Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Scordiscum

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

SCORDIS'CUM. A housing or clothing for horses (Veg. Vet. iii. 60.), made of untanned leather or skins (Isidor. Gloss. Edict. Dioclet. 24.), and adapted to the shape of the animal, very much in the same style as now practised. But the ancients appear to have used it not so much for the purpose of warm clothing, as to provide a defence for the animal on the field of battle. This may be inferred in part from the strong material of which it was made, from its being designated in the edict of Diocletian (l. c.) as a military accoutrement, and from the fact of its being frequently represented in the Egyptian paintings and Etruscan vases on the bodies of horses, when harnessed to the war-chariot. The example (Scordiscum/1.1) is copied from a Greek medal.

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