Let the children of physicians heal a wound, with the one who is sick readily offering himself to their touch. 1.6 Taming of a horse Just as among men, so also among horses pure virtue is a rare thing. For envious malice is near to good things, so that the beautiful may not appear pure; one man is eloquent, but not dignified; and another is a general, but is not prudent; and someone is brave, but boastful, he has not kept his beauty undefiled for himself; and another both takes advantage of and wrongs another. The good and bad qualities of horses are also similar; they are swift, but lustful; hunters, but hard-mouthed; good pacers, but wanton; some do not accept riders, and others throw them off; some rub against walls or plants; some are villains by nature, and others have been made so by their owners, they bite and kick and bolt and rear up, either hating or scorning their masters. And I can tell of many, destroyed by horses in various ways, one by one disaster and another by a kind of evil. So then, the arts of horse-breakers, as far as possible, either restrain or correct vices: the wanton ones by restricting food, the lustful ones by castration, the biters with muzzles, the hard-mouthed ones with wolf's tooth bits, the disobedient with blows. But what could one do against the one that is rebellious and has chosen to obey in no way, in anything, neither commands nor lessons? For just as the wildest of beasts, when caught full-grown, are not tamed, but, even if they seem to have become tame for a short time, nevertheless they do not forget their former savagery, so also this creature is hard to retrain, its vice having become chronic. Since, therefore, a blow and a threat and art and feeding are weak against such things, let a vice of nature be corrected by an art of nature. Let an inscription also tame it, which it will not fear, which it will not suspect, wearing which it will be subdued. In the hollow of the hoof of the left front foot, with the left hand engrave with a bronze stylus, on the sixteenth day of the moon, the threat of a Roman command; the inscription has the force of obedience; and it is set in a pentagon, in which has been inscribed the signs of the consular diatonic, phi and digamma. 1.7 That a horse not neigh Horses neigh, some threatening, and others just having caught the scent from females. But both their voice and their silence are useful. For whenever they form up, they are taught to shout together with the fellow soldiers to cause fear, but when they are in ambush, to conceal themselves with them. But either the season of the year or a lustful nature blunts this artifice even more. Aristomenes the Messenian, at any rate, captured the Lacedaemonians lying in ambush, when their horses neighed at them, as he himself was leading mares. And again he himself made the ambush safe, with his own horses having been forced to be silent by the stationing of Spartan mares. The stratagem of the Messenian remains remembered. So whether one passes through a region infested by bandits, or lies in wait for enemies with a cavalry ambush, let him do what is about to be shown; and this is not only a deed of the Greeks and a discovery of ancient generals, but in fact the Parthians also lead their own horses into battles silent in this way. The tail of the horse is bound tightly above the hair with a well-twisted sinew, so that the bond sinks deep into the surface; for by the tightness of the binding the horse, being in pain, keeps its same spirit and speed, but holds back only its voice, even if the compelling occasion be either a crisis or desire. 1.8 For a cataract in horses Homer recorded the Trojan horses as swift, but he made the Thessalian ones prophetic and granted them a human voice, not indicating them to be daemons, but demonstrating an equine less μα on. At any rate, those now in charge wish to learn clearly the divination from horses, but they are unaccustomed to it. A horse's nod and glance and voice and silence signify various things. So I pass over the other things, winters and good hunting and bountiful harvests of fruits and their own offspring. But the greatest thing, they both tell of and point out the attacks of enemies; and they foretell even murders; and they often exposed hidden robber bands by a twitching of the ears, or by a hesitation to advance, by snorting. And they did not show evil men
τραῦμα ἰατρῶν παῖδες θεραπευέτωσαν, τοῦ κάμνοντος ἑαυτὸν εὐχερῶς ἐς τὴν ἐπάφησιν αὐτῶν χορηγοῦντος. 1.6 Ἵππου τιθασία Σπάνιος ὥσπερ ἐν ἀνδράσιν οὑτωσὶ δὲ καὶ ἐν ἵπποις εἰλικρινής ἐστιν ἀρετή. Ἐγγὺς γὰρ τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς κακία βάσκανος, ἵνα μὴ τὸ κα λὸν καθαρὸν φανῇ· λόγιός τις, ἀλλ' οὐ σεμνός· καὶ ἄλλος στρατηγεῖ μέν, ἀλλ' οὐ σωφρονεῖ· καί τις ἀνδρεῖος, ἀλλ' ἀλαζὼν ἄχραντον οὐκ ἐφύλαξε τὸ κάλλος αὑτῷ· καὶ ἄλλος ἄλλῳ πλεονεκτεῖ τε καὶ ἁμαρτάνει. Ὅμοια καὶ τὰ ἐφ' ἵππων καλὰ καὶ πονηρά· ταχεῖς, ἀλλ' ἐρωτικοί, θηρευταί, ἀλλὰ στομίαι, βαδισταί, ἀλλ' ὑβρισταί· τοὺς ἀναβάτας ἄλλοι οὐ δέχονται, οἳ δὲ ἀποσείονται· παρατρίβουσιν ἔνιοι τοίχοις ἢ φυτοῖς· οἳ μὲν ἐκ φύσεως κακοῦργοι, οἳ δὲ ὑπὸ τῶν κεκτημένων γεγενημένοι, δάκνουσι καὶ λακτίζουσι καὶ ἀφίστανται καὶ ἀναχαιτίζουσιν, ἢ μισοῦντες ἢ ὑπερηφανοῦντες τοὺς δεσπότας. Καὶ πολλοὺς εἰπεῖν ἔχω, ἄλλον ἄλλῃ συμφορᾷ καὶ εἴδει κακῶν ποικίλως ὑφ' ἵππων διεφθαρμένους. Τέχναι μὲν οὖν πωλοδαμνῶν ὡς οἷόν τε τὰς κακίας ἢ ἐπέχουσιν ἢ διορθοῦσιν, ὀλιγοσιτίᾳ τοὺς ὑβριστάς, ἐκτομῇ τοὺς ἐραστάς, κημοῖς τοὺς δάκνοντας, τοὺς στομίας λύκοις, πληγαῖς τοὺς ἀπειθεῖς. Τί δ' ἄν τις ποιήσειεν κατὰ τοῦ ἀφεστηκότος καὶ πείθεσθαι μηδενὶ τρόπῳ ἐς μηδὲν μήτε ἐπιταγμάτων μήτε μαθημάτων προῃρημένου; Ὥσπερ γὰρ τὰ ἀγριώτατα τῶν θηρίων τέλεια ληφθέντα οὐ τιθασσεύεται, ἀλλά, κἂν πρὸς ὀλίγον χειροήθη γεγενῆσθαι δοκῇ, ὅμως τῆς πρόσθεν ὠμότητος οὐκ ἐπιλανθάνεται, οὑτωσὶ δὲ καὶ τόδε τὸ θρέμμα δυσμετάγωγον, κακίας ἐγχρονισθείσης. Ἐπεὶ τοίνυν ἀσθενὴς πρὸς τὰ τοιαῦτα πληγὴ καὶ ἀπειλὴ καὶ τέχνη καὶ τροφή, κακία φύσεως τέχνῃ φύσεως διορθούσθω. Ἡμερωσάτω αὐτὸν καὶ γραφή, ἣν οὐ φοβηθήσεται, ἣν οὐχ ὑποπτεύσει, ἣν φορῶν δαμασθήσεται. Κοίλῳ ὁπλῆς προτέρου ποδὸς εὐωνύμου, χειρὶ εὐωνύμῳ ἐγχάραττε γραφίῳ χαλκῷ, σελήνης ἑκκαιδεκαταίας, Ῥωμαίας προσταγῆς ἀπειλήν· ἀνάγκην ἔχει πειθαρχίας ἡ γραφή· κεῖται δὲ ἐν ʹ πενταγώνῳ, ᾧπερ ἐγγέγραπται ὑπάτων διατόνου σημεῖα, φῖ καὶ δίγαμμα. 1.7 Μὴ χρεμετίσαι ἵππον Ἵπποι χρεμετίζουσιν, οἳ μὲν ἀπειλοῦντες, οἳ δὲ τὴν ἀπὸ θηλειῶν μόνον λαβόντες ὀδμήν. Χρήσιμος δὲ αὐτῶν καὶ ἡ φωνὴ καὶ σιωπή. Ὁπότε μὲν γὰρ <ἐφορμῶσιν>, εἰς φόβον συναλαλάξαι τοῖς συστρα τιώταις διδάσκονται, ὅτε δὲ λοχῶσιν, αὐτοῖς συλλαθεῖν. Ἀλλὰ γὰρ τὸ τεχνητὸν τοῦτο ἢ ὥρα ἔτους ἢ ἐρωτικὴ φύσις ἐπὶ μᾶλλον ἀμβλύνει. Ἀριστομένης γοῦν ὁ Μεσσήνιος Λακεδαιμονίους εἷλεν λοχῶντας, τῶν ἵππων αὐτοῖς χρεμετισάντων, αὐτὸς θηλείας ἄγων. Καὶ πάλιν αὐτὸς τὴν ἐνέδραν κατέστησεν ἀκίνδυνον, τῶν ἵππων αὐτοῦ ἀναγκασθέντων σιωπᾶν Σπαρτιατῶν ἵππων θηλειῶν στάσει. Τὸ τοῦ Μεσσηνίου στρατήγημα μένει μεμνημένον. Εἴτ' οὖν λῃστευόμενόν τις διΐοι χωρίον, εἴθ' ὑφιζάνοι πολεμίοις λόχον ἱππότην, τὸ ὑποδειχθησόμενον πραττέτω· οὐ μόνον δὲ τοῦτο Ἑλλήνων ἔργον καὶ εὕρεμα παλαιῶν στρατηγῶν, ἀλλὰ γὰρ καὶ Πάρθοι τοὺς ἵππους οὕτως τοὺς ἑαυτῶν ἐς τὰς μάχας ἄγουσι σιγῶντας. Νευρᾷ εὐστρόφῳ ἡ οὐρὰ τοῦ ἵππου ὑπὲρ τὴν τρίχα κατασφίγγεται, ὡς ἐνδῦναι τὸν δεσμὸν τῇ ἐπιφανείᾳ πολύν· τῇ γὰρ εὐτονίᾳ τῆς ἐπιδέσεως ὁ ἵππος ἀλγῶν, τὸν μὲν αὐτὸν θυμὸν φυλάττει καὶ τάχος, μόνον δὲ τὸ φώνημα ἴσχει, κἂν ὁ ἀναγκάζων καιρὸς ἢ ἔρως ᾖ. 1.8 Πρὸς ἵππων ὑπόχυσιν Ἵππους Ὅμηρος ταχεῖς μὲν ἀνέγραψεν τοὺς Τρωϊκούς, μαντικοὺς δὲ ἐποίησε τοὺς Θετταλοὺς καὶ φωνὴν αὐτοῖς ἀνθρωπίνην ἐδωρήσατο, οὐ δαίμονας μὲν ὑποδεικνύων, ἀλλὰ μάθη<μα> ἐλέγχων ἵππειον. Χρῄζουσι γοῦν οἱ νῦν ἐφεστηκότες διαφανῶς μαθεῖν τὴν ἐξ ἵππων μαντικήν, ἀλλ' εἰσὶν ἀσυνήθεις. Σημαίνει ποικίλα ἵππου καὶ νεῦμα καὶ βλέμμα καὶ φωνὴ καὶ σιωπή. Τὰ μὲν οὖν ἄλλα παραλιμπάνω, χειμῶνας καὶ εὐθηρίας καὶ καρπῶν εὐετηρίας καὶ τὰς αὑτῶν ἐπιγονάς. Τὸ δὲ μέγιστον, τῶν πολεμίων ἐφόδους καὶ λέγουσι καὶ δεικνύουσι· καὶ προμαντεύονται καὶ φόνους· καὶ λανθάνοντα πολλάκις ἤλεγξαν τὰ λῃστήρια ὤτων τάσει, ἢ ὄκνῳ προόδου, <ἢ> φριμαξάμενοι. Καὶ οὐκ ἀνθρώπους πονηροὺς ἔδειξαν