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Notes on Some Points in Xenophon's ΠΕΡΙ ΙΠΠΙΚΗΣ

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

J. K. Anderson
J. K. Anderson
Affiliation:
University of Otago
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Extract

The following observations were made during a general study of Greek horsemanship, but, being somewhat controversial and turning upon points of textual criticism and the interpretation of technical terms, they may perhaps be of interest to scholars rather than to the public.

(1) iv 2.

‘It is not only to save the corn from being stolen that a safe stall is good, but because it becomes obvious whenever the horse is [not] carrying out his corn.’

This sentence evidently describes some clear symptom of disease, for Xenophon continues: ‘Should you observe this happening, you may know that the body, being overcharged with blood, requires attention, or is overtired and needs rest, or that barley-sickness (κριθίασις) or some other sickness is making its onset. Just as with men, so with horses, all diseases are easier to cure at the onset than when they have established themselves and been treated mistakenly.’

The nature of ‘barley-sickness’ (colic) is excellently explained in Delebecque's commentary, but that of the warning symptom is doubtful, and depends on the precise meaning to be given to ἐκκομίζῃ. The manuscripts insert a negative particle before it; this is deleted by modern editors on the evidence of Pollux i 209:

‘There is a disease of horses, barley-sickness and congestion of the blood through surfeit. And when they “carry out” their corn, then one must remove it and feed grass only, or some other light diet.’

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 80 , November 1960, pp. 1 - 9
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1960

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References

1 I am indebted to the Council of the University of Otago for allowing me the leisure in which to proceed with this work, and to Professor G. R. Manton for his advice and help. Miss D. H. F. Gray, Miss Sylvia Benton and Mr D. L. Haynes have discussed various points with me, and Dr Marian Stewart and Mr Henry Wynmalen have advisedme on technical matters. But the responsibility for the views here advanced is my own.

The text used is the Oxford text of E. C. Marchant, but. I have compared it continually with those of other editors, especially Delebecque, E. (Xenophon: De l'Art Equestre (Paris 1950).Google Scholar

2 Cf. Jope, E. M. in A History of Technology (Ed. Singer, , Holmyard, , Hall, and Williams, ) ii 558Google Scholar, where, however, the curb is wrongly said to force the horse's head upwards. Besides the examples from Canosa (for which see Jacobsthal, , Early Celtic Art i, pl. 258d and pp. 150 ff.Google Scholar); cf. CAH Vol. of Plates iii 73c; and later, simpler examples from Alesia, Pompeii, and Newstead. (Zschille, and Forrer, , Die Pferdetrense in ihrer Formen-Entwicklung, Pl. vii 19Google Scholar: Curle, , A Roman Frontier-Post and its People; the Fort of Newstead, Pl. 71, 1–2Google Scholar; Gozzadini, , Mors de Cheval italiques pl. 3, 2 and p. 24.Google Scholar)

3 C. R. St Petersburg 1865, 186 ff.; with some reservations in C. R. St Petersburg 1875, 123. He has been followed by E. H. Minns and, I believe, most English writers on South Russian antiquities.

4 Euripides, , H.F. 380Google Scholar, Rhesos 27, Phoinissai 792 (with scholion).

5 C. R. St Petersburg 1865, 188.

6 See Yalouris, N. ‘Athena als Herrin der Pferde’ in Museum Helveticum viiGoogle Scholar; and Blinkenberg, , Fouilles de Lindos i 199Google Scholar, and pl. 24, 613.

7 Op. cit., pp. 131, 175, and fig. 5.

8 E.g. those classified by Yalouris (pp. 33–4 as ‘Type B’); add British Museum, Guide to Exhibition Illustrating Greek and Roman Life, fig. 206 (no. 508); Flinders-Petrie, , Tools and Weapons pl. 71, 41.Google Scholar

9 Cf. Lafaye, in Daremberg-Saglio, s.v. ‘Frenum’ 1336 n. 6. I have not seen Courier's work.

10 Anatolian Studies iv, pl. 8, fig. 4 (wrongly described as a snaffle bit).

11 Lafaye, loc. cit.; add Curle, pl. 71, 4, with further references on p. 297 (‘Headstalls’).

12 Cf. Yalouris, op. cit.

13 I note the following clear examples (besides some doubtful ones), dating from the sixth to the fourth centuries B.C.: Pfuhl, MuZ iii, fig. 140; CVA Great Britain iv, pl. 167; CVA Great Britain ii pl. 89; Trendall, , Paestan Pottery pl. 31aGoogle Scholar (no. 253; no. 344 in Revision and Supplement); pl. 31b (no. 264; no. 356 in Revision and Supplement).

14 Cf. Lafaye, in Daremberg-Saglio s.v. ‘Equitatio’ 749.

15 E.g. those classified by Yalouris as Types A and B.

16 Including the earliest surviving Greek bit (Reichel, Homerische Waffen 2142Google Scholar, fig. 90. A later, more elaborate type has the spikes fitted, not to the cheekpieces themselves, but to small bronze plates just inside them. The only actual examples known to me are from Skythia (Stephani, C.R. St Petersburg, 1876, 132–3 nos. 32, 33, 36Google Scholar; cf. Minns, , Scythians and Greeks 214 fig. 115 top leftGoogle Scholar). But the spiked side-plates often appear in Greek vase painting from the time of Exekias onwards (examples from Pfuhl, , MuZ iiiGoogle Scholar figs. 228, 230, 505–7. 583. 627).

17 Smith, , British Museum Catalogue of Sculpture (The Nertid Monument and Later Lycian Sculpture) 49Google Scholar (950 no. 5) and pl. 9.

18 Lefebvre des Noettes, L'Attelage: le Cheval de Selle à travers les Ages, fig. 241. For the helmet, cf. Fraser, P. M. and Rönne, T., Boeotian and West Greek Tombstones 66–8.Google Scholar

19 Lorimer, H. L., BSA xlii 88–9, 133, 135.Google Scholar

20 Pace Helbig, , Les Ἱππεῑς Athéniens 35 ff.Google Scholar