The horses of Trèves and the country of the Soutiates (Bigorre) were the most renowned in the time of Cæsar, and those also of Franche-Comté bore a high reputation. 'Under the Romans,' says Clerc,[1] 'Sequani, the most fertile part of Gaul, according to Cæsar, had large fine towns noted for their commerce and wealth. In the country, although covered in great part by forests, there were, chiefly along the rivers' banks and public roads, villages, hamlets, and cottages, the robust and industrious inhabitants of which grew barley, reared flocks of sheep and droves of pigs, and especially fine horses, the best in Gaul . . . . . In the midst of the Roman customs and institutions, I do not know if, in Sequani, anything more national predominated than the ever-ruling passion of the people for horses, which figure on all their medals, and their horsemanship, from which the town of Mandeure (now a little village on the Doubs near Besançon; it was destroyed in the tenth century by the Hungarians) took its name, "Epomanduodurum," signifying the town where they managed horses well, Epona being the Celtic goddess of horses.'
It is, then, very evident that when the Romans came in contact with the Gauls, the horse was largely and widely employed in that country for riding and draught purposes. The 'petoritum ' (Celtic petoar, four, and rot, wheel) was evidently a native vehicle, but the 'esseda' was the chariot most used in warfare, immense numbers always figuring in every Celtic army; and these armies dragged after them a multitude of waggons and
- ↑ Essai sur l'Histoire de la Franche-Comté.
