Towards the middle of the fourth century A.D. the popularity of what must be described as circus riding would seem to have increased rather suddenly, and we read that at about this time the Sicilian horses were nearly as much in demand for public performances and processions as the Cappadocian and the Spanish. Though such performances must have been primitive indeed by comparison with even the simpler of the feats we see performed to-day, they were then deemed marvellous in the extreme, and people came from far and near to witness them. This probably was in a measure due to the general love of riding that prevailed amongst the wealthier classes at that period. Indeed the possession of a large stud of horses was in many parts of Greece, and especially in Athens, considered the hall-mark of what we should term to-day a man of culture, in the same way that the possession of horses, hounds and hawks was supposed to mark the aristocrat in Mediæval times. Thus a man often would be named after the class of horse he owned. Xanthippus meant “He of the dun horses”; Leucippus, “He of the white horses”; and Melanippus, “He of the black horses.” * * * * * By the close of the fourth century A.D. the Romans apparently had outgrown their prejudice against the use of saddles, for at about that time the saddle is referred to with some frequency. Certain it is that in 380 A.D. the famous cavalrymen of Theodosius were mounted on horses provided with true saddles—that is to say saddles with a tree, also with a bow in front and behind. Generally a cloth or numner was worn beneath saddles, but it is known that at one time Roman horses suffered from sore backs owing probably to the way the Roman soldiers sat their horses when saddles first came into vogue. Soon after this it was that the saddle came to be known as “the chair,” presumably because of the Latin word _sella_, from which we have the French noun, _selle_, meaning saddle. Some famous horses are referred to in the records of the sixth century, but little is said of their history. Thus we have the Persian steed of Chosroes, called Shibdiz, a name signifying “fleeter than the wind.” Apparently he was a famous charger, for we read that he carried his master safely through several important engagements. Yet he was used for other purposes. The story of King Arthur is so closely bound up with fable and fiction that the truth is difficult to get at. He must have owned many good horses, however, of which Spumador—a word signifying “the foaming one”—and the mare Lamri were perhaps the most renowned. There are, nevertheless, historians who maintain that these horses never actually existed. Sir Tristram's charger, Passe Brewell, mentioned in the “History of King Arthur,” and elsewhere, is another animal around which “a web of imaginative description,” as one writer terms it has been woven. Consequently we shall be well advised to pass these fables by without comment.