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IX. On the Antiquity of Horse Shoes. A Letter to the Rev. Jeremiah Milles, D. D. Dean of Exeter, and President of the Society of Antiquaries of London

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

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Extract

Joachim Camerarius, in his Treatise “De curandis equis, which he published in 1556, boldly asserts, that “the ancients “were not accustomed to shoe their horses.” And Guido Pancirolus, in his “Nova reperta,” observes, that “some are of “this opinion, because such shoes are not seen in their equestrian “statues; the reason of which was not known to him.”

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1775

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References

page 35 note [a] Prisci soleas ungulis affigere non consuevere.—Apud Thesaur. Graec. Antiq. Vol. XI. p. 822.

page 35 note [b] Sunt etiam qui velint ne calceatos quidem olim fuisse equos: eo quod in equestribus statuis ferrea ista calceamenta non conspiciantur; cujus rei causam sanè haud scio. Nova Reperta, Tit. 16.

page 36 note [c] Hos quoque (Peletronios, qui Thessaliae populi sunt) primos equorum ungulas munire ferreis foleis caepisse ferunt. Lib. II. cap. 12.

page 37 note [d] Nunquam carrucis minus mille fecisse iter traditur, soleis mularum argenteis. Nero, cap. 30.

page 37 note [e] “Nostraque aetate Poppaea conjux Neronis principis delicatioribus jumentis “suis soleas ex auro quoqe induere.” Plin. Nat. Hist. Lib. XXXIII. § 49.

page 37 note [f] So Aristotle says of Camels, that for military expeditions they fastened to their feet shoes made of ropes or hemp . These seem to be the Spartea calceata of oxen in Columella de Re Ruft. vi. 14. And Galen, de alim. fac. Lib. I. c. 9. says, . Accordingly Fabretti on Trajan's Pillar, (Col. Traj. p. 224) observes the war horses of the Romans have no shoes, only the beasts of burden. It is probable, horses wore no other shoes; since Xiphiline, speaking of Poppaea's mules, calls their golden shoes . Dio. LXII. p. 714.