Note 199 — ARRIAN ON COURSING.
William Dansey translation
Ἐπὶ γυμνῶν τῶν ἵππων.
Lucret. L. iv.
Gens quæ nudo residens Massylia dorso Ora levi flectit frænorum nescia virgâ.
The allusions to the tractable and fleet Numidian horse, and his expert rider, are too numerous in the authors of antiquity for citation of more than a few. The barbs, in the language of our great dramatist,
will follow where the game Makes way, and run like swallows o’er the plain.
Livii L. v. Decad. iv.
In the army of Hannibal, the “equi hominesque paululi, discinctus et inermis eques, equi sine frænis,” are eulogized by the Roman historian: and Strabo notices the docility of the African little steeds to be such ὥς τ’ ἀπὸ ῥαβδίου οἰακίζεσθαι.
Virgil speaks of the “Numidæ infræni,” (Æneid. L. iv. 41.): Silius Italicus of the
velocior Euris Et doctus virgæ sonipes:—L. iii.
and again, in the first book of his Punic War:
Hic passim exultant Numidæ gens inscia fræni, Queîs inter geminas per ludum nobilis aures Quadrupedem flectit non cedens virga lupatis.
But the poets of the chase, Oppian and Nemesian, have left us in detail their shape and qualifications:
Oppian. Cyneg. iv. 45.
Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 261.
—— ὁππότε δ’ αὖτε καὶ μούνοις ἵπποισι κυνῶν ἄτερ ἰθὺς ἐλαύνειν· ἵπποισιν κείνοισιν ὅσοι περὶ Μαυρίδα γαῖαν φέρβοντ’, ἢ Λιβύεσσιν, ὅσοι μὴ κάρτεϊ χειρῶν ἄγχονται ψελίοισι βιαζομένοιο χαλινοῦ, πείθονται δὲ λύγοισιν, ὅπη βροτὸς ἡγεμονεύει. τοὔνεκεν ἱππελάται κείνων ἐπιβήτορες ἵππων ἠδὲ κύνας λείπουσι φίλους, πίσυνοι τ’ ἐλόωσιν ἵπποις, ἠελίου τε βολῇ, καὶ νόσφιν ἀρωγῶν. Quemque coloratus Mazax deserta per arva Pavit, et assiduos docuit tolerare labores. Nec pigeat quod turpe caput, deformis et alvus Est ollis, quodque infrenes, quod liber uterque, Quodque jubis pronos cervix diverberet armos. Nam flecti facilis, lascivaque colla secutus Paret in obsequium lentæ moderamine virgæ. Verbera sunt præcepta fugæ, sunt verbera freni. Quin et promissi spatiosa per æquora campi Cursibus acquirunt commoto sanguine vires, Paulatimque avidos comites post terga relinquunt.