Nisean horse
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The Nisean horse, or Nisaean horse, is an extinct horse breed, once native to the town of Nisaia, located in the Nisaean plains at the foot of the southern region of the Zagros Mountains, Iran.[1]
History
The first written reference to the Nisean horse was in around 430 BCE, in Herodotus' Histories:
- "In front of the king went first a thousand horsemen, picked men of the Persian nation then spearmen a thousand, likewise chosen troops, with their spearheads pointing towards the ground – next ten of the sacred horses called Nisaean, all daintily caparisoned. (Now these horses are called Nisaean, because they come from the Nisaean plain, a vast flat in Media, producing horses of unusual size.)"[2]
They were highly sought after in the ancient world. The Nisean horse was said[
The Nisean, according to one source,[who?] was "tall and swift, and color adorned his sides. The Chinese called the breed the tien ma – heavenly horse or Soulon-vegetarian dragon. The Nisean was the most valuable horse in the ancient world. Some were spotted, like a leopard or, as golden as a newly minted coin. Others were red and blue roan with darker color.
The royal Nisean was the mount of the nobility in ancient
During the reign of
Nisean horses had several traits that they passed on to their descendants. One of them was bony knobs on their forehead often referred to as "horns".[
The Nisean horse was first mentioned in great detail by
Olmstead also wrote that the Assyrians started their spring campaigns, by attacking the Medes for their horses. The Medes were the breeders of the first Nisean horses.[citation needed]
The
Historical events
- Following their assassination of Bardiya in 522 BCE, the conspirators led by Otanes and Darius the Great agreed that whoever's horse neighed at the moment of sunrise would be rewarded with the kingship of Persia. According to legend, Darius' Nisean horse neighed first.
- In 481 BCE, Xerxes invaded Thessaly and raced his Nisean mares against the legendary Thessalian mares and beat them.
- In 479 BCE, General Mardonius was killed beneath his gray Nisean stallion at the Battle of Plataea. The stallion was so feared for its training that the Athenians had actually devised a plan to kill the horse.
- When Alexander the Great conquered Persia, he demanded a tribute of thousands of Nisean horses from the captured cities.
- When the Roman writer Strabo saw the Nisean horses, he said that they were the most elegant riding horses alive.
- The elite Sasanian cavalry unit Zhayedanare thought to have used the Nisean horses.
- St. Isidore of Seville stated that the Roman horses of the imperial stud, founded by Justinian I in Constantinople, were the most beautiful horses in the world.
- Emperor Wu Ti was told about the Heavenly Horses to the West and sent an army to get some for China; thirteen Heavenly Horses were taken from Ferghana along with a thousand lesser animals. When the Emperor saw the horses, he decided that the expedition was worth it.
- The Nisean became extinct with the conquest of Constantinople in 1204.
- Elwyn Hartley Edwards in The New Encyclopedia of the Horse called the Nisean the "super horse of the ancient world".[citation needed]
References
- ^ Nisaia
- ^ Herodotus, Histories', 7.40.2-3
- ISBN 978-0-19-866277-8.
- "The History of the Nisean Warhorse and its Descendants". Archived from the original on 2007-07-28. Retrieved 2007-07-11.
- Burris-Davis, Beverley. Parthian Horses, Parthian Archers. bibliography attached.
- Davis, Beverley. Timeline for the Development of the Horse. Sino-platonic papers.
- Olmstead, A. T. History of the Persian Empire. University of Chicago Press. 1948
- Plutarch. The Lives of Noble Greeks and Romans
Further reading
- A. Sh.Shahbazi; F. Thordarson; A. Solṭānī Gordfarāmarzī; C. E. Bosworth. "ASB". Encyclopædia Iranica. Retrieved 23 October 2011.
- Decker, Michael (2018). "horses and donkeys". In Nicholson, Oliver (ed.). ISBN 978-0-19-866277-8.