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The Golden Bough, Vol. 02 of 12

Note 553 — Chapter XIII · THE KINGS OF ROME AND ALBA

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Camillus triumphed in a chariot drawn by white horses like the sacred white horses of Jupiter and the Sun. His Republican contemporaries were offended at what they regarded as a too close imitation of the gods (Livy, v. 23. 5 sq.; Plutarch, Camillus, 7; Dio Cassius, lii. 13); but the Roman emperors followed his example, or perhaps revived the old custom of the kings. See Dio Cassius, xliii. 14; Suetonius, Nero, 25; Pliny, Panegyric, 22; Propertius, v. 1. 32; Ovid, Ars amat. i. 214. On the sanctity of white horses among various branches of the Aryan stock, see J. von Negelein, “Die volksthümliche Bedeutung der weissen Farbe,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, xxxiii. (1901) pp. 62-66; W. Ridgeway, The Origin and Influence of the Thoroughbred Horse (Cambridge, 1905), pp. 105, 186, 187, 294, 295, 419. As to the horses of the Sun, see above, vol. i. pp. 315 sq.

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