Travel Among the Ancient Romans (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1920. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER H TRAVEL ON LAND Animals Used m Travel T TORSES and mules were the two animals most *. *. frequently used in travel; not only were they ridden but they were also employed to draw vehicles and to carry luggage. The Romans less often drove ponies and wild asses and the use of these two animals usually indicated wealth and fashion. On rare occasions, oxen are mentioned as being driven by persons traveling in farm-wagons, generally in times of need and stress. On the caravan routes in the East camels were used by merchants. Horses were ridden especially when speed was imperative. Apuleius (Flor. 4.21) says that "persons who had occasion to travel rapidly preferred to ride horseback than sit in a vehicle, on account of the annoyance of baggage, the weight of the coaches, the clogging of the wheels, the roughness of the roads, the piles of stones, the projecting roots of trees, the streams in the plains, and the declivities of the hills." At times, however, the horse and mule were ridden in ordinary travel. Seneca (Ep. 87) tells how Cato the Censor used to ride a nag with his saddle-bags across it. Cicero (ad fam. 16.9.3) left at Brundisium for Tiro a mule and a horse; the former was to be ridden and the latter was to serve as a baggageanimal. Horace (S. 1.6.104) gives a picturesque account of himself riding his bob-tailed mule as far as Terentum whenever he wished. Among the early Romans, horses were ridden bare-backed and even as late as the time of Cato the Elder (died 149 b.C.), the use of a covering for the horse's back was frowned up as more or less effeminate. As shown in works of art, the later Romans regularly rode on stuffed padsaddles or pieces of cloths which were so folded as to form a pad of comfortable thickness; this was made secure by one or m...