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[6] The horses which were harnessed to the yoke of Dareius's chariot were covered with wounds and terrified by the piles of dead about them. They refused to answer to their bridles,1 and came close to carrying off Dareius into the midst of the enemy, but the king himself, in extreme peril, caught up the reins, being forced to throw away the dignity of his position and to violate the ancient custom of the Persian kings.

1 A more literal rendering would be "they shook off (or out) their bits," but it is hard to see how horses could do this. Curtius 3.11.11 renders the same idiom as "iugum quatere," "toss the yoke." If, as has been suggested in the Introduction, Diodorus was using Trogus as a source, it may be that he was put to it to translate a Latin saying. We may assume that the horses reared and tossed and shook their heads, making their control almost impossible. This is how they are represented in the Alexander Mosaic.

Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.

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