Note 1431 — BOOK VII.835 MAN, HIS BIRTH, HIS ORGANIZATION, AND THE INVENTION OF THE ARTS. (continued 2)

According to Cicero, De Nat. Deor. B. iii. c. 23, Minerva was the first who used a chariot with four horses. Hardouin supposes that the Erichthonius here mentioned was not the king of Athens, but the son of Dardanus, the king of Troas; he does not state the ground of his opinion, and Ælian, Hist. Var. B. iii. c. 38, expressly speaks of him as an Athenian. Virgil, Geor. B. iii. ll. 113, 114, speaks of Erichthonius as the inventor of the chariot with four horses; he is supposed to have lived about 1450 B.C. As Hardouin justly remarks, we have an account, in the writings of Moses, of chariots being used by the Egyptians long before this period. It is not, however, stated what was the number of horses used for these chariots.—B.