Note 58: — XVI.—HORSES AND CHARIOTS. (Wall-Cases 49-51.)

Case 51 contains three examples of muzzles for horses (No. 509), nearly complete, with a fragment of a fourth. These muzzles are in bronze, but we can hardly expect that this was the usual material. Probably the bronze examples were reserved for state occasions or else only used by the very wealthy. The muzzles depicted on vases seem rather to be of some pliant material—leather, for example. It is probable that all the bronze examples in this Case belong to the Greek period, though the one here illustrated (fig. 207) has been assigned to as late a date as the fourth century after Christ. The muzzle was only used when the horse was being rubbed down or led, not when he was ridden or driven. Xenophon58 observes that "the groom must understand how to put the muzzle on the horse, when he takes him out to rub him or to roll him. And, indeed, wherever he takes him without a bridle, he ought to muzzle him." The muzzles must have been fastened to the horse's head by straps attached to the rings seen on each side of them.