DESULTOR
DESULTOR (
ἀποβάτης,
μεταβάτης), literally “one who leaps
off,” was applied to a person who rode several horses or chariots,
leaping from one to the other. As early as the Homeric times, we find the
description of a man who keeps four horses abreast at full gallop, and leaps
from one to another, amidst a crowd of admiring spectators. (
Il. 15.679-
684; Propert. 5.2, 35; Agostini,
Gemme, 193.) In the
games of the Roman circus this sport was also very popular. The Roman
desultor generally rode only two horses at the same time, sitting on them
without a saddle, and vaulting upon either of them at his pleasure. (Isid.
Orig. 18.39.) He wore a hat or cap made of felt. The
taste for these exercises was carried to so great an extent, that young men
of the highest rank not only drove bigae and quadrigae in the circus, but
exhibited these feats of horsemanship. (
Suet. Jul.
39: cf. Varr.
R. R. 2.7; Valer. Flacc. 6.161;
Liv. 44.9.) Among other nations this species
of equestrian dexterity was applied to the purposes of war. Livy mentions
[p. 1.619]a troop of horse in the Numidian army, in
which each soldier was supplied with a couple of horses, and, in the heat of
battle and when clad in armour, would leap with the greatest ease and
celerity from that which was wearied or disabled upon the back of the horse
which was still sound and fresh (23.29). The Scythians, Armenians, and some
of the Indians were skilled in the same art.
The annexed woodcut shows three figures of desultores, one from a bronze
lamp, published by Bartoli (
Antiche Lucerne Sepolcrali,
1.24), the others from coins. In all these the rider
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Desultores. (From an ancient lamp and coins.)
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wears a pileus, or cap of felt (
Hyg. Fab.
81), and his horse is without a saddle; but these examples prove
that he had the use both of the whip and the rein. On the coins we also
observe the wreath and palm-branch as ensigns of victory.
[
J.Y] [
J.H.F]
