STIRRUPS.

Respecting the antiquity of stirrups several men of learning[1344]

have long ago made researches; but as their observations are scattered

through a great variety of books, some of which are now scarce, and

are mingled with much falsehood, it will perhaps afford pleasure to

many to find here collected and reduced into order the greater, or

at least the most important, part of them. In executing this task I

shall aim at more than the character of a diligent collector; for to

bring together information of this kind, to arrange it, and to make

it useful, requires no less readiness of thought than the labours of

those who assume the character of original thinkers, and who imagine

that they render others inferior to themselves when they bestow on them

the appellation of compilers.

We have here a new proof how much people may be deceived, when they

suppose that objects must be of great antiquity because they tend

to common convenience and because they appear even so indispensably

necessary and easy to have been invented, that one can scarcely

conceive how they could at any time have been wanting. I cannot,

however, deprive our ancestors of the merit of ingenuity and invention;

for they must undoubtedly have possessed no small share of talents and

ability, to perform, without the assistance of our arts, what perhaps

would be difficult even for the present age to accomplish. And who

knows but there are many things still to be invented, the discovery of

which may give posterity equal reason to reproach us?

Stirrups are useful in two points of view; for they not only assist one

in mounting, but also in riding, as they support the legs of the rider,

which otherwise would be exposed to much inconvenience. No traces of

any invention for this purpose are to be found in the old Greek and

Latin writers; and though means to assist people to get on horseback

were devised in the course of time, neither stirrups nor any permanent

support to the legs were for a long period thought of. Nothing that

could perform the same service as a stirrup is to be perceived on

ancient coins which exhibit the representation of persons on horseback;

on statues cast or formed with the chisel, or on any remains of ancient

sculpture. In the excellent equestrian statues of Trajan and Antoninus,

the legs of the rider hang down without any support whatever. Had

stirrups been in use when these statues were formed, the artists

certainly would not have omitted them; and the case would have been

the same with those writers who speak so fully of riding, and of the

necessary equipage and furniture. How is it possible, that Xenophon,

in the two books which he wrote expressly on horsemanship and the art

of riding, where he gives rules for mounting, and where he points out

means for assisting old people and infirm persons, should not have

mentioned stirrups had he been acquainted with them? And how could they

have been passed over by Julius Pollux, in his Lexicon, where he gives

every expression that concerns riding-furniture?

Hippocrates[1345] and Galen[1346] speak of a disease which in their

time was occasioned by long and frequent riding, because the legs hung

down without any support. Suetonius[1347] also relates that Germanicus,

the father of Caligula, by riding often after dinner endeavoured to

strengthen his ankles, which had become weak; and Magius explains

this very properly by telling us, that as his legs hung down without

stirrups, they would be continually moved backwards and forwards, and

of course the circulation of the blood towards those parts would be

increased.

Neither in the Greek nor Roman authors do we meet with any term that

can be applied to stirrups, for _staffa_, _stapia_, _staphium_,

_stapha_, _stapedium_, _stapeda_, and _stapes_ are words formed in

modern times. The last, as Vossius and others say, was invented by

Franc. Philelphus, who was born in 1398 and died in 1481[1348], to

express properly a thing unknown to the ancients, and for which they

could have no name. The other words are older, as may be seen in Du

Cange, and appear to be derived from the German _stapf_, which is still

retained in _Fuss-stapf_, a foot-step.

The name of one of the ear-bones, which, on account of its likeness

to a stirrup, has from anatomists received the same appellation,

may occur here to some of my readers; and if that expression was

known to the ancients, it might invalidate my assertion. That small

bone, however, was first remarked at Naples in the year 1546 by John

Philip Ingrassias, a Sicilian, who called it _stapes_. To the ancient

anatomists it was not known[1349].

Montfaucon is of opinion that it is impossible there could be stirrups

before saddles were invented, because the former, at present, are

fastened to the latter. This conclusion, however, is not altogether

just. Stirrups might have been suspended from leather straps girt round

the horse. In mounting, it would only have been necessary that some one

should hold fast the strap on the other side; and stirrups arranged in

this manner would have supported the feet of the rider as well as ours.

It is certain that mounting on horseback was formerly much easier than

it has been since the invention of high saddles; and it is probable

that stirrups were introduced soon after that period. The arguments

which I have here adduced will receive additional force when one

considers the inconvenient means which the ancients employed to assist

them in getting on horseback; and which, undoubtedly, they would not

have used had they been acquainted with stirrups.

The Roman manners required that young men and expert riders should be

able to vault on horseback without any assistance. To accustom them to

this agility there were wooden horses in the Campus Martius, on which

practitioners were obliged to learn to mount and dismount, both on the

right and the left side, at first unarmed, and afterwards with arms in

their hands[1350]. In many public places, particularly highways, stones

were erected, to which a rider could lead his horse in order to mount

with more facility. Such stones Gracchus caused to be set up[1351];

and they were to be found at many cities, in the sixteenth century,

especially near the council-houses, that they might be used by the

members of the council, who at that time did not ride in coaches. A

convenience of this kind was constructed at the Roman gate at Frankfort

in 1502; and steps for the same purpose may be still seen in many

parts of England, where they are employed principally by the ladies.

If a certain ludicrous inscription be ancient, such a stone was called

_suppedaneum_; but this word occurs nowhere else[1352].

People of high rank and fortune kept riding-servants to assist them

in mounting, who were called _stratores_[1353]. It was usual also to

have portable stools, which were placed close to the horse when one

wished to mount; and this gave rise to the barbarous practice of making

conquered princes and generals stoop down that the victor might more

easily get on horseback by stepping upon their backs as upon a stool.

In this ignominious manner was the emperor Valerian treated by Sapor,

king of Persia[1354]. Some horses also were so instructed that they

kneeled until the rider mounted[1355]; and warriors had on their spears

or lances a step or projection, on which they could rest the foot while

they got on horseback[1356]. Winkelmann has described a cut stone in

the collection of Baron Stosch, on which a rider is represented in the

act of mounting with one foot on the step of his spear; and it appears,

by an ancient drawing, that a leather loop[1357], into which the foot

could be put, was fastened sometimes to the lance also.

Of those who believe that traces of stirrups are to be found among

the ancients, no one has erred more than Galeotus Martius[1358], who

follows a wrong reading in Lucretius[1359], and translates still worse

the words which he adopts. Magius and others consider as authentic an

inscription, in which stirrups are clearly mentioned; and because the

letters D. M. (_diis manibus_), usual in Pagan inscriptions, appear at

the top, he places it in the first century of the Christian æra[1360].

Menage[1361], however, and others have already remarked that this

inscription was forged in modern times, and in all probability by

Franc. Columna, who lived in the middle of the sixteenth century, and

who sometimes called himself Polyphilus[1362]. Gruter, therefore,

reckons it among those which ought to be rejected as spurious: and of

as little authority is the silver coin on which the Emperor Constantine

is represented on horseback with stirrups.

Magius quotes from the letters of Jerome, who died in the year 420,

the following words, “Se cum quasdam accepit litteras jumentum

conscensurum, jam pedem habuisse in bistapia.” These words have been

again quoted by several writers; and we may readily believe that the

author when he wrote them alluded to a stirrup. Magius however quotes

from memory, and says, “Si memoria non labat.” But these words are not

to be found in Jerome; and it is probable that Magius may have read

them in the works of some other author.

The first certain account of stirrups, as far as I have been able to

learn, is in a book by Mauritius[1363] respecting the art of war,

where the author says that a horseman must have at his saddle two iron

_scalæ_. This work, commonly ascribed to the emperor Mauritius, is

supposed to have been written in the end of the sixth century; and it

is not a sufficient proof to the contrary, that mention is made in it

of the Turks, Franks, and Lombards. The first were then well known;

for Justin II. some time before had concluded a peace with them: the

Lombards made themselves known in the middle of that century: and the

Franks had been known much longer. The same words are inserted by

the emperor Leo VI., in his work on tactics, which he wrote in the

end of the ninth century[1364]. Still clearer is another passage of

Mauritius[1365], and of the emperor Leo[1366], where it is expressly

said, that the _deputati_, who were obliged to carry the wounded

horsemen from the field, ought to have two stirrups on the left side of

the horse, one at the fore-part and the other at the hind-part of the

saddle-tree, that they might each take a disabled soldier on horseback

behind them. That these _scalæ_ were real stirrups there seems to be no

reason to doubt; and in my opinion, that word, and other expressions

of the like kind to be found in later writers, may be understood in

this sense, especially as concomitant circumstances appear rather to

strengthen than to oppose such a conjecture.

Isidore, in the seventh century, says “Scansuæ, ferrum per quod

equus scanditur;” and also “Astraba, tabella, in qua pedes

requiescunt[1367]:” both which expressions allude to stirrups. Leo the

Grammarian, in the beginning of the tenth century[1368], calls them,

as Mauritius does, _scalæ_. Suidas, who wrote about the same period,

says _anaboleus_ signifies not only a riding-servant, who assists

one in mounting, but also what by the Romans was called _scala_. As

the machine used for pulling off boots is named a Jack, because it

performs the office of a boy, in the like manner that appellation,

which at first belonged to the riding-servant, was afterwards given to

stirrups, because they answered the same purpose. Suidas, as a proof

of the latter meaning, quotes a passage from an anonymous writer, who

says that Massias, even when an old man, could vault on horseback

without the assistance of a stirrup (_anaboleus_). Lipsius thinks that

the passage is to be found in Appian[1369], respecting Masanissa; and

in that case the first meaning of the word may be adopted. Suidas,

according to every appearance, would have been in a mistake, had he

given Masanissa at so early a period the Roman _scalæ_, with which

he could not be acquainted. But that the passage is from Appian, and

that Masanissa ought to be read instead of Massias, is only mere

conjecture; at any rate Suidas could commit no mistake in saying

that the Romans in his time made use of _scalæ_. Lipsius, however,

was not altogether wrong in considering this quotation alone as an

insufficient proof of stirrups, because with the still older and more

express testimony of Mauritius he was unacquainted. Eustathius, the

commentator of Homer[1370], speaks in a much clearer manner; but

he gives us to understand that stirrups in his time, that is in the

twelfth century, had not become very common. On a piece of tapestry of

the eleventh century, which Montfaucon caused to be engraven[1371],

the saddles of all the horses appear to have stirrups. Aimonius calls

them _scandilia_[1372], and in the twelfth century the word _staffa_

occurs very often, and without doubt in that sense[1373]. In the ages

of superstition, the clergy carried their boundless pride to such a

length, that they caused emperors and kings to hold their stirrups

when they mounted on horseback[1374]. It however long continued to be

thought a mark of superior dexterity to ride without stirrups, at least

Phile praises Cantacuzenus on this account[1375].