FOOTNOTES
[1376] The principal works with which I am acquainted that contain information respecting the antiquity of horse-shoes, are the following: Pancirollus De Rebus Deperditis, ii. tit. 16, p. 274.—J. Vossius in Catulli Opera. Ultrajecti, 1691, 4to, p. 48.—Lexicon Militare, auctore Carolo de Aquino. Romæ, 1724, fol. ii. p. 307.—Gesner in his Index to Auctores Rei Rusticæ, art. Soleæ ferreæ.—Montfaucon, Antiquité Expliquée, iv. liv. 3. p. 79.—Le Beau, in Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions. vol. xxxix. p. 538.—Archæologia, London, 1775, 4to, iii. p. 35 and 39.
[1377] Histor. Anim. ii. 6, p. 165, edit. Scaligeri. They appear not to have been used at all times, but only when the hoofs began to be injured.
[1378] Hist. Nat. lib. xi. cap. 43.
[1379] A few observations respecting spartum maybe of service to those who wish to carry their researches further. The ancients, and particularly the Greeks, understood by that appellation several species of plants which could be used and manufactured like flax or hemp, and which appear to have been often mentioned under that general name. The Greeks however understood commonly by spartum a shrub, the slender branches of which were woven into baskets of various kinds, and which produced young shoots that could be prepared and manufactured in the same manner as hemp; and this plant, as has already been remarked by the old botanists, is the Spartium junceum, or Spanish broom, which grows wild on dry land, that produces nothing else, in the Levant and in the southern parts of Europe. This broom is that described and recommended in Comment. Instituti Bonnoniensis, vi. p. 118, and vi. p. 349. The French translator of the papers here alluded to is much mistaken when he thinks, in Journal Economique, 1785, Novembre, that the author speaks of the common broom (Spartium scoparium) that grows on our heaths. M. Broussonet, in Mémoires d’Agriculture, par la Société de Paris, 1785, p. 127, has also recommended the cultivation of the Spart. junceum, under the name of genêt d’Espagne, and enumerated the many uses to which it may be applied. The people in Lower Languedoc, especially in the neighbourhood of Lodeve, make of it table-cloths, shirts and other articles of dress. The offal or rind serves as firing. This spartum of the Greeks, or Spartium junceum of the botanists, is the species called by Pliny, book xxxix. chap. 9, genista, and which he improperly considers as the Spanish and African spartum. The latter is certainly the Stipa (Macrochloa) tenacissima, which grows in Spain and Africa, called there at present sparto or esparto, and which is still prepared and employed as described by Pliny, b. xix. c. 2. Baskets, mattresses, ship-cables, and other strong ropes were made of it; and when this grass had been prepared like hemp, it was used for various fine works. Even at present the Spaniards make of it a kind of shoes called alpergates, with which they carry on a great trade to the Indies, where they are very useful on the hot, rocky and sandy soil. [Moritz Willkomm, in his Botanical Notices from Spain (Annals of Natural History for March 1845), notices among the most valuable vegetable productions of Spain, “the celebrated Esparto (Macrochloa tenacissima), which, growing on many of the hills situated near the sea, forms an important article of trade in South Spain, since this tough grass is used partly for the plaiting of coverings for rooms and balconies, and for making various sorts of baskets, especially panniers for mules, chairs, and the peculiar sandals which are worn all over the kingdom; and partly worked into ropes, which are in great request, and are manufactured in great quantity at Marseilles.”] Whether the ancients made shoes for their cattle of the Spartium junceum or the Stipa tenacissima, I will not venture to determine. It is probable that the former was used by the Greeks, and the latter by the Romans; and it is highly worthy of being here remarked, that in modern times a kind of socks for horses were made of a species of spartum, as we learn from J. Leonis Africæ Descriptio, lib. iii. p. 120. The same author however says expressly, p. 96, that common shoes of iron were also used.
[1380] Columella, vi. 12, 3: “Spartea munitur pes.” vi. 15, 1: “Spartea calceata ungula curatur.” Vegetius, i. 26, 3: “Spartea calceare curabis.” See also ii. 45, 3. Galen De Alim. Facult. i. 9: Σπαρτὸς ἐξ οὗ πλέκουσι ὑποδήματα ὑποζυγίοις. Is there not some reason therefore to conclude that this practice was followed not merely in regard to cattle only that were diseased?
[1381] Sueton. Vita Neronis, cap. 30.
[1382] Plin. lib. xxxiii. cap. 11.—Scheffer, De Re Vehiculari, proves that we are here to understand she-mules.
[1383] Dio Cassius, lxii. 28, and lxxiii. Commodus caused the hoofs of a horse to be gilt.
[1384] Commentar. in Epictetum, lib. iii.
[1385] Xenophon De Cyri Min. Expedit. p. 228.
[1386] B. F. Hermann, Beytrage zur Physik. Œkonomie der Russischen Länder. Berlin, 1786, 8vo, part i. p. 250. The same account respecting the dogs of Kamtschatka is given in Cook’s last Voyage.
[1387] Catullus, viii. 23. By which passage it appears that the shoe was of iron, iron wire, or plate-iron.
[1388] Sueton. Vita. Vespasian seems to have suspected that his driver had been bribed to stop by the way, and that he had done so on pretence of shoeing his horses. Had the mules been shod, and had the driver only had to rectify something that related to the shoe, as our coachmen have when a nail is lost, or any other little accident has happened, Suetonius would not have said mulas, but mulam. The driver therefore stopped for the first time on the journey to put on the shoes of his cattle, as has been remarked by Gesner.
[1389] Artemidori Oneirocritica. Lutetiæ, 1603, 4to, lib. iv. cap. 32.
[1390] Déscription des Pierres Gravées du Baron de Stosch, 1760, p. 169.
[1391] Appian. De Bello Mithridat. edit. Tollii, p. 371.
[1392] Diodor. Sicul. lib. xvii. 94, edit. Wesselingii, p. 233. Vegetius, i. 56, 28, mentions a salve, “quo ungulæ nutriantur, et medicaminis beneficio subcrescat quod itineris attriverat injuria.”
[1393] Joh. Cinnamus De Rebus Gestis Imperat. edit. Tollii, 1652, 4to, lib. iv. p. 194. Vegetius, ii. 58, recommends rest for horses after a long journey, on account of their hoofs.
[1394] No traces of them are to be found in the figures given by Chardin, and by Niebuhr in the second volume of his Travels. The latter mentions this circumstance in particular, and says, p. 157, “It appears that the ancient Persians had no stirrups and no proper saddle.”
[1395] De Columna Trajani, c. 7.
[1396] Pierres Gravées de Stosch, p. 169.
[1397] Navigium seu Vota. “Nunquam equum ullum ascendi ante hunc diem. Proinde metuo, tubicine classicum intonante, decidens ego in tumultu a tot ungulis conculcer, aut etiam equus ferocior existens, arrepto freno in medios hostes efferat me, aut denique oporteat me alligari ephippio, si manere super illud debeam, frenumque tenere.”—Had stirrups been then in use, he would have been exposed also to the danger of being dragged along by the heels. When I extracted the above passage, I had no edition of Lucian at hand, but that of Basle, 1563, 12mo. It may be found there, vol. ii. p. 840.
[1398] The prophet Isaiah, chap. v. ver. 28, to make the enemy appear more terrible, says, “The hoofs of their horses shall be counted like flint;” and Jeremiah, chap. xlvii. v. 3, speaks of the noise made by the horses stamping with their hoofs. See Bochart. Hierozoic. i. p. 160.
[1399] De Re Equestri, cap. iv. p. m. 599.
[1400] Lib. i. cap. 56, 28, 30; also lib. ii. cap. 57, 58.
[1401] J. Ludolphi Hist. Æthiop. i. cap. 10, and his Commentarium, p. 146.—Thevenot, vol. ii. p. 113.—Voyage de Le Blanc, part ii. p. 75, 81.—Lettres Edifiantes, vol. iv. p. 143.—Tavernier, vol. i. c. 5.—Hist. Gen. des Voyages, vol. iii. p. 182.—Kæmpfer, Histoire du Japan, Amst. 1732, 3 vols. 12mo, ii. p. 297. The passage of the last author, where he mentions the articles necessary for a journey in Japan, is worthy of notice: “Shoes for the servants and for the horses. Those of the latter are made of straw, and are fastened with ropes of the same to the feet of the horses, instead of iron shoes, such as ours in Europe, which are not used in this country. As the roads are slippery and full of stones, these shoes are soon worn out, so that it is often necessary to change them. For this purpose those who have the care of the horses always carry with them a sufficient quantity, which they affix to the portmanteaus. They may however be found in all the villages, and poor children who beg on the road even offer them for sale, so that it may be said there are more farriers in this country than in any other; though, to speak properly, there are none at all.”
Almost the same account is given by Dr. Thunberg, a later traveller in Japan. “Small shoes or socks of straw,” says he, “are used for horses instead of iron shoes. They are fastened round the ankle with straw ropes, hinder stones from injuring the feet, and prevent the animal from stumbling. These shoes are not strong; but they cost little, and can be found every where throughout the country.” Shoes of the same kind, the author informs us, are worn by the inhabitants.—Trans.
[1402] De Re Equestri, p. 599.
[1403] Hipparch, p. m. 611.
[1404] Virg. Æneid. lib. iv. 135. lib. xi. 600, 638.
[1405] Virg. Æneid. lib. vi. 803. Ovid. Heroid. ep. xii. 93, and Metamorph. lib. vii. 105. Apollonius, lib. iii. 228.
[1406] Iliad. lib. v. 785. Stentor is there called χαλκεόφωνος. Iliad. lib. xviii. 222, Achilles is said to have had a brazen voice. Virg. Georg. lib. ii. 44: ferrea vox.
[1407] Tryphiod. by Merrick, Ox. 1739, v. 86, p. 14.
[1408] The first figure may be found in Anastasis Childerici, Francorum regis, sive Thesaurus sepulchralis Tornaci Nerviorum effossus; auctore J. J. Chifletio. Antverpiæ, 1655, 4to, p. 224. Montfaucon, in Monarchie Françoise, i. p. 16, has given also an engraving of it. Childeric died in the year 481. In 1653 his grave was discovered at Tournay, and a gold ring with the royal image and name found in it afforded the strongest proof that it was really the burying-place of that monarch. In the year 1665, these antiquities were removed to the king’s library at Paris.
[1409] The whole account may be found at the end of the Annals, in the Paris edition by Fabrotti, 1647, fol. p. 414.
[1410] The words ὑποδήματα and soleæ.
[1411] Leonis Tactica, v. 4. p. 51.—In the passage where he names every thing belonging to the equipage of a horseman, he says, πέδικλα σελιναῖα σιδηρὰ μετὰ καρφίων αὐτῶν. I shall here first remark, that after πέδικλα there ought to be a comma, for by that word is meant the ropes with which saddled horses were fastened. Du Cange says πεδικλοῦν signifies to bind. See likewise Scheffer’s Annotations on Mauricii Ars Militaris, p. 395. The translator also has improperly said, “Pedicla, id est calceos lunatos ferreos cum ipsis carphiis.” Κάρφια means nails, as Du Cange has proved by several instances, and here horse-shoe nails. The word may be found for the second time in the tenth century, in the Tactica of the Emperor Constantine, where the whole passage, however, is taken from Leo without the least variation; so that we may suppose Constantine understood it in the same sense as Leo. It is used, for the third time, by the same emperor, twice in his book on the Ceremonial of his own court. In p. 265, where he speaks of the horses (τὰ ἱππάρια) which were to be procured for the imperial stable; these, he says, were to be provided with every thing necessary, and to have also σελιναῖα. In page 267 it is said further, that a certain number of pounds of iron should be given out from the imperial stores to make σελιναῖα, and other horse-furniture. The same word is used a fourth time by Eustathius, who wrote in the twelfth century, in his commentary on Homer, Χαλκὸν δὲ νῦν λέγει τὰ σελιναῖα ὑπὸ τοῖς ποσὶ τῶν ἵππων, οἷς διακόπτονται εἰς πλέον τὰ πατούμενα. See Iliad. lib. xi. 152. Though I do not believe that Homer had the least idea of horse-shoes, I am fully convinced that Eustathius alludes to them by that word. This commentator has explained very properly various passages of the like kind in Homer; but he seems here, as was the case sometimes with his poet himself, to have been asleep or slumbering.
When one considers that the σελιναῖα, or σεληναῖα, belonged to horse-furniture; that they were made of iron; that, as Eustathius says, they were placed under the hoofs of the horses; that the word seems to show its derivation from the moon-like form of shoes, such as those used at present; and lastly, that nails were necessary to these σελιναῖα; I think we may venture to conclude, without any fear of erring, that this word was employed to signify horse-shoes of the same kind as ours, and that they were known, if not earlier, at least in the ninth century.
[1412] This life of Matilda may be found in Leibnitii Scriptores Brunsvicenses, vol. i. p. 629; but the fullest and most correct edition is in Muratori Rerum Italicarum Scriptores. Mediolani 1724, fol. vol. v. p. 353.
[1413] Histoire de France, vol. i. p. 566. The author here speaks of the cavalry of Louis le Débonnaire.
[1414] Dugd. Bar. i. 58. ex Chron. Bromtoni, p. 974, 975, Blount’s Tenures, p. 50.
[1415] Brook’s Discovery of Errors in the Catalogue of the Nobility, p. 198.
[1416] Beckmann in Beschreibung der Mark Brandenburg, Berlin, 1751, 2 vols. fol. i. p. 401, mentions an old shoe found in a grave, the holdfasts of which did not project downwards but upwards. Arnkul in his Heidnischen Alterthümern speaks also of a horse-shoe found near Kiel.