endowed: hence, we
believe, will be seen the true intentions of the writer. In the Latin

poets we have also similar expressions favouring this impression, and
which have no relation to any metallic substance, as " quatit solidun-
gula campum," (Virg.) where the solidity and strength of the foot is
evidently only in the view of the writer; also " cavatque"�" Tel-
lurem et solido graviter sonat ungula," (Georg. lib. 3,) and which
expressions, we apprehend, are not understood to their full extent
without being aware of the above circumstances and situation of the
ancients in respect to their horses' feet. And in the words " insultare
solum," &c, the poet would impress us with the idea that no defect
of the foot, or fear of using the hoof existed, but the greatest firm-
ness and strength. In the expression "molli fultapede" of Horace,
we have again the opposite condition of the foot pourtrayed; and
these passages will derive a new strength and clearness also from
these considerations.

Brass, or a kind of brass, was the chief metal in use in those early
times of Homer; and from being the strongest substance they were
acquainted with, it became very naturally with them the epithet of
strength, and is continued down to this day, and familiar in most
languages, as with us in the phrases, brazen Towers, brazen Lungs,
brazen Face, &c, that nothing could have been more perfectly natu-
ral than Homer's application of it where the strength and durability
of the hoof was intended to perfect the character of his natural
horse.

The above words also, in strictness of language, can convey no
such meaning as brass shoes; for if these horses had been really
shod, " brass-clad hoofs" would have been the expression of so
accurate a writer, and not " brazen-footed," in which there appears a
wide and just distinction; and in the succeeding line of the first of
these quotations are given by the poet the other natural beauties of
the horse, of form and colour, with which to combine such artifice
would have been very uncouth, not to say improper: and in other
instances in which he introduces the horse in this poem, which are

numerous, he employs, and not indirectly, the term "strong-hoofed"*
serving to confirm the above intention of the w^Triter in these phrases.

If the shoeing art was known in the days of Homer, there appears
no reason why it should not have been continued in the succeeding
ages of this empire, since the arts went on improving in the states of
Greece long after this period, and almost to the time of their being
subjected to the Roman power: and that so important an art as this
is, if it had existed, could have been lost again, is not to be believed,
by a nation of such extraordinary ingenuity, having eminent occa-
sion for it in their almost continual warfare.

The strength of the natural hoof to a people unacquainted with
shoeing, it is reasonable to believe, would, not only with their poets,
be a leading subject of exultation, but it is likely also this valuable
property with their generals would be a matter of some solicitude,
since the safety of the soldier would much depend upon it; and of
this there is sufficient evidence in the writings of Xenophon, a war-
rior intimately acquainted with the horse, and the management of
him, according to the customs of his days ; and we are led to believe,
from the paucity of writings respecting the horse, after him, either in
Greece or Rome, that his instructions were deemed so plain, satis-
factory, and useful, that but little required to be added to them.
He was a chief conductor of the cavalry movements of the ten
thousand Greeks in their famous retreat from Persia, after the defeat
and death of Cyrus the Younger, and which retreat is considered
among the most extraordinary feats in the history of arms. His soli-
citude respecting the feet of horses is remarkable; and his directions
in this respect, to preserve them hard and fit for service, as a matter
of great curiosity, we subjoin, and we believe with fidelity, in respect
to the intentions of the writer, not merely from our own researches
on the feet, but by obtaining the aid of more learned friends re-
specting the import of the language itself.

Alipa St TuSa'Srjv fi^Oeire KpaTipwvvxaQ '[mrs?,�II. lib. v. 329.

" In like manner, as food and exercise are sedulously to be admi-
nistered to the horse, that his body should be strengthened, so the
feet also require a careful attention ; since these, from the wetness
or smoothness of the stable shall be injured, even such as are the
most perfectly formed. In order to prevent the moisture from lodg-
ing, they should have a descent; and that they should not be too
smooth, stones should be imbedded by one another, corresponding in
size to the hoofs, for in such stable those horses that stand therein
will have their feet strengthened. Next also, he that has the care
of the horse should be mindful to lead him forth when he is to rub
him down, as it is best to remove him from the crib after the mid-day
feed, that he may have a better relish for the evening feed."

" In order to render the yard or place outside the stable the best
possible, and that it might tend to spread or dilate the feet, (Karevpwoi,)
a sufficient number, as Jour or five waggon-loads, of round stones,
cut or docked round to the proper size, should be thrown down at
random, and surrounded with a rim or border of iron, that they may
not be scattered; for by setting his feet on these, the same purpose
is answered as though he had exercise during a certain portion of
every day on a paved way. It is proper, when they be rubbed down
and curried, (jivoinaofievov^* that he should use his hoofs as when he is
walking, and the frogs also of the feet will be strengthened by the
stones strewed about.''f

If the ancients used shoes, why should there be this solicitude
about preserving and strengthening the natural hoof ?�if shoes had
been nailed to their feet, there could have been no use in this pro-
ceeding; nor could the stones have at all benefited them, or have
come in contact with them: their use and intention appears to be,
and indeed he confirms it, that their hardness should condense and

* In allusion to the mouse, it being perhaps a sort of soft hairy brush, somewhat
in form like a mouse's back,
f SENO^QNTOS 7T�pl lirwiKris.�Ed. Leunclavii, Francof. 1596, p. 938.

harden the hoof, and by polishing and rendering smooth the bearing
surface of the wall, render it less subject to fracture or wear, whilst
the roundness and hollowness of the hoof, it was imagined, was
maintained by the convexity of the stones fitting into the concavity
of the under surface of the foot.

In another treatise of this ancient writer, in which he undertakes
to point out the duties of a master of horse or cavalry, he thus deli-
vers himself respecting the feet, enforcing and repeating his former
directions. " That the horse's feet may be the strongest possible,�
(if any one has a better or more perfect method let it suffice,)�if
not, and I say it from experience, that you should throiv down stones
taken from the roads, of the weight of a ftva, (a pound*) more or less;
and that the horse should stand on them whilst he is being rubbed
down when he goes from the stable; for by walking on these stones,
he will not cease to tread and paw upon them, either when he is
rubbed down, or when he is curried; and he who tries this will
believe what I say, and will find his horse's hoofs made round
by it."i

It is hardly necessary to observe, that this most useful and elegant
writer lived about five hundred years before the birth of our Saviour,
and consequently near the period of the greatest refinement of the
Grecian states.

Having exhibited what we believe to have been the real intentions
of the Greeks in these passages and expressions, which we shall
again hereafter advert to with farther confirmatory evidence; we now
shall take a somewhat novel view of what appears to us the genuine
explanation of the great obscurity and difficulty which appears from
the language of the commentators on the above passage in Homer,
fully feeling the presumption of offering an opinion after such very

* A stone to fit the concavity of the hoof would weigh many pounds, which seems to
point out a different weight than our pound English, though it is usual so to translate it.
f SEN0$iiNTOS linrapxiKOQ. Editio Leunclavii, Francofurt, 1596, p. 956.

eminent men, especially as being myself not greatly skilled in horses,
and still less in the critical knowledge of the Greek tongue : it would,
we consider, be a base dereliction of duty, however, not to do it,
where the way seems to us pretty clear, leaving future annotators of
the passage to adopt or reject it as they please.

Dr. Samuel Clarke, certainly one of the best, if not the very best,
of the commentators on Homer, and who is generally followed in the
schools, denies the words x^a^^K0> $v<-o<ovteq as at all relating to the horses,
but believes they relate to the men, that is, the soldiers' slaying, or
laying waste with their weapons (often of brass in those times) the
flying enemy, but feels the difficulty of his conjecture, and is obliged
to make a large parenthesis for the horses in the preceding line, to
make it refer to the soldiers, and to punctuate accordingly, thus
greatly forcing the natural order and disposition of the text.

If the suggestion we are about to give be thought at all reasonable,
it will have the advantage of leaving the text of the whole passage
exactly as it is found in the old editions, without the necessity for
the alteration of a single letter, or point in the punctuation; and the
sense, we apprehend, is rounded and finished as the poet meant, and
such as would satisfy the most fastidious critic.

The word x^a^^KM then, we are assured, does not relate to the arms
of the men, as Dr. Clarke supposes, but to the horses, (toSe_C ittttwv) men-
tioned immediately before in the preceding line, and which it is but
perfectly natural it should: to explain the difficulty respecting the
_XaA/cw, we have very little doubt that it is an abbreviated or contracted
word of greater length, which it would be inconvenient to use on
account of the metre, and that x^a^^Kb)VV%> or x^a^^K0VVx^w> would have been
the full word if it had been used, but which, by a figure, I believe the
rhetoricians call synecdochy, which "part for the whole doth take"
is substituted, being sufficiently intelligible in an abbreviation, and
may have been the vernacular phraseology then in use; for in horse-
manship, as in other arts, their technical phraseology is not always to
be scanned by the nicest rules of grammar. Should this view of the

matter be considered as at all admissible, we shall then have a very
natural sense to the whole passage in the following version.

The foot are to the foot opposed,�who fly are surely slain,�

And horse to horse : their conflict clouds with dust

The plain, raised by the resounding feet of the horses,

Which with brazen hoofs lay waste the flying foe. Then mighty Agamemnon,

Ever slaughtering in his deadly course, follows, cheering the Greeks;

which sense appears to follow naturally, and to represent the actual
scene intended.

In the Latin translation, we humbly apprehend, that for " JEre
ccedentes" should be substituted the words ungulis duris vastantes,
the faithful representatives of x^a^^K0VVX⁰^ hiowvreg, or hard hoofs of
the horses; and more formidable arms need not be employed against
a flying enemy than the heavy feet of the horses, pushing them
down, and trampling upon them.

In contemplating this subject, a few remarks have very unexpect-
edly occurred to us respecting this same word x^a^^KW> which in a sin-
gular manner finds its way into the Latin language also, and from a
noun substantive becomes changed into a verb active, calco, and one
too, of a most active signification indeed,�that of stamping upon, or
kicking; and what is remarkable in its new office, all sight of the
foot, the agent of it, is entirely lost, and the brass only is left re-
maining. The word calcans is also used for trampling upon, and the
word calx is used for the heel of the foot, without doubt from the
nominative xaA/coe, reduced into a Latin termination, and derived
pretty evidently from its being the brazen part, that is to say in
other words, the hard part of the foot; and what is further remark-
able is, that this word has found its way into our English language
also in horse affairs, and in calkins, used for our horses' heels, which
in fact are two hard projecting points of the iron shoe, we again
recognize this ancient phraseology. And in cawk, or calk, we
believe it should be written, used among the miners, alluding perhaps
to the very great hardness of the material, we have the same term.
So that at last the term calk, or xoXkoq, brass, and hardness, become

almost or quite convertible terms. And what is also most singular,�
at least so it appears to us at present, is, that the whole immense
family of the Calcares, that is, of the calcareous earths and salts,
almost infinite in number, derive their distinctive appellation from
this same word x^a^^K0?> obtained no doubt from the extreme hardness
of some of these stones before they are burnt and reduced to lime.
And in callosity, or hardness, we have another undoubted derivative
from this same source, where the kappa, *, is removed on account of
euphonious pronunciation, and is replaced by a second I. In the
word chalk, the original chi, or ch, is still retained, and the word
xaXfcoe very nearly appears fn its original form. And it is even
doubtful if in some cases it may not extend into figurative and ab-
stract terms of language, of which we have sometimes thought
calumny might afford an example, proceeding from x.oAkoc, hard, or
bad, and ovofia, name: it is however, not without hesitation and diffi-
dence we hazard the latter conjecture; but our confidence is some-
what heightened by observing that the common dictionary derivations
of this word are not at all satisfactory; and so in a' multitude of
other words beginning with col, as callous from its hardness. And
ya\Koc once brought into the Latin {calx) for the heel of the foot,
becomes an expressive and fruitful patronymic, branching in two
directions, as being the hard part, and also as being the end or ter-
mination of the limb. In this latter sense it became applied to metals,
when these were by combustion reduced to a dross: this end, ter-
mination, or residue, was then called the calx, or heel of the metal,
and it was said to be calcined. In colcothar, as it is generally but
erroneously written, we have the colcothar of the metal; and in
calomel we have the calx melas, or black oxyd of mercury, obtained
by simple agitation, in which state it is reasonable to suppose it was
first exhibited. The above two words being combined in one for
more convenient use, with the x omitted, make the word calmel, to
which was subsequently added, for easier pronunciation, the vowel a,
thus making calamel, the name it still retains in speaking of it, but

which fashion, or misapprehended etymology, changed to an o, and
which has led to the absurd conceit about koXoc ^Xac, known to every
body, and unworthy on several accounts of a serious refutation. In
calamity we also probably see another unexpected derivative of this
most fruitful stem; for it is singular that in the dictionaries, as of
Ainsworth, one of the best, no notion seems to be entertained of the
Latin calx being from this x^a^^K0C- In conclusion, it appears to us
not improbable that xoXkottoS nrwog with the Greeks conveyed rather
the impression of the hard or solid foot than that of the brazen
foot, and which caused Virgil perhaps to adopt the term solidungula,
intending in so doing to imitate his great master Homer,

Our own admired poet, Alexander Pope, translating no doubt
from the old editions of Homer, gives the word xoAkw in this passage
as relating to the feet of the horses, and not to the arms of the men,
and as signifying the same as yakicoTroS i-kwoq, or " brazen-footed horse,"
the favourite and frequent epithet of Homer, but which we object to
in this place, as voSng occurs just before it in the preceding line, and
the repetition so close would form a sort of tautology: hence we are
led to suppose that the hard, sharp, front of the hoof itself, was more
particularly intended in this word, and therefore that x^^x⁰) or
XaXKww^oig, it being in the ablative case, was understood; which word
yakKwwZ, is seen in the Lexicon of Hedericus. And the foot of the
horse in war, impelled by the weight and vigorous action of the animal,
would prove a most cruel instrument of destruction. We are fully
aware we have been led by these new, and to us, unexpected deriva-
tions, and a desire of getting at the truth of this passage, to venture
a little out of our direct province : viewing the subject however as the
horseman rather than the scholar, we may hope for indulgence if we
have erred in so doing.

That these ancients knew not shoeing, it will be fair also to pre-
sume from the sacred Scriptures, in the following passages : " Then
were their horses' hoofs broken by the means of the prancings of
their mighty ones :" Judges v. 22. " With his horses' hoofs shall he

b 2

tread down thy streets :" Ezekiel xxvi. 11, speaking of the downfal
of Tyre. Also, " Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will
make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass ;" Micah iv. 13.
The remarkable expression of the prophet Isaiah, who, in foretelling
the downfal of Jerusalem, uses these words: " Whose arrows are
sharp, and all their bows bent; their horses' hoofs shall be accounted
like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind," (ch. v. 28,) alluding to
the Roman armies, who but too dreadfully fulfilled this prophecy.
It is also to be remarked, that here the material selected for the
metaphor or epithet of strength, is harder than brass, and such as
could in no way be made into' shoes.�Also their sculptured figures
of horses on the celebrated columns of Trajan and Antoninus, every
Avhere without shoes, come in strong confirmation of this truth.

We now pass to the consideration of various passages found in
other ancient writers engaged in rustic occupations and in war, and
we shall there plainly see that the horses could not have been shod;
and if we afterwards show that defence was sometimes resorted to,
we may be assured that it was not with shoes nailed on both sides of
the foot, through an iron ring, as in the modern shoeing.

As being the most ancient, we shall first begin with the warriors :
in Diodorus Siculus, lib. xvii. c. 94, Ed. Weissilingii, p. 233, we have
the following passage : Kat

oirAac viroTtrpujtSrai rwv 07rXwv to. irkuara Kari^avoai trvvefiaivt, tliat IS, JliqUOrum.

ungulae propter itinera nunquam remissa detritse et armorum pleraque
absumptae erant."

And Cinnamus complains in a similar way of the consequences of

detrition � YlaOoc yap ri roig avrwv irtvfiacnv emXijovog, obi] tw "tvttum E-rnaKOirTuv
siwOe ytvei laywpoyq avrovg tyaaev. X^SBlGYSS- COpiaS manere in Attalia et

equos curare jussit, " nam malam cui est obnoxium equinum genus
plantes pedum acciderat, graviterque efficerat."�Editio Tollii Tra-
ject. ad Rhenum, 1652, lib. iv. p. 194.

Appianus also, in his account of the siege of Cyzicum by Lucullus,

observes � Tote 8' liriroiQ a^ptloig ot tots ovrag nal aaOivug St' arpofyiav koi xwAevovTctg

e� vwotpi^mg, EC BiBvviav 7r�piE7rE/x7r�v. ll<qUOS vero tunc inutiles et infirmos
ob inediam, claudicantesque Solearum inopia, detritis ungulis, aversis
ab Hoste Itineribus misit in Bithyniam.-�Appianus De Betto Mith-
ridatico, Ed. Steph. 1592, p. 221.�Here Solearum inopia are intro-
duced by the learned translator (H. Stephanus) without the smallest
authority in the original text, to make it appear that they were shod.
And the commentator of Suetonius, under the life of Vespasian,
has taken the same course; from which Schaeffer, in his truly
learned and useful work, " De Re Vehiculari Veterum," appears to
have been led into error in the same belief. On examining the pas-
sage he quotes as the words of Suetonius, we find he has mingled
with it the words of the commentary, to make his proofs appear the
more clear:* indeed the circumstance of the muleteer of the Em-
peror getting down and fastening on the shoes of the mules, and de-
taining the car while the solicitor, who had previously bribed the
muleteer to do so, presented his petition to the Emperor, would show
that they were not nailed shoes; for no coachman, in these more ex-
perienced days, would undertake such an operation, or would have
about him all the requisites for doing it, but would leave it to the
smiths : that this, like most other passages, if fairly construed, would
make against rather than for, their supposition. The following is the
original passage of Suetpnius : " Mulionem in itinere quodam sus-
picatus ad calciandas mulas desilisse, ut adeunti litigatori spatium
moramque prasberet: interrogavit, quanti calciasset: pactusque est
lucri partem.�-Suetonius Vita Imp. Vespas. de Facetis, p. 120.

* Ut iestatur Suetonius in Vespasiano, qui frequenter solebat lectica deferri in villain
suam Cutiliam, sed a mulis quoniam quadraginta milliarum intervallo abesset Roma:
Hinc qui lecticam ejus deferebat, solicitatoris cujusdam donis corruptus, e mulis retentus
fingeret se aptaturum Soleam ferream pedi unius ex mulis, tempus dabat supplici ad
porrigendum Imperatori libellum.�Schaeffer De Re Vehiculari.

In proof of the detrition of feet, we have the following passage in
the Cynegeticon, or treatise on dogs and hunting :

Ante opus excussis cadet unguibus.�Cyneget. v. 11.
Before the work is done, he falls, from hoofs worn through.

Of the agricultural writers of Rome, who had occasion for horses
and mules in the cultivation of their villas, Cato the Censor was the
earliest in this species of writing; we have read him for that purpose,
and there does not appear any very striking passage ; but in the
next writer, which is Varro, we find the following: " Cruribus rectis
et equalibus, genibus rotundis, nee magnis, nee introrsum spectan-
tibus, ungulis duns."�Varro, lib. 2, p. 306, Ed. Gesneri,�that in
the choice of a horse, prefer one " with straight limbs, joints rounded
and even, but not too large, or bending inwards, with hard hoofs," a
quality so continually insisted upon with these writers, but which no
one using nails would particularly desire�of primary value, however,
where the horse was used without shoes.

In the next writer on rural affairs, Columella, the most elegant and
comprehensive of them all, and who lived in or near the age of
Augustus, we find the following advice respecting the stables for a
country villa�" That the master should frequently go into his stable,
and should especially see if the paving of the stalls rise sufficiently in
the middle, and that they are not made of soft wood, as frequently
through want of knowledge or negligence was liable to happen ; but
that they be made of hard oak timber, solidly compacted together,
which sort of wood hardens the hoofs of horses like stones." * He
observes in another place, that in the choice of a horse, select such

* Diligens itaque dominus stabulum frequenter intrabit, et primum dabit operam, ut
stratus pontilis emineat, ipsumque sit non ex mollibus lignis, sicut frequenter per impe-
ritiam vel negligentiam evenit, sed roboris vivacis duritia et soliditate compactum; nam
hoc genus ligni equorum ungulas ad saxorum instar obdurat.�Col. lib. i. Ed. Manh.
p. 73.

■:

as have hard hoofs, upright, (opposed to flat) hollow, or concave be-
neath, and round, with coronets of a middle size.*

Pliny also observes, in speaking of mules, " Generantur ex equa
et onagris mansuefactis rnulae velocis in cursu, duritia eximia pedum,"
&c.�Ed. Eh. torn. i. p. 349.

To the rustic writers succeeded the Greek veterinarians of the
Byzantine empire, in point of date, with whom there appears on this
head nothing very striking : these were succeeded by Vegetius, who
was the last, or latest of all the writers among the ancients, living
under Valentinian the 3rd, in the fourth century, and from his work
more secure conclusions may be drawn of the ancient usages with
these animals than any other. He has diligently brought together
nearly all the diseases and casualties of the horse, the different breeds
then in use, and their qualities: yet has this elegant and compre-
hensive writer never once alluded to an iron nailed shoe, or touched
upon one of the abuses or accidents that such practice is necessarily
encumbered with; and which, we believe, by all reasonable men will
be admitted proof sufficient that they could not have known this art,
as it would be utterly impossible he could have passed it over in
silence had such art been in existence. Also in his work, the most
brief and elegant of its kind, according to Gibbon, " De Re Militari,"
where he enumerates the entire apparatus of a Roman army forge,
(lib. ii. c. 25,) is there the least mention of such a class of artificers,
or the smallest provision for shoeing the horse. And at which
period, therefore, it may be safely concluded the art of shoeing with
nails was entirely unknown in that quarter of the world.

Before we enter upon the consideration of what was the real
nature of the shoeing of the ancients, we shall here take the oppor-
tunity of adverting to an expression of their poets, not unfrequently

* Duris ungulis et altis, et concavis rotundisque, quibus coronae mediocres super-
positae sunt.�Colum. lib. vi. p. 50,�" Ut ungulas duret sitque postea longis itineribus
habilis." p. 63.

used when speaking of the horse, and which also relates to his feet,
and is not generally fully understood; this is the epithet Sonipes,
which to a youth learning Latin, and not acquainted with the real
situation of their roads and horses, would be somewhat obscure; for
in our horses clad with iron, and used on a gravel road, no particular
sound would be produced that would justify or explain an expression
of this kind.

It appears to have had its origin in that these nations, not ac-
quainted with the arts of shoeing, constructed their roads in a manner
to accommodate horses so circumstanced, and used the natural hoof
upon their hard, smooth, causeways, curiously formed of large, flat
stones, placed close to each other, and admirably jointed and cemented
together, raised in the middle, upon which their hard, hollow hoofs,
resounded again, and could be heard along a surface so smooth to a
very great distance; and this reverberation was perhaps assisted in
many cases by the mounds thrown up on each side of them, and also
by these roads sometimes running through valleys which echoed the
sound;* hence the epithet was strong, and suggested itself very
naturally. The following are examples.

Stat Sonipes ac frasna, ferox spumantia mandit.�/Eneid, 1. 4, 135.
Quo Sonipes ictu furit arduus, altaquejactat.�/Eneid,\. 2, 600.

And the flattering poet Claudian thus addresses the Emperor Ho-

norius,

O felix Sonipes cui tanti frasna mereri

Numinis. Claud. Epigram.

* Bergier, Histoire des grands Chemins de l'Empire Romaine, liv. ii. cap. 1, p. 28.
Also liv. iv.

Procopius, In Hist. Arcana, c. 30. Libanius Orat. 22, and Itineraria, p. 572, 581.

Private property, every thing, was sacrificed for these causeways; hills were some-
times perforated, and valleys and rivers boldly arched over. Their formation and con-
struction was elaborate and curious: the middle part being raised, consisted of strata
of sand, gravel, and cement, paved over atop with large stones : near the capital these
were of granite.�Post-houses were erected along these ways, at the distance of five or

On the Defences occasionally resorted to by the Ancients.

Though it was certainly not the custom of the ancients to shoe
their horses, yet they appear at times to have had recourse in diffi-
culties, and in cases of abrasion, to artificial defence, and which was
probably of the most simple kind.

And we have seen by the preceding quotation from Suetonius, that
the horses of the Emperor Vespasian were defended in some way, as
the coachman or muleteer got down to fasten one of them, while a
petitioner for some favour, gained opportunity of access to the Em-
peror, who, suspecting the trick, facetiously asks his man how much
he should get for the shoeing, as " he meant to go halves with him:"
it is clear, therefore, some defences on that occasion were used : now
the question is, as they could not be nailed shoes, of what description

were they.

Also in Suetonius's life of Nero, cap. xxx., he says that this em-
peror had in his train a thousand carriages drawn by mules in shoes
of silver;�the shoes of the mules of Poppcea, the wife of Nero,
were also made of silver. These passages and the lines of Catullus
also sufficiently demonstrate the same use of defences�

" Et supinum animum in gravi derelinquere cceno,
Ferream ut soleam tenaci in voragine mula."�xvii. 23.

Some of the learned have conjectured that the Greeks used the

six miles apart, for the purposes of government, each being constantly provided with 40
horses; and by the help of these frequent relays, it was possible to travel 100 miles a day.
In the time of Theodosius, Ccesarius, a magistrate of high rank according to the Codex
Theodosianus, lib. viii. tit. v. vol. 2, p. 506, 563, ed. 1, Godefroy's Commentary, went
post from Antioch to Constantinople, a distance of 725 Roman, or 665 English miles,
in six days: see Gibbon, Decline and Fall, lib. i. cap. 1.

leg defences they called Embattai for the feet of their horses; and
Xenophon makes mention of such towards the conclusion of his
book, De re Equestri; but he describes them only as covering the
legs of the soldiers for defence, and adds, " that in passing them
under the feet, (still meaning the soldiers) they might also serve for
shoes." That these Embattai might not have been sometimes used
for the horses, we do not deny; but that such practice is alluded to
or confirmed by this passage in Xenophon is very evidently not the
fact.*

Next the Carbatinai (KapfiaTivat) in like manner have been men-
tioned as defences for their horses' feet, and which appear to have
been much of the same nature as the former, but were of a coarser
kind, and used chiefly by the rustics, constructed perhaps of very
rough cloth, ox-hide, or untanned leather; and that these were
really employed for their animals is clear from what Aristotle says of
the camel, that " in going long journeys, his feet were subject to be-
come tender, and they were then defended by the Carbatinai." f

These carbatinai were probably much like what the sportsmen
and rustics use, formed of a rough, thick kind of leather passing
round the feet and up the legs. A rude covering of this sort made
stouter next the ground of beneath the sole by the addition of cloth,
or leather, and carried to the tops of the shanks, was really what
these ancients appear to have employed for their horses ; sometimes
on occasion, again defending the lower parts or beneath the sole, by
iron, brass, or silver. The parts of them which passed above the hoofs

* Ei IfifiaTal ytvoivTO gkvt'ovq e� olov wtp at Kf>Ji7rtC�e Troiovvrai, ovrw yap av a/xa
o7rXov te KvnfiaiQ, Kai iromv vwoSrifiaT av hjj.�Xenophon de Re Equestri. Ed. Leun-
clav. p, 953.

From the word embatai probably comes the French emboiter, and passing through
the languages of the Netherlands to us, it becomes the familiar English word boots.

f Arist. Hist. Anim. Lib. ii. p. 850, edit. Loemar. 1597.

and up the legs, were certainly used for fastening them on by, and
these parts might, on splendid occasions, have been ornamented. It
is however, a remarkable circumstance that these embattai, carbati-
nai, or horse-leggins, as we may call them, were never once men-
tioned by name in these veterinary or rustic writers, or excepting
once in the Greek veterinary writers under the term hippopodes as
we shall see hereafter. Solea, however, is the term used in the
Latin writers where these appear to have been employed, and never
calceus, the term used for their own sandals, whilst the action of
shoeing, is expressed by the verb calceo, and is indiscriminately em-
ployed for both horse and man.

Vegetius speaks of lemnisci as used to the feet of the horses,
which appear to have been intended to strengthen the solea, or in
cases of excessive abrasion, as pads to the feet, for softness and ease.
The following is an instance of their application Spartea calceabis
cui lemniscos subjicies," lib. iii. cap. 18. Manh. ed. p. 198. In ano-
ther part of his work he says, pannos vel lemniscos, which would
seem to indicate that soft cloths would do, or if stronger were re-
quired lemnisci which probably were made of stout soft leather.
Again lemniscus is used by him for a seton several times, p. 138. ed.
cit. by which term it is pretty clear he meant the thing we in techni-
cal language call a rowel, giving it the name of lemniscus, as being
made of the same material as the lemnisci used for the feet, viz. of
leather, and the same material is sometimes used for rowels in these
days.

Now in respect to the fastenings for these Roman shoes we are en-
abled to afford indubitable proof of this being done by bands about
the legs, but we defer our account or consideration of these at pre-
sent, in order to notice another species of defence described by Ve-
getius for the feet of horses, and which has been also often mistaken
for shoes,

q 2

OF THE SPARTEUM OPUS OR BROOM PL ATT.

This defence, or enclosure rather, for the foot, was formed of the
slender twigs of the broom, called anaprov and airapriov by the Greeks,
and spartea, sparcea, and sparteum opus by the Romans : there is
much reason to doubt however if it was employed for protecting the
foot upon the roads in the way of a shoe. By selecting a few of the
original passages wherein they direct its use, we shall be led to form
more just conclusions of the real intention of it.

Columella, one of the earliest of the rustic writers, living in or
near the age of Augustus, prescribes for oxen that become lame or
tender, " if it be downwards, or in the hoofs, that you should make
a slight opening between the claws with a knife, and afterwards
apply soft rags or cloth soaked in salt and vinegar; then let the part
be covered with the spartean shoe, {solea spartea) and let there be
great caution that no wet come near it, and that the stable be kept
very dry."*

Theomnestus, one of the Byzantine veterinarians before spoken of,
recommends its use in the following way, in a case of excessive abra-
sion of the hoofs, which also adds another proof to their not using
shoes. He says, " if a horse is much torn in the hoofs by travelling,
and then is neglected, he becomes feverish, and is soon destroyed by
the fever if not timely prevented by help. You must therefore use
warm water, in which the root of the althaea, or wild mallows has
been boiled, and to foment the foot with it till it becomes cleaned
and softened; you must then file off the ailing parts or fragments,
and lay bare all bruises in the water; and then you are to have im-
mediately in readiness slender twigs of broom, or twine cords, and

* At si jam in ungulis est, inter duos ungues cultello leviter aperies, postea linamenta
sale atque aceto imbuta applicantur, ac solea Spartea pes induitur, maximeque datur
opera ne in aquam pedem mittat et sicce stabuletur.�Columella, Ed. Manh. 2, p. 27.

coarse rough cloths, (flannels or sear-cloths, perhaps,) tow, and other
coarse stuffing, with garlic, (aXXiov,) and cart or axle grease; one by
one individually ready to fashion them altogether, so as to fix them
by ties round the hoofs: if it should inflame, let him be blooded
from the coronet; let him stand in a warm air where there is sun-
shine, or let fire be kindled in the winter time, and underspread him
with dry dung, that he may not walk on what is hard. The feet
may suffer in this way without being much inflamed; let him be at-
tended eight days, and let him stand in-doors on dung, and his water
be brought him, that his hoof may not by walking be torn asunder,
but may grow, being nourished by what rises out of the dung."*�
The twigs of the spartium are here recommended to be employed in
their simple state as cords, to bind on the dressings, and were pro-
bably placed under the foot, then platted up the sides, and made to
meet above round the coronet.

A flat platting or braid, made of some length of rushes or broom,
would be a simple and ready means of accomplishing this purpose,
and was perhaps all that they meant.

The word solea would easily impart to us, who are so used to
shoes, the notion of a shoe, and the words " calceabis," and " calce-
atispedibus," (Veget.lib. 2, c. 55�58, &c,) would also appear to convey
the same idea; that these expressions for several years in which I
perused these writers, led me to imagine a real shoe, and also used
for defence against wear on the roads; but we now fully believe our
own customs in these respects led us to form much too serious
notions of their expressions and practices in this respect. All
they meant by solea was this lattice work of broom to go round
and underneath the foot, and the loose ends were then twisted and
platted up the sides, and brought at last to tie round the coronet.
Thus Vegetius says, " if the hoof becomes injured, (abraded) bleed

Ruellius Scriptores Greeci Veterinarii, p. 254.

the foot, and when it has bled sufficiently, you are to rub the parts
with salt, and afterwards anoint with vinegar and oil, and dress with
soft cloths, useing the shoe of spartea, that after the humours are
evacuated, it may be repaired." *

In all these cases, disease induces the application of it, and defence
seems to be no object; indeed such slender twigs would soon be
worn through if brought in contact with the surface of the road,
that their inadequacy to defence will appear obvious we believe, and
of course their perfect uselessness as a shoe.

This spartum or spartea used by the ancients was not the common
broom of our heaths in England, {Genista scoparia) of which the
small green brooms are made that are sold about the streets, which
appears to be of too fragile, shrubby, and knotty a nature for this
purpose, but the large yellow flowering plant we often see ornament-
ing our gardens, the Spartium junceum, of Linnaeus, or Spanish
broom, a native every where of the south of Europe : its stems may
be observed to send forth numerous cylindrical rush-like twigs, which
were the parts employed on these occasions : being tough, they
might individually be used as strings, or, platted, or collectively
formed into flat braids or rounded cords, they were exceedingly well
adapted for keeping on the dressings of the horse's foot, being pliant
and cool, and having interstices between them, and perhaps pre-
senting every where in abundance in those regions by nature or cul-
tivation ; these twigs broken up, and their fibres detached, and again
artificially combined, would readily form into large ropes or cords of
any size; and it may almost be shown, that these expressions, spar-
tum, spartion, &c, were almost or quite synonymous to cords and
cordage, as Homer, in describing the sailing of the Grecian fleet,

* Cum sufficienter effluxerit cruor, sale perfricabis, postea aceto et oleo inunges, et
linteolis munies diligenter. Sparciam calciare curabis, ut post egestionem humorum
ungula reparetur.� Veget. De Arte Veterin. p. 43.

says the sparta, or cords, were unloosed; * and Livy, in the Roman
language, uses it in the same sense of cordage for shipping, f

It is clear also from the observations of Pliny, that a plant brought
from the Northern coast of Africa was the Spartum of the Romans,
of the uses and manufactory of which near Carthage he gives an in-
teresting account; but there appears some uncertainty as to the real
plant that passed under this name among the Greeks in the latter
periods of their empire, and of which Pliny, in his time, also enter-
tained the same doubts that we now at this day entertain; he states,
however, very plainly that this Carthaginian plant, then called Spar-
ton, was not the Grecian Sparton, and was unknown in Greece till it
was introduced there in later times by the Carthaginians ; that prior
to its introduction, the Phyllyrea, and leaves of the Palm, were in
use there for making cordage of; that a succession of different
plants, after the Spartium had been disused by them, would appear
to have been in use there.

Pliny describes the Spanish broom perfectly well, under the term
Genista, its Roman name, and expresses his uncertainty whether it
might not be the Grecian Spartum; so that this plant, besides its
striking habit and natural characters for such a purpose, appears to
have, from his mode of mentioning it, a superior claim to any other
of being considered the early Sparton of the Greeks: he observes
also farther, that still in his day it was in use for ties, (" vinculis") and
in this case it is not at all improbable they might employ it for
the coarser and more common domestic purposes, in which the binding
up the hoofs of horses might very well be included.

Clusius has well described and figured this Carthaginian Spartum,%
and tells us it is called by the natives Albardin, from shoes being
made of it, called by the Spaniards, Alpergates, and which plant is

* Kai �r) Soipa ai(jt]trt vtCiv, ical cma-pra XeXuvtcu.�Iliad, Lib. 11. 1. loo.
f Vis magna Sparti ad rem nauticam congesta ab Asdrubale.�Livius.
J Clusius Hist. Plant, rar. p. ccxix.

most certainly the Stipa tenacissima of Linnaeus; so that the Carthagi-
nian Spartum is clearly made out, and is, we apprehend, that slender,
wiry plant, which the common baskets or frails are made of, which
our grocers in England receive their fruits in from these coasts
at this day. Without, however, further considering this object, we
shall be contented with remarking, that whichever of these plants
it was that the ancients used, it could not have been near so strong
as a shoe made of common wicker work, and would have been
an incompetent defence against the abrasion of the roads, and conse-
quently not at all to be considered in the light of a shoe, but merely
as convenient bands or braids for keeping on dressings.

It would appear that long after the plant itself, Spartum, was dis-
continued as the material for making ropes of, the name still was re-
tained, derived originally from the material of which they were made,
and afterwards became a common appellation for them of whatever
substance they were formed; therefore sparta were ropes with the
Greeks, although made of rushes, phyllarea, or hemp, or any other
vegetable matter. A somewhat similar case appears in our own lan-
guage, in the word so common among sailors, (Junk) used for oakum,
or herds, formed of the hemp (cannabis) with which they cawk or
stop the fissures of their vessels in order to make them water-tight,
and which is probably but a continuation of the old name juncus,
rushes, the material originally employed by the ancients for this
purpose. The Schcenus, woivos, of the ancients, also was a sort of
carex, or sedge, employed by them for making the finer cords or
twine of: hence the whip used by our Saviour in the Temple was of
the vkoiviwv, or of small cords, and hence, perhaps, from this sort of
twine being sold in convenient links or loops for use, we get the
familiar word skeins, or a skein of thread.

And in reviewing these measures of defence used by the ancients,
we cannot altogether pass by the modern term Hippocrepis, (hmoKpuwis)
which, whether in use with the ancients or not, we are unacquainted;
but if analysed, it would strictly mean the leather horse-shoe, which

was the real shoe of those times, being formed of hippos, a horse,
and crepis, coriicm, tanned leather. If the term Hippocrepis is
merely a modern invention of the botanists, there appears to be a
great incongruity in the application of it; for the plant, (a sort of
trefoil or vetch,) which they have called after this name, and which
has a pod or seed-vessel of a crescent shape, and corresponding
exactly in figure to the modern nailed iron horse-shoe, is, unfor-
tunately, in no way like the sock of leather which covered the whole
under part of the foot of the horse with the ancients.

It is therefore most manifest and clear, from all the passages for-
merly quoted, and many others we might quote from Vegetius him-
self, concerning " detritis pedibus," and " subtritis pedibus," lib. 2,
c. 58, also " animalium ungulae asperitate ac longitudine itinerum dete-
runtur," lib. 2, c. 55 ; also " In agendo itinere damnum e diurno
detritis pedibus majus sit quam per noctis quietem tantum renasei
possit,"�Ruellius Script. Greed Veterin. lib. 2, fol. 99. &c, that the
ancients did not generally shoe their horses, and that when they did,
it was of the most simple kind, and much as they were used to
shoe their own feet, and as we have before described a sock of
leather or pelt, going round the whole foot, with sometimes lemnisci,
and sometimes with iron attached to strengthen them, as is seen
pretty plainly in the following passage, "pedes quos sanos habit glante
ferreo vel si defuerit, spartea calceabis, cui lemniscos subjicies, et
addita fasciola diligentissime colligabis, et suppositiciam fades
parti Mi quae misera est, nt planas ungulas possit ponere :" Vegetius
lib. 3, cap. 18.�here we see, perhaps, the whole machinery of their
shoeing, and plainly and intelligibly enough; but we must not pass
over the unique expression glante ferreo, which occurs here and
is not again seen in this or any other writer that we know of, it may
perhaps be but an insertion or corruption of the text with which, by
frequent transcription, the work abounds.

There is however something very singular about it, for glans
signifies an acorn, the fruit of the oak, and the figure which this fruit

presents projecting from its cup, would, if divided by a longitudinal
section not badly represent the figure of the modern horse-shoe, or
a section of its cup would do the same, but as nothing is said of nails
for fastening it on, it cannot properly be considered, without other
collateral evidence to mean any such thing. It may have been
possibly a piece of iron turned round to the figure of the horses hoof,
and which was then fastened on by rivets or otherwise to the lemnisci,
or leather soles, and this, it is not at all impossible, might, under the
pressure of necessity have been applied directly to the foot itself, and
given birth to the modern horse-shoe: it is therefore probable that
these metal plates, or acorns of iron, used to strengthen their solea,
or shoe, were distinguished by the name of Glantes ferrei, and the
passage tells us if they were not to be had they were to be contented
with the lemnisci, and if not these, with the sparteum opus, which
was rarely honoured with the title of solea or shoe.

Their shoes therefore were really and truly shoes in the proper
sense of the word, and easily removable and much more agreable to
nature, than the night and day iron bondage we falsely call by that
name.

Having now seen the nature of their shoes we may be permitted
to advance a step further in considering how they were fastened on,
which must have seemed so common and natural to them, that a
description of it could hardly have been expected, we have it however
in the above passage, were it says " et addita fasciola diligentissime
colligabis;,"■ and that this was really the way we can give further
collateral proof from another and indubitable source.

That any actual representation of these bands of the ancients for
fastening on their shoes, was now, at this distant period to be found,
could hardly be hoped or expected, yet that such does really exist we
shall presently give proof of. Engaged some years back in looking
over the Veterinary Greek writers, I was led to observe that Apsyrtus
complained of the horses legs being often cut with the violence used
in the application of these bands even so as to injure and lay open

the joints, and he tells you how they were used to treat it: having
copied this passage carefully into my former dissertation, (1st ed.
1809,) I was, shortly after sending it forth, induced to visit the British
Museum, in order to see some horse-shoes of the nailed kind, that
were positively said to have been found in the excavations of
Herculaneum, but which proved to be not true, for they had, as I
ascertained on inquiry of Sir Joseph Banks himself, who had sent
them to the Museum, been found in a boggy pit on his estate in
Lincolnshire, and appeared on examination of about the age of the
Commonwealth, and having been presented by Sir Joseph, were
placed for a few days, by some inadvertency, in the same case with
the Herculaneum relics, which gave rise to the report. Whilst
examining these shoes 1 was desired by the curators of the Museum
to examine another curiosity which they were unable to give any
feasible account of, and which was an ancient Tablet, representing a
horse or chariot race, with the horses legs having some unaccountable
envelopment which they doubted the propriety of representing, those
on examination I pronounced to be the bands alluded to by Apsyrtus,
under the name of Hippopodes, and are probably identical with the
fasciola mentioned in the above passage by Vegetius.

I immediately procured an artist, my worthy friend Sydenham
Edwards, to make a good drawing of them, an engraving of which is
seen annexed and in which we may remark these bands on three, out
of the four legs, of the horse, the fourth being deficient only from
being by time nearly obliterated, these having by the boldness of the
design much projected from ths rest of the surface and had apparently
been rubbed away : see frontispiece.

Over the horses is a tablet, inscribed with the name of Annice
Arescusa, without doubt the winner of the race, and who is there
represented in his full costume of Charioteer at these games, with
the reins of the horses round his waist, guiding apparently four reins
with the right and two with the left hand, which appear to belong
to the two middle horses. He appears to be standing up in a two

d 2

wheel curriculus. The bits for the horses mouths are snaffles of the
simplest kind. Another charioteer, as one might suppose by the
bands round his body, has just passed the meta, he is however on
horse back and is perhaps employed in keeping the course clear.

The tablet is a beautiful bas relief of terra cotta, or baked earth,
impressed in a mould. And it is also singular, but which I chose to
have preserved, his face is twice repeated either as in a mask or as
from a projected shadow on a wall; perhaps some future researcher
may be able to explain this; my friend Edwards, thought it a slip of
the mould, this I should very much doubt, as in that case all the
other lines of the piece ought to have shared the same fate. One
unfortunate candidate appears prostrate near the base of the meta.

As this book is somewhat rare, and the passage highly curious, we
subjoin it in the original Greek with the Latin version given of it
by Ruellius, and an English translation.

" Apsyrtus, concerning the injuries from foot defences or fastenings of the same.

Chapter 107.

" It happens that the legs of the horse, (or rather shanks fizaonvvia,
mesocynia,) from the foot shackles iinroiri$nQ, hippopedes,) or its fasten-
ings by the thong or cord, become injured, so that the skin falls down,
(is destroyed) and the tendons of the fetlocks are laid bare. There
is danger of this being fatal if it happen to both joints. It is proper,
therefore, in the first place, to apply wine, vinegar, or brine and
vinegar; next, to use the lipara and soft applications of white
plaisters; and, to complete the cure, of ceruss one part, of ammoni-
acum half a part, of myrtle-berries a sufficient quantity; then tri-
turating the ammoniacum, mixed with the ceruss, pour upon them,
the myrtle, and use it."
Apsyrtus Us qui compedibus aid vinculis collisi vitiantur. Cap ciii.

" Usuvenit ut suffragines, quas mesocynia vocant, tricis, pedicis,
vinculisque quibusdam loro vel fune district is plerunque lacessantur,
quibus corium procidit, sic ut nervuli hujusce partis aperiantur, ac
nudi pateant: id quod vitae discrimen adfert, praesertim si in utroque

flexu articulorum evenerit. In primis igitur opus est vino vel aceto
aut muria substringere, dein lipara et alborum emplastrorum tripheris
vitiatam partem alere. Caeterum cerusae pars una, ammoniaci dimidia
portio, myrti quod esse satis vedebitur, praesenti sunt auxilio: ammo-
niacum itaque teritur in aqua, et cerusae permiscetur, et baccae
myrti profunduntur."*�Ruellii Hippiatr. Lib. 2, p. 100.

Apsyrtus lived in the time of Constantine, as we learn from Suidas,
and also by his own confession in the preface to his work, having
been employed with the army of this prince stationed on the Danube.
The inconveniences he mentions as attending these defences were
probably the true reason we hear so little of them, for they appear
chiefly to have had recourse to them in case of necessity only, from
abrasion of the roads, and great tenderness, and they afford sufficient
proof that they knew not the use of nails as in this day: and hence,
for long journeys, mules and asses were so much more employed,
whose tough hoofs and less sensible feet could better endure the
roads ; though it is likely their paved causeways were highly
favourable to their horses, &c. going without shoes, being in effect,
and also in appearance, except that the stones were thicker and not
so large, like the flag-stone pavements of the present day; the naked
hoofs upon such a surface, if kept clean, would not be much torn or
rubbed, or nearly so much as on a road made of loose gravel.

That the ancients defended their horses feet in this simple manner
there can be little doubt; and as a sort of collateral confirmation,
there is to be seen in the collection of pastes or impressions from

* A^PYPTOY TTEpi TWV UTTO TTtbriQ 7} C�<XjUOU T1V0� T�XaGfAEVtOV----Kf^ClA. pC,.

2v/x/3aiv�i aSiKT]6rivai ra fitcrOKvvia ek rrjg iTTTrowiSrjg, ri Stcryuou Tivbg cLtto IfiavTOg, rj
aXOiviov, teal ri fivpcra awoTv'nrrei, ka\ ipika yivtrai ra tov kvvottXov vsvpta. kivCvvov ovv t^u
ouuJHovrjaai H Iv afKporipotg tovto yiyovtv, Su ovv npCoTOv virocTTixpEiv otvij), rj bt,u, ?? 6t,a\fii).
iirtLTa. tcuq Xiirapatg, kcutuv Xsvkwv IfiirXaaTowv rati; TpvQepciig xpijcrfpai. aicpwg Sittoiu to
rov ^u/xvSiou fiipoQ ev, ajifiioviaKOii to rjjU«m, uvpcrivrtg to apKOvv. Xeqvag ovv tv vdart to
a/xfjiuviaKov fii^ov ra ip^lf^ll^xv^'¹'^ irapax&wv to fivpniov, kcu \pw.�Scrip. Groec. Veterin,
p. 256. Ed. Basil. 1537.

engraved stones of the ancients, now preserved in the British
Museum, and formerly belonging to Baron Stosch, the representation
of a soldier in the act of applying a defence of this description to the
horses legs, at least the attitude he is in, makes it probable that such
is his object: he appears kneeling down in front of the horse, with
his right hand grasping the off-leg, while another soldier standing by
is holding up the other bent backwards to the elbow assisting him.
Beringer imagines this soldier is applying the shoe of broom about
the shanks, which we should be led rather to doubt and to conjecture
that it is with more probability these same Hippopodes, as the broom
not being used on the road, hardly need to have been carried so high
up the legs to be fastened on sufficiently.

The decline of the Roman Empire soon after this period, and the
obscurity which followed, occasioned the Veterinary art, as an
exclusive profession, to be lost again, and on iron nailed shoes being-
brought into use a few centuries afterwards, the smiths occupied
with this practice became the only doctors of the horse, under the
title of Ferrers, afterwards made Ferriers, which at length was
corrupted into Farriers, having its origin in the Latin, Ferrum,
Iron.

On the origin of modern Shoeing�From what has been exhibited
of the ancients not having been acquainted with our mode of shoeing,
the reader may have some desire of being informed of what has been
hitherto discovered respecting the commencement of this art, and of
its inventor. Of these particulars but little is at present known : nor
will it probably ever be otherwise, as this mode of shoeing took place
in the obscure periods of the decline of the Roman power. It was
perhaps first brought into use by some of the barbarous nations which
overran that empire. The Goths were a nation more especially likely
to introduce such an art, because, like the rest of the northern nations,
they excelled in working iron. At its commencement, it was probably
merely a temporary resource in a case of great necessity and distress ;
a breach, for example, made in the hoof was covered by an expert

workman nailing a piece of iron over it: this succeeding in remedying
the defect would induce the repetition of it in other cases; and
growing more expert and bold by use, the artificer afterwards might
extend his iron to the whole foot, and at length even apply it where
no evil existed without a guess or thought of the consequences, as
they would not immediately appear. He who first began the practice,
whoever he may have been, little suspected he was laying the
foundation of more animal suffering than ever it fell to the lot of one
man to originate; for not only have countless myriads of feet, during
the twelve or thirteen centuries or more that this practice has been in
use, been injured with the suffering, which in a greater or less degree
must necessarily attend it from the changes and reduction of the
feet that we have pointed out, but chastisements also for offences in
going, still more hard to endure, it not being their fault, are to be
added to it along with the cruelly severe bittings, or gaggings rather,
and unmerciful usings up attended with scourgings and cruelty, of a
description almost too atrocious and cruel for any pen to describe.

In the early period of the world which we have been considering
in the first part of this essay, it was most fortunate perhaps, for the
animal that they could not find out any stronger defence for his feet,
since it prescribed bounds and much limited the harsh usage of him
by severe and overcharged labour; yet at times he might suffer with
them also from the abrasion of his hoofs, but this was as nothing
compared with the torments of the shoe and the inordinate labour it
permitted them to exact.

These ancient nations, though often cruel one to another, in respect
to their animals, exhibited traits of more lenity and kindness than the
moderns ; at the finishing of the Hecatompedon the horses employed
in this building we are informed were set at liberty for the rest of
their lives. The graves of Simon's Mares, with which he thrice
conquered at the Olympic games, are still to be seen near his own
tomb, and which it is probable were suffered to die a natural death:
where in modern times do we see so merciful a consideration!

This unreasonable severity is in great part to be accounted for

from the unnatural and miserable state into which the horse is
brought by the effects of this shoeing art, which requires violence
and cruelty to keep pace with it and overcome its effects, and the
causes of which not being at once discernable, led to notions of
difficulty and mystery which was strengthened by a sort of supposed
connexion with an imaginary deep knowledge and supposed secret
practices of the turf, notions, which though groundless, strongly
fortified the vulgar opinion and errors in this affair, greatly to the
disadvantage of the public and the suffering animals. And these
mysterious feelings we have seen were not without foundation, for
it was no easy matter to extricate the truth and show the sources of
the mischief. And the lower order of stable servants on whom the
care of our horses must necessarily devolve, took advantage of this
state of things, and artfully kept up the apprehension of mystery
and difficulty, and if on any occasion the reasonable or the humane
man dared to interfere on seeing any brutality exercised, he was
immediately driven off from the mystic ground with the barren
phrase ever ready, of " what do you know about horses ?" though
perhaps himself but young and a perfect novice in the art he was
pretending to, yet thus early had he learned his lesson to protect
himself by such a worthless phrase from being scrutinized, though
betraying the grossest ignorance or cruelty by the very act he was
committing: but to return to our shoe.

The earliest nailed shoe of which there is any certain record, was
found at Tournay, in Flanders, buried along with him in the coffin of
Childeric, King of France, who died in the year 481, a particular
account of the opening of this tomb is given by Chifletius ;* and
Montfaucon, in his antiquities, states, that this shoe was with nail
holes in it, and that it fell to peices on being handled; he has
figured it,f and from its size, one might readily suppose that it

* Anastasis Childerici, Francorum Regis, sive Thesaurus sepulchralis Tornaci Ner-
viorum effossus. Auct. J. J. Chifletius. Antwerpiae 1655, p. 224.

f Monumens de la Monarchic Francoise, Paris 1729. Tom. 1. p. 16. t. 6,

belonged to some favourite mule. So small a piece remained
however of this shoe that the greatest part of the figure is supplied
by the draftsman, and the holes are by no means decisive of its being
a shoe of the nailed kind; for we may remark that the iron applied
for the preservation of their socks or Hippopodes, must have been
also perforated in order to fix them on to the leather soles, so that
considerable uncertainty remains respecting this point ; and the
period also is only a century later than Vegetius.

The first clear and positive intimation of the modern shoe, at
present known, is in the ninth century, in the reign of the Emperor
Leo, of Constantinople, (perhaps Leo the sixth, who died A.D.
911) described in the Tactica, or inventory of horse furniture of
this potentate, as stated by Beckman; (Leonis Tactica, vol. 4, cap. 6,

p. 51;) the Words are TreSUXa, azkrivaia oySrjpa fiera Kap0«Ji> avrcov: that is

" capistra, ferra lunatica cum clavis eorum ;" " halters for fastening
horses, with crescent figured irons and their nails." That this
expression really relates to the modern shoe there can be no doubt,
and the same words occur again on a similar occasion in the tenth
century, in the reign of one of the Constantines; and in the twelfth
century it is distinctly spoken of or alluded to by Eustathius, in his
commentaries on Homer, who was led to apprehend in those passages
which we have before treated of, that Homer had in view these
modern shoes : his remarks are found at the 150th line of the
eleventh book. It was indeed one of the errors of the revivers of
ancient literature to endeavour to show on all occasions that they
equalled or surpassed the moderns in knowledge.

Pere Daniel, in his History of France, gives us to understand that
in the ninth century horses were not always shod, but only in time
of frost, and on particular occasions.

With William the conqueror the art of shoeing appears to have
come into England : he gave to Simon St. Liz, a Norman, the town
of Northampton, and the hundred of Falkley, then valued at forty

pounds per annum, to provide shoes for his horses ;* and Henry
de Ferrers, who also came over with him, he appointed super-
intendent of the Shoers, whose descendants, the Earls of Ferrers,
had six horse shoes in the quartering of their arms.f At Oakham
in Rutlandshire, the seat of this family, a singular and rather
tyrannical custom long prevailed,�if any baron of the realm passed
through the place, for him to forfeit one of his horse shoes, unless he
chose to redeem it by a fine; and the forfeited shoe, or the one made
in its place, was fixed upon the castle gates inscribed with his name :
in consequence of this custom the castle gates became in time
covered with numerous shoes,' some of them of an unusual size, and
others gilt, &c. And certainly the practice of this art in these early
times was attended with strong notions of mystery and cunning, and
the miseries of the animal were constantly supposed to proceed from
want of knowing the true trick which every one was apt to allow
himself only to be in the possession of, and this subdued into fear
those who rode, and was accompanied with a real awe of these
characters.

A singular collection of old horse shoes existed in the Leverian
Museum, which I examined before the sale and dispersion of that
collection, but should apprehend the oldest of these could not have
been more than 300 years; the absurd forms and unwieldy bulk
of some of them served only to exhibit what wild conceits men may
fall into, who know not the laws, or understand the proper limits, of
their own art.

We conclude for the present our remarks on the art of shoeing,
hitherto the most obscure and difficult branch of the veterinary
profession, as will be readily admitted by those who have heretofore

* Dr. Pegge, in the Archaeologia 1775, vol. iii. p. 39, who refers to Dugdale and
Blount.

�j- Brook's Catalogue of Errors, p. 65.

much investigated it, and that which was obscure and difficult to be
comprehended it is hoped will now be seen distinctly, and be easily
understood, and the studious veterinarian will now obtain an insight
into the nature of those cases which are continually presented to him,
though deriving but little advantage from his exertions : and whether
any means may hereafter be devised for removing these evils or not,
to have arrived at a knowledge of the consequences and effects of
the present system of managing the feet of horses is, it must be
admitted, to have made no inconsiderable advancement in the science.
But we have now a well founded hope that certain relief is attainable
from these evils.

If the language of this treatise should have appeared different
from that which has been usually employed on these subjects, this
difference we may observe has been occasioned not less from
necessity than choice, for the language formerly used was too often
inexpressive and obscure, or what was worse, delusive; an alteration
therefore became indispensible. Some things quite unobserved
and unnamed have been described and brought into a conspicuous
point of view, whilst other points and considerations heretofore
placed too high in the estimatiom of their importance, have been
brought lower, and testimonies ample have been added of the
advantages of the new mode of viewing and conducting these things,
and which together form a new basis for the art founded on natural
laws which can never be subverted : and may we not hope as the real
knowledge of the animal and of the art advances, more just, humane,
and generous measures will be pursued in his treatment, and violence,
cruelty, and ignorant conceits, will be at last entirely done away.
For in the present system after a horse has ten times earned his life
and cost by his labours, is he exposed to shameful ill-treatment and
with increasing rigour as his powers decline and his strength
diminishes.

Dumb, and without an advocate, arrangements are made in which
though he is expected to be the chief performer he has no voice,

and cheap labour and cheap conveyance is but too often obtained
at the sole expense of his unnatural sufferings, although under-
standing and in every respect as sensible of the difference between
good and bad treatment as are those themselves who inflict it.

Also of late in a more especial manner, under the name of bits,
are introduced machinery into the horse's mouth, that are in reality
mechanical levers and powers, suited only for inanimate matter,
which can not only deaden, lacerate, and pinch the tender membranes
of the mouth, but can crush with ease the very bones themselves,
in this way adding terror to the affright of the animal and so
exacting from him the last sad efforts of unnatural service and
labour : these can be used unseen when the whip would excite
attention and perhaps reprehension, and are every thing but what
they pretend to be,�proper instruments for his guidance and
restraint, and of which we propose shortly to give a more detailed
account in an express essay. Nothing has been done by this horrid
invention that was not previously as well or better done without it.

I know those who refuse to go into coaches where such violence is
in use, and in choosing a hackney coach I have been often led to
make choice where the bearing rein is not strained, and where the
bits are to the mouth piece instead of these long leavers. The
bearing rein indeed has become an intolerable nuisance and almost
continually abused, it ought never to be used but during actual
service and then giving room for the horse to have the use of his
neck and head which can much assist in his labour.

FINIS.



	*${& ate. $'*

	AN ESSAY On the Knowledge of the Ancients respecting the Art of Shoeing the Horse, and of the probable period of the Commencement of this Art.

	BY BRACY CLARK, F. L. S. MEMBER OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, &C.

	2nd EDITION.�LONDON, 1831. The necessity which there appears for protection to the feet of horses used much on the road, would naturally lead to a belief that this art had been practised from very early times, and nearly, or quite coeval with their first subjugation to the use of mankind, and in proof of which many passages have been adduced from the writings of the ancients which were thought to favour such an opinion. It does not however appear that these passages, when properly ex- amined, do at all confirm such an apprehension; and we shall now proceed to the consideration of some of the most interesting and re- markable of them. As being one of the most ancient, and frequently brought forward on these occasions, we shall first advert to the expression of Homer, who, in describing the car of Neptune, uses the epithet " brazen- footed" to the horses attached to this car, which has led several of the learned into the belief that these ancients were not unacquainted with modern shoeing, and that these horses were actually shod with A



	s Another, and a stronger passage, as it is supposed, than the above, in favour of this belief in their knowledge of the art of shoeing, occurs in the eleventh book of the Iliad, 1. 152, and which led the learned Didymus and Eustathius fully to embrace the opinion that they used shoes. YiiZoi fxiv 7te�ovc oXskov (pevyovrac; avayKj], Ittttuq S't7T7rr)ac, (virb Si atpiatv S>pro kovIti 'Ek 77-eSis, ti)v S)Qaav ipiySsTTOi ttoSeq i7T7ra>v) XaXicty Sr}'i6h)vr�g' arap ^pdwv ' Ayafiifivw Allv airoKrdvwv tireS, 'Epyetotcrt keXevwv. ]. 150. " Pedites quidem pedites interficiebant, fugientes necessitate, Equites vero equites, (ab ipsis autem excitatus est pulvis E campo, quem excitabant grave strepentes pedes equorum) iEre csedentes. At rex Agamemnon Semper interficiens insequebatur Argivos adhortans." 1. 150. Dr. Samuel Clarke, not quite embracing this opinion of shoes, was led to suppose that a whole line was somehow omitted, and that the expression x^a^^KW S^owvi-sc did not allude to the feet of the horses, but to the weapons or arms of the men who laid waste the flying enemy; and which interpretation is generally adopted: and to establish this view of the matter, he formed into a large parenthesis the preceding line, and punctuated the passage as seen above, giving a Latin trans- lation of course, in conformity with this view of the subject, which we have also subjoined. Now if it were true, and admitted for a moment, that the ancients did not understand shoeing, of which demonstrative evidence will appear hereafter, then nothing could have been more natural to a people so circumstanced, and whose whole dependance was placed in the powers and strength of the natural hoof to endure labour, to extol, and hold in the highest estimation, this very necessary pro- perty, and to give it preference and higher value than any other, as without it the horse was to them nearly useless; and it would assu- redly be the first part to fail them if not so endowed: hence, we believe, will be seen the true intentions of the writer. In the Latin a2



	20

	OF THE SPARTEUM OPUS OR BROOM PL ATT. This defence, or enclosure rather, for the foot, was formed of the slender twigs of the broom, called anaprov and airapriov by the Greeks, and spartea, sparcea, and sparteum opus by the Romans : there is much reason to doubt however if it was employed for protecting the foot upon the roads in the way of a shoe. By selecting a few of the original passages wherein they direct its use, we shall be led to form more just conclusions of the real intention of it. Columella, one of the earliest of the rustic writers, living in or near the age of Augustus, prescribes for oxen that become lame or tender, " if it be downwards, or in the hoofs, that you should make a slight opening between the claws with a knife, and afterwards apply soft rags or cloth soaked in salt and vinegar; then let the part be covered with the spartean shoe, {solea spartea) and let there be great caution that no wet come near it, and that the stable be kept very dry."* Theomnestus, one of the Byzantine veterinarians before spoken of, recommends its use in the following way, in a case of excessive abra- sion of the hoofs, which also adds another proof to their not using shoes. He says, " if a horse is much torn in the hoofs by travelling, and then is neglected, he becomes feverish, and is soon destroyed by the fever if not timely prevented by help. You must therefore use warm water, in which the root of the althaea, or wild mallows has been boiled, and to foment the foot with it till it becomes cleaned and softened; you must then file off the ailing parts or fragments, and lay bare all bruises in the water; and then you are to have im- mediately in readiness slender twigs of broom, or twine cords, and

	* At si jam in ungulis est, inter duos ungues cultello leviter aperies, postea linamenta sale atque aceto imbuta applicantur, ac solea Spartea pes induitur, maximeque datur opera ne in aquam pedem mittat et sicce stabuletur.�Columella, Ed. Manh. 2, p. 27.