Plutarch's Romane Questions · Plutarch
97.
_What is the cause that upon the thirteenth day of December, which in Latine they call the_ Ides _of December, there is exhibited a game of chariots running for the prize, and the horse drawing on the right hand that winneth the victorie, is sacrificed and consecrated unto_ Mars, _and at the time thereof, there comes one behinde, that cutteth off his taile, which he carrieth immediatly into the temple called_ Regia, _and therewith imbrueth the altar with blood: and for the head of the said horse, one troupe there is comming out of the street called_ Via sacra, _and another from that which they name_ Suburra, _who encounter and trie out by fight who shall have it_? MAY not the reason be (as some doe alledge) that they have an opinion, how the citie of _Troy_ was sometime woon by the meanes of a woodden horse; and therefore in the memoriall thereof, they thus punished a poore horse? _As men from blood of noble_ Troy _descended And by the way with_ Latins _issue blended_. Or because an horse is a couragious, martiall and warlike beast; and ordinarily, men use to present unto the gods those Sacrifices which are most agreeable unto them, and sort best with them: and in that respect, they sacrifice that horse which wan the prize, unto _Mars_, because strength and victorie are well beseeming him. Or rather because the worke of God is firme and stable: those also be victorious who keepe their ranke and vanquish them, who make not good their ground but fly away. This beast therefore is punished for running so swift, as if celeritie were the maintenance of cowardise: to give us thereby covertly to understand, that there is no hope of safetie for them who seeke to escape by flight.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.