02-14-2013, 07:23 PM
Alanus wrote:
Hi Alanus, I borrowed the book off a friend and although the book is about "modern day" endurance events she had a few pages at the beginning of her book about the history of endurance horses. I read in the biography of Hadrian by Anthony Everitt that Hadrian's favourite horse "Borysthenes" was a gift from "Roxalani king Rasparaganus" after signing a treaty with Hadrian after Hadrian increased subsidy to Roxalani to keep the peace. The horse was killed in 122 ad in Gaul on a boar hunt and Hadrian wrote a Eulogy for the horse: see below.
Borysthenes Alanus,
the swift horse of Caesar,
who was accustomed to fly
through the sea and the marshes
and the Etruscan mounds,
while pursuing Pannonian boars, not one boar
dared him to harm
with his white tooth:
the saliva from his mouth
scattered even the meanest tail,
as it is custom to happen.
But killed on a day in his youth,
his healthy, invulnerable body
has been buried here in the field.
Anyway thanks for answering and in future I will be careful about what Hyland says.
Thanks for the two wonderful photos as well.
Quote:I hate to put a damper on Ann Hyland's statements, but it is far more likely that the Sarmatian horse extended from the "Heavenly Horse," rather than the "Blood-sweating" breed from Ferghana as developed by the Yu-chi (the Kushans or Torcarians). The body of Sarmatians that moved northwest to finally arrive in the pages of Tacitus were the Wusun/Alans. They lived in the Ili Valley, just east of Ferghana. They traded their horses to the Han court for noble Chinese women. Emperor Wu-Di called this breed the "Heavenly Horse" because it came from a valley just below the Tien Shan, aka the "Heavenly Mountains." (see Sima Quan, Vol. II) We can trace the breed, as well as the Blood-sweaters, to large warhorses (15 hand or more) buried in the Altai kurgans by the Saka, a close predecessor of the Alans.
Hi Alanus, I borrowed the book off a friend and although the book is about "modern day" endurance events she had a few pages at the beginning of her book about the history of endurance horses. I read in the biography of Hadrian by Anthony Everitt that Hadrian's favourite horse "Borysthenes" was a gift from "Roxalani king Rasparaganus" after signing a treaty with Hadrian after Hadrian increased subsidy to Roxalani to keep the peace. The horse was killed in 122 ad in Gaul on a boar hunt and Hadrian wrote a Eulogy for the horse: see below.
Borysthenes Alanus,
the swift horse of Caesar,
who was accustomed to fly
through the sea and the marshes
and the Etruscan mounds,
while pursuing Pannonian boars, not one boar
dared him to harm
with his white tooth:
the saliva from his mouth
scattered even the meanest tail,
as it is custom to happen.
But killed on a day in his youth,
his healthy, invulnerable body
has been buried here in the field.
Anyway thanks for answering and in future I will be careful about what Hyland says.
Thanks for the two wonderful photos as well.
Michael Kerr
"You can conquer an empire from the back of a horse but you can't rule it from one"
"You can conquer an empire from the back of a horse but you can't rule it from one"
