chevaux dans Appian, est un sentiment qu'on leur lioit les fers.’[1]
But even these defences must have been rarely resorted to, as the above are the only two instances in which there is any attempt to represent them. It may also be observed, that in the Greek or Latin languages there are no words corresponding to those we employ to designate a horse-shoe, or the artisan who applies it, and there is nothing to prove in a logical manner, in ancient history or the writings of veterinarians, that hoofs were furnished, as now-a-days, with a defence attached by nails.
As before observed, this subject has given rise to much dispute and research for very many years. Montfauçon[2] asserts: ‘The custom of shoeing horses is very ancient, although there are certain proofs that it was not general among the Romans. Fabretti says, that among the great number of horses which occur in ancient monuments, he never saw more than one which was shod, though he made it his business to examine them all, both upon columns and other marbles. As to the mules, both male and female, they are often said by writers to have been shod. There are, nevertheless, certain and undoubted proofs that the ancients shod their horses; thus much Homer and Appian say (?); though it does not appear, indeed, that the custom was general.’ In another place, he writes: ‘The horses' feet (on an Etruscan tomb) have iron shoes, a particular rarely seen on ancient monuments. Fabretti says, that of all the horses he saw
