shoeing was practised in the ninth century. From the ancient terms being much less frequently met with, it was surmised that the old-fashioned solea had gone out of use, and that the new armature, if it was adopted, must have a particular designation of another kind to distinguish it. In the ‘Tactica’ of the Eastern Emperor Leo VI, surnamed the Philosopher (A.D. 886—911), there is a list of everything necessary for the equipment of a cavalry soldier, and amongst other articles are included ‘lunar or crescent-shaped iron shoes and their nails.’[1]
In the ‘Tactica’ of the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, son of the former, the same passage also occurs,[2] and in a book by this monarch on court ceremonies,[3] iron horse-shoes are mentioned on two occasions: first, when in speaking of the horses to be provided for the imperial stables, he directs that they are to be furnished with everything requisite, and to have σελεηναῖα—selenaia; and, secondly, where it is ordered that a certain weight of iron is to be issued from the imperial magazines for the purpose of making these iron shoes, and other articles of horse necessaries.
These are, so far as is known, the first instances that occur in history of horse-shoes, with their nails; and it is somewhat remarkable, that about this period they are also noticed in the writings of Italian, French, English, and
- ↑ Tactica Imperatoris Leonis, vol. v. cap. 4, p. 51. Leyden, 1612. ‘πέδικλα σεηναῖα σιδηρά κασφίων —Ferra lunatico cum clavis eorum.’
- ↑ ‘Calceos lunatos ferreos cum ipsis corphiis, id est, clavis.’ Maffei, who translated an edition of this work, attributed it to Constantine, son of the Emperor Romanus Lecapenus.
- ↑ De Ceremoniis Aulæ Byzantinæ. Leipzig, 1754.
