Nisean horse
Encyclopedia
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
http://www.livius.org/ne-nn/nisaia/nisaia.html. They were highly sought after in the ancient world. The Nisean horse was said to have come in several colors, including common colors such as dark bay and seal brown
, but also rarer shades such as black
, red and blue roan
, palomino
, and various spotted
patterns. The ancient Nisean horse was said to have had "not the slender Arabian
head of the Luristan Culture but a more robust one that was characteristic of the great warhorse". This suggests the Nisean may have been a descendant of the "forest horse" prototype
The Nisean, according to one source, was "tall and swift, and color adorned his sides. The ancient Greeks
called him the Nisean after the town Nisa where he was bred; the Chinese
called him the Tien Ma-Heavenly Horse or Soulon-Vegetarian dragon. He was the most valuable horse in the ancient world, and he was regarded as the most beautiful horse alive. Some were spotted like a leopard
or as golden as a newly minted coin. Others were red and blue roan with darker color in the roan, what Mustang (sic) people call blue and red corn."
The royal Nisean was the mount of the nobility in ancient Persia. Two white Nisean stallions
pulled the shah’s royal chariot, while four of the regal animals pulled the chariot of Ahura Mazda
, the supreme god of Persia and Medea
. Silver coins from the days of Cyrus the Great
show him hunting lion
s from horseback using a spear. It is safe to assume that courage and manageability were more important than color on these occasions, and without the stirrup
, Cyrus also needed a smooth riding horse, so it is assumed that the Nisean horse also had smooth gaits
.
During the reign of Darius, Nisean horses were bred from Armenia
to Sogdiana
. The Nisean horse was so sought after that the Greeks (mainly, the Sparta
ns) imported Nisean horses and bred them to their native stock, and many nomadic tribes (such as the Scythians) in and around the Persian Empire also imported, captured, or stole Nisean horses.
Nisean horses had several interesting traits that they passed on to their descendants. One of them were bony knobs on their forehead often referred to as "horns". The Greeks exported many horses to the Iberian peninsula
, where the Nisean greatly influenced the ancestors of today's Iberian horse
breeds, such as the Carthusian, Lusitano
, Andalusian
, Barb (horse)
, and Spanish Mustang
.
The Nisean horse was first mentioned in great detail by A.T. Olmstead in his History of the Persian Empire. Pure white Niseans were the horses of kings and, in myth, gods. Cyrus the Great was so distraught when one of his stallions was drowned while crossing a river, he had the river where the horse was drowned drained. He did not believe that anything that could kill something so beautiful should be allowed to continue.
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.
The Romans had their first encounter with the Nisean and the Parthian cataphract at the Battle of Carrhae when General Crassus went up against the great Parthian General Surena. After Crassus fell to the Parthians, his head and standards were presented to Orodes II. In 36 B.C., Marc Antony avenged Crassus' death by ravaging the region of Media Atropatene with 16 legions. At his disposal were 100,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry, drawn from as far away as Gaul and Spain. Of these, 30,000 were Roman Legionaires. When the Parthians would not give him the battle he wanted, he ravaged Armenia and brought back the Armenian Arkah Artavasdes to Egypt. Among the prized possessions taken were the first Nisean horses in Rome. When Antony died, these horses fell into the hands of Augustus.
Horse breed
Horse breed is a broad term with no clear consensus as to definition, but most commonly refers to selectively bred populations of domesticated horses, often with pedigrees recorded in a breed registry. However, the term is sometimes used in a very broad sense to define landrace animals, or...
, once native to the town of Nisaia. Located in the Nisaean Plains at the foot of the southern region of the Zagros Mountains
Zagros Mountains
The Zagros Mountains are the largest mountain range in Iran and Iraq. With a total length of 1,500 km , from northwestern Iran, and roughly correlating with Iran's western border, the Zagros range spans the whole length of the western and southwestern Iranian plateau and ends at the Strait of...
, Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
http://www.livius.org/ne-nn/nisaia/nisaia.html. They were highly sought after in the ancient world. The Nisean horse was said to have come in several colors, including common colors such as dark bay and seal brown
Seal brown (horse)
Seal brown is a hair coat color of horses characterized by a near-black body color; with black points, the mane, tail and legs; but also reddish or tan areas around the eyes, muzzle, behind the elbow and in front of the stifle...
, but also rarer shades such as black
Black (horse)
Black is a hair coat color of horses in which the entire hair coat is black. Black is a relatively uncommon coat color, and novices frequently mistake dark chestnuts or bays for black. However, some breeds of horses, such as the Friesian horse, Murgese and Ariegeois are almost exclusively black...
, red and blue roan
Roan (horse)
Roan is a horse coat color pattern characterized by an even mixture of colored and white hairs on the body, while the head and "points"—lower legs, mane and tail—are more solid-colored. The roan pattern is dominantly-inherited, and is found in many horse breeds...
, palomino
Palomino
Palomino is a coat color in horses, consisting of a gold coat and white mane and tail. Genetically, the palomino color is created by a single allele of a dilution gene called the cream gene working on a "red" base coat...
, and various spotted
Pinto horse
A pinto horse has a coat color that consists of large patches of white and any other color. The distinction between "pinto" and "solid" can be tenuous, as so-called "solid" horses frequently have areas of white hair. Various cultures throughout history appear to have selectively bred for pinto...
patterns. The ancient Nisean horse was said to have had "not the slender Arabian
Arabian horse
The Arabian or Arab horse is a breed of horse that originated on the Arabian Peninsula. With a distinctive head shape and high tail carriage, the Arabian is one of the most easily recognizable horse breeds in the world. It is also one of the oldest breeds, with archaeological evidence of horses...
head of the Luristan Culture but a more robust one that was characteristic of the great warhorse". This suggests the Nisean may have been a descendant of the "forest horse" prototype
The Nisean, according to one source, was "tall and swift, and color adorned his sides. The ancient Greeks
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
called him the Nisean after the town Nisa where he was bred; the Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
called him the Tien Ma-Heavenly Horse or Soulon-Vegetarian dragon. He was the most valuable horse in the ancient world, and he was regarded as the most beautiful horse alive. Some were spotted like a leopard
Leopard complex
The leopard complex is a group of genetically-related coat patterns in horses. These patterns range from progressive increases in interspersed white hair similar to graying or roan to distinctive, Dalmatian-like leopard spots on a white coat. Secondary characteristics associated with the leopard...
or as golden as a newly minted coin. Others were red and blue roan with darker color in the roan, what Mustang (sic) people call blue and red corn."
The royal Nisean was the mount of the nobility in ancient Persia. Two white Nisean stallions
Stallion (horse)
A stallion is a male horse that has not been gelded .Stallions will follow the conformation and phenotype of their breed, but within that standard, the presence of hormones such as testosterone may give stallions a thicker, "cresty" neck, as well as a somewhat more muscular physique as compared to...
pulled the shah’s royal chariot, while four of the regal animals pulled the chariot of Ahura Mazda
Ahura Mazda
Ahura Mazdā is the Avestan name for a divinity of the Old Iranian religion who was proclaimed the uncreated God by Zoroaster, the founder of Zoroastrianism...
, the supreme god of Persia and Medea
Medes
The MedesThe Medes...
. Silver coins from the days of Cyrus the Great
Cyrus the Great
Cyrus II of Persia , commonly known as Cyrus the Great, also known as Cyrus the Elder, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Under his rule, the empire embraced all the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanded vastly and eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much...
show him hunting lion
Lion
The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
s from horseback using a spear. It is safe to assume that courage and manageability were more important than color on these occasions, and without the stirrup
Stirrup
A stirrup is a light frame or ring that holds the foot of a rider, attached to the saddle by a strap, often called a stirrup leather. Stirrups are usually paired and are used to aid in mounting and as a support while using a riding animal...
, Cyrus also needed a smooth riding horse, so it is assumed that the Nisean horse also had smooth gaits
Horse gait
Horse gaits are the various ways in which a horse can move, either naturally or as a result of specialized training by humans.-Classification:...
.
During the reign of Darius, Nisean horses were bred from Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
to Sogdiana
Sogdiana
Sogdiana or Sogdia was the ancient civilization of an Iranian people and a province of the Achaemenid Empire, eighteenth in the list on the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great . Sogdiana is "listed" as the second of the "good lands and countries" that Ahura Mazda created...
. The Nisean horse was so sought after that the Greeks (mainly, the Sparta
Sparta
Sparta or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c...
ns) imported Nisean horses and bred them to their native stock, and many nomadic tribes (such as the Scythians) in and around the Persian Empire also imported, captured, or stole Nisean horses.
Nisean horses had several interesting traits that they passed on to their descendants. One of them were bony knobs on their forehead often referred to as "horns". The Greeks exported many horses to the Iberian peninsula
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
, where the Nisean greatly influenced the ancestors of today's Iberian horse
Iberian horse
The Iberian horse is a title given to a number of horse breeds native to the Iberian peninsula. At present, 17 horse breeds are recognized by FAO as characteristic of the Iberian Peninsula....
breeds, such as the Carthusian, Lusitano
Lusitano
The Lusitano is a Portuguese horse breed, closely related to the Spanish Andalusian horse. Both are sometimes called Iberian horses, as the breeds both developed on the Iberian peninsula, and until the 1960s they were considered one breed, under the Andalusian name...
, Andalusian
Andalusian horse
The Andalusian, also known as the Pure Spanish Horse or PRE , is a horse breed developed in the Iberian Peninsula. Its ancestors have been present on the Iberian Peninsula for thousands of years. The Andalusian has been recognized as an individual breed since the 15th century, and its conformation...
, Barb (horse)
Barb (horse)
Developed on the Barbary Coast of North Africa, the Barb horse is a desert breed with great hardiness and stamina. The Barb generally possesses a fiery temperament and an atypical sport-horse conformation, but nevertheless has influenced modern breeds....
, and Spanish Mustang
Spanish Mustang
The Spanish Mustang is a horse breed of historical importance. They descend from horses introduced from Spain during the early conquest of the Americas. They are a type that today is mostly or wholly now extinct in Spain...
.
The Nisean horse was first mentioned in great detail by A.T. Olmstead in his History of the Persian Empire. Pure white Niseans were the horses of kings and, in myth, gods. Cyrus the Great was so distraught when one of his stallions was drowned while crossing a river, he had the river where the horse was drowned drained. He did not believe that anything that could kill something so beautiful should be allowed to continue.
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.
The Romans had their first encounter with the Nisean and the Parthian cataphract at the Battle of Carrhae when General Crassus went up against the great Parthian General Surena. After Crassus fell to the Parthians, his head and standards were presented to Orodes II. In 36 B.C., Marc Antony avenged Crassus' death by ravaging the region of Media Atropatene with 16 legions. At his disposal were 100,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry, drawn from as far away as Gaul and Spain. Of these, 30,000 were Roman Legionaires. When the Parthians would not give him the battle he wanted, he ravaged Armenia and brought back the Armenian Arkah Artavasdes to Egypt. Among the prized possessions taken were the first Nisean horses in Rome. When Antony died, these horses fell into the hands of Augustus.
Historical Events
- When Cambyses II fell off his horse and died in 521 BCE, future king Darius the Great had his horse neigh at the moment of sunrise. This action gave him the kingship of Persia. Ancient sources claim that a servant of Darius had inserted his hand inside the vulva of a mare in heat. At the moment the sun rose, he placed his hand near the stallion's nostrils.
- In 481 BCE, Xerxes invaded ThessalyThessalyThessaly is a traditional geographical region and an administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thessaly was known as Aeolia, and appears thus in Homer's Odyssey....
and raced his Nisean mares against the legendary Thessalian mares and beat them. - In 479 BCE, General Mardonius was killed beneath his white Nisean stallion at the Battle of PlataeaBattle of PlataeaThe Battle of Plataea was the final land battle during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place in 479 BC near the city of Plataea in Boeotia, and was fought between an alliance of the Greek city-states, including Sparta, Athens, Corinth and Megara, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes...
. 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.
- The Seleucid kings prized the royal herd, located in the meadows of Media. The Seleucids mounted their Royal Guard cavalry and heavily armored cataphracts on the large Niseans. When Media was captured by the Parthians, the herd fell into their hands; after which the Parthians mounted their own heavy cataphract cavalry on these superb mounts.
- When the Roman writer StraboStraboStrabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...
saw them, he said they the most elegant riding horses alive. - St. Isidore of SevilleIsidore of SevilleSaint Isidore of Seville served as Archbishop of Seville for more than three decades and is considered, as the historian Montalembert put it in an oft-quoted phrase, "le dernier savant du monde ancien"...
stated that the Roman horses of the imperial stud founded by Justinian IJustinian IJustinian I ; , ; 483– 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.One of the most important figures of...
in ConstantinopleConstantinopleConstantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
were the most beauitful 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 Emporer saw the horses, he decided that the expedition was worth it.
- The Nisean became extinct with the sacking of Constantinople in 1204.
- Elwyn Hartley EdwardsElwyn Hartley EdwardsElwyn Hartley Edwards, MC, equestrian writer and editor, was born on 17 April 1927. He died on 9 December 2007, aged 80.Elwyn Edwards, was the editor of Riding magazine for 18 years...
in The New Encyclopedia of the Horse called the Nisean the "super horse of the ancient world".