Letter 40

To Uranius. I have just sent you a present: a horse that is perfect in every quality a horse should have. You will find him useful for racing, for hunting, and for leading a triumphal procession after the Libyan victory. I honestly cannot tell you which purpose he is best suited for — the hippodrome, the hunt, the parade, or actual war. If he is less beautiful than the horses of Nesaea, if his head is a bit heavy and his flanks a bit thin — well, God does not give all perfections together, to horses any more than to men. Perhaps it is actually an advantage that his softer parts are less developed than his hard ones. Bones endure toil better than flesh. Your horses carry more meat; ours carry more bone.

Letter 40: A gift of a horse [1] To Uranius I have just sent you a present, a horse most perfect in every quality that befits a horse. You will find him useful for racing as well as for hunting, and when you lead a triumphant procession in honor of the Libyan victory. I do not know for which purpose he is most valuable, whether for hunting or for contests in the hippodrome, or again, whether for parade or for actual warfare. [2] If he is less beautiful than the horses of Nesaea , if he is heavy about the head and too thin about the flanks, perhaps God does not give all points together to horses any more than to men. After all perhaps it is an additional good quality in his case that the soft parts of the body are less developed by nature than the hard. Bones, I know, are more equal to toil than flesh is. Your horses are heavier in flesh, ours in bone.