THE HISTORY OF THE TURF, ITS ORIGIN, PROGRESS, AND PRESENT CONDITION: WITH NOTICES OF THE LEADING CHARACTERS CONNECTED WITH IT FROM THE EARLIEST PERIODS: PORTRAITS OF CELEBRATED HORSES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN DAYS; AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE MOST INTERESTING EVENTS IN THE ANNALS OF RACING. BY "CRAVEN." CHAPTER THE FOURTH THE HORSEMANSHIP OF THE ROMANS. In the history of Grecian equestrianism, I have anticipated much matter which equally belongs to the present chapter. When the polished nations of Greece yielded to the rude but hardy warriors of Rome, they yet retained a portion of their superiority over their conquerors, whom they still continued to despise. Græcia capta ferum victorem cepit, et artes The Romans did not disdain to borrow all that was valuable in their civil institutions; and, in the usages of social life, the regulation of taste, and the cultivation of the useful and ornamental arts, the polished strangers gave laws with authority as unquestioned as in the palmiest days of their independence and sovereignty. Towards the close of the Republic, and still more under the Empire, the affectation of Grecian usages became universal; and the Roman equestrians adopted all the equipments of the Greeks, which, in elegance and luxuriousness, surpassed those of every other nation. But, long before the subjugation of the Greek provinces, horsemanship was held in high repute at Rome. It was considered one of the most important branches in the physical education of youth; and, although the main strength of the army, at all times, lay in the heavyarmed infantry, yet there are few of its early victories in which the small, but select, body of cavalry does not hold a distinguished place. This early introduction of horses at Rome, and the importance which, in the very infancy of the state, the Romans attached to the training of their cavalry, may be traced to the lessons of traditionary wisdom which they drew from Etruria-the Egypt of the western continent, and, like its mysterious prototype, the cradle in which were nurtured the arts, as well as the science and religion, of the surrounding nations. The body of horse, 300 in number, established by Romulus, was, like the people, divided into three tribes, the names of which, according to Varro, are Etrurian; and that the Etrurians themselves were early initiated in the mysteries of equestrianism we have abundant evidence. Most of the institutions of the equestrian order at Rome are known to have had their origin in Etruria. In common with all the other arts, that of horsemanship had there reached, at a comparatively early period, a degree of refined and luxurious elegance which the Romans, with all their advantages, were long before they equalled. Thus in Tarquin the Elder's journey to Rome, we find him and his wife, Tanaquil, travelling in a carpentum-a convenient, and not incle |