ridden without any shoes, and the Cossacks' on the banks of the Jaïk, he adds, are never shod.’
Of the evil effects of prolonged marches, and consequent excessive wear of the undefended hoofs in the Greek armies, we find casual mention now and again in the early historians. Diodorus Siculus (B.C. 44) in one of his volumes, when describing the victories of Alexander, states that ‘the hoofs of the horses, through ceaseless journeying, had been worn away, and the matériel of war was used up.’[1]
And Cinnamus speaks in the same strain of the war in Attalia. ‘He ordered them to await the rest of the army in Attalia, and to look after the horses, for a disease to which they are liable had attacked their hoofs, and had done serious hurt.’[2]
In the account which Appian gives of the victory achieved by Lucullus over Mithridates, King of Pontus, at the siege of Cyzicum (B.C. 73), we find that Mithridates sent part of his cavalry back to Bithynia, such as were useless, feeble from want of forage, and footsore or lame in consequence of their hoofs being worn out (και χαλευοντας εξ υποτριβης).[3]
This description has been differently given by H. Stephanus (edit. Stephanus, 1592, p. 221), and this has
- ↑ Diod. Siculus, lib. xvii. cap. 94, p. 233. Edit. Weissilingii. 'Equorum ungulae propter itiaera nunquam remissa detritae et armorum pleraque absumptae erant.'
- ↑ Edit. Tollii Traject. ad Rhenum, 1825. Lib. iv. p. 194. 'Caeteras copias manere in Attalia et equos curare jussit, nam malam cui est obnoxium equinum genus plantes pedum acciderat, graviterque efficerat.'
- ↑ De Bello Mithrid. p. 371. Edit. Tollii.
