The horses bred on Roman soil for performing at the circus were of foreign extraction. The native horse had proved himself inferior to the horses of Persia and Greece on the battle-field, and in the arena he had given way to the importations from Spain and Cappadocia. All the countries named, it will be seen, owed their excellence to one source, to the horses of Africa, which had no rival until the descendants of the Barb and Arab, represented in the British thoroughbred, became kings of the equine race. Cabs also represented another institution which caused horses to be in demand. The Roman cab was a two-wheeled vehicle capable of seating two persons besides the driver, and was drawn by one or two horses or mules. These vehicles were stationed about Borne, and were kept for hire on the great roads. Cicero mentions a case where a messenger travelled 56 miles in ten hours over these highways. From the foregoing we learn the various uses in which the horses of Rome had been employed, and although the Circus Publicus and cisia (cabs) demanded the assistance of strong horses, we find that the Latin authors who wrote conjointly on the tillage of the soil and the treatment of animals never mention the horse as having been engaged in agricultural operations. Virgil, in his Georgics, discourses about trees and crops, but tells more about the cultivation of bees than any other animal, and devotes only a very small space to the consideration of equine lore. Yegetius (a late Latin writer) gives descriptions of the various breeds of horses that existed in Italy, and indicates the different kinds of labour they had to perform, but the farm-horse is not included in his catalogue. For the circus, he writes: "The Spanish horse excels all others, even the Sicilian, although African horses are the swiftest of any. For the saddle above all the Persian horses are the easiest in carriage and most soft in step, afterwards come the Armenian, nor should the horses of Sicily and Epirus be despised, though not equal to them in deportment nor in form." For chariots he recommends the Cappadocian horse; for war that of the Huns, which breed he thus describes: "The horse of the Huns is known from all other breeds by the great curving outward of the front of the head, by his prominent eyes, small nostrils, broad jaws, stiff neck, mane reaching to the knees, wide ribs which stand out, hollow back, tail copious with long and curly hairs, stout shanks, small fetlocks, large and spreading hoofs, hollow flanks, angular body with projecting points of bone, length which exceeds his height, belly when it is empty and when the horse is out of condition hanging low, bones everywhere large, agreeable leanness of appearance which contributes to him rather a grace than a deformity, gentle and cautious temper, and by his patient endurance of the wounds and casualties of war". For the saddle, owing to their easy gait, he prefers Persian horses, which " in stature and fashion are much the same as other kinds, but the great difference consists in their walking with a grace peculiar to them, for their steps are very short and frequent, and this makes riding delightful; nor can they be taught it by art, but it appears to be the pure gift of nature. With the Persian horse it is ascertained that his step is more pleasant in proportion as it is shorter; in long journeys his patience is very enduring. His temper is haughty; unless he is subdued by continued exercise, he is apt to be vicious and stubborn; nevertheless he is sensible and intelligent, and, what is surprising, in impetuosity he does not lose sight of propriety. In his carriage his neck is curved as a bow, and this brings his chin to touch his breast."

Thus during the age in which Vegetius lived it seems that horses of various breeds existed on Roman territory, and were used for many useful purposes - for the chariot and for the saddle, for pleasure and for war, - but even at this period horses had not been yoked to the plough, the occupation of the farm-horse proper had not commenced; his spirited nature had hitherto exempted him from agricultural labour, which was performed by the mules and the oxen, and for this reason much attention was bestowed on these last-named animals. Indeed, a law was enacted to protect them, and so severe was it that death was the penalty for abusing them. The wearing down of the hoof-horn of unshod horses might have prevented their being used for the prolonged labour of the plough, or their light build might not have adapted them for drawing heavy burdens, which the lethargic dispositions of the ox and mule rendered them capable of performing with comparative ease: but for war and chase the horse remained an important factor, and whatever incapacitated him from these uses received the diligent attention of the Romans. The greatest evil they dreaded were injuries to his unshod feet. To prevent such accidents, sandals and other foot armatures were prescribed.

The Latin authors who wrote on this subject to a great extent copied the writings of Grecian authors, especially in the treatment of equine diseases and the means to be adopted in order to harden the hoofs of their unshod horses. For instance, Xenophon advises that the best way to harden horses' hoofs is to cause them constantly to be implanted on hard stones. Columella, with the same motive in view, suggests in the place of hard stones the use of oak boards for horses to stand on.

Not only did the Romans attempt to protect their horses' feet from injury, by applying sandals, etc, and by adopting measures calculated to harden them; they also laid down those mighty highways, the Roman roads, which were so constructed as to ensure smooth surfaces over which their horses might pass.

The existence of these roads enabled the Romans to extend their conquests, for they were thus brought in contact with nations who possessed horses which were better adapted for war than their own, and which, as before stated, although they were smaller than those of Italy, were more agile, and consequently possessed the facility of rallying and retreating with greater rapidity than the somewhat bigger-framed Roman horse. This breed appears to have been obtained originally from Etruria, and it was upon horses of this kingdom that Romulus mounted his equites or cavalry. These were also the animals which supplied the circus with its first equine performers, and the battle-field with its charger; and there is little doubt but that the size of the Roman horse was 'derived from the Etruscan. Confirmation of this assertion is afforded by the discovery in an Etruscan graveyard of a wall-painting on which horses are depicted so large as to be quite out of proportion to the car to which they are attached. Whether the carriage is drawn too small, or the horses too large, cannot now be determined, but the picture, as it exists, suggests that the Etruscan horse at that date was a large animal. During the incursions made by the Romans into Germany and into Gaul large horses were found, and in Bavaria and the neighbourhood large horse-shoes have been exhumed from tumuli. The Germans are represented by Tacitus as a big race of men possessed of great bodily strength, who devoted their life almost exclusively to martial exercises and hunting, in the performance of which they required large horses to carry them. These facts to a certain degree show that an indigenous breed of large horses existed in mid-Europe, which by admixture assisted in developing the tournament horse, and ultimately in the production of the British wagoner. A large breed of horses also existed in Spain before it was conquered by the Moors, and these were probably the descendants of the horses on which the soldiers of Hannibal at the battle of Cannae were mounted. In other parts of the world there is no evidence of the existence of large horses; in fact they seem generally to have been small, for the horse-shoes excavated from tumuli evidently have been worn by ponies not 14 hands high, and experience teaches us that the horse becomes small as he approaches the tropics and the Arctic regions, but that in a medium temperature, like that of mid-Europe, he gains size, and, if he is combined with Arab blood, he gains pluck and endurance also. In Asia, Africa, and North Europe the native breeds of horses remain small, as they were in the past; and Caesar, when he invaded our country, found only an indigenous race of small ponies. England is now the possessor of the finest horses in the world, both large and small, but she obtained the materials from which they were bred from foreign countries - size from Flanders and Lombardy, and quality and elegance of form from Africa and Arabia.