Borysthenes Alanus

Salve,
July has begun, hopefully it will be a good month for all of you, dear web visitors.
Today a little ancient horse story.
I  introduced the story of the Sarmatian/Alan horses among the Romans during the ancient empire in this post.
I also wrote there about the emperor Hadrian's mount Borysthenes Alanus. This hunter's name was preserved for posterity because a poem was written and it is thought  that the poem had been composed by Hadrian himself. 
Lately  I copied the poem in its Latin original that is thought to have been carved in stone as a part of a funerary monument set upon this horse's grave.

 Borysthenes Alanus,                                       
 
  Caesareus veredus,                                          
 
per aequor et paludes                                    
 
et tumulos Etruscos                                                                                      
 
  Pannonicos nec ullus
 
apros eum insequentem
 
  dente aper albicanti
 
ausus fuit nocere,
 
  sparsit ab ore caudam
 
vel extimam saliva,
 
  ut solet evenire.
 
Sed integer iuventa,
 
  inviolatus artus,
 
die sua peremptus
 
hic situs est in agro.

 [English translation here or here]

So, scholars believe that  this avid hunter (even shown on his coins hunting from horseback), horseman and great Roman emperor had his spirited Borysthenes Alanus buried near or in a town called Colonia Apta Julia (Apt in France) in Gallia Narbonensis situated on the ancient Roman military road called Via Domita. Most likely the horse died during a boar hunt in Gaul.
 The stone, a bit damaged and in two pieces, was excavated in Apt at the beginning of the XVII century. However, the poem was already known during the Middle Ages, eg Huguccio of Pisa(died 1210AD)

From Cassius Dio and Historia Augustae we know that Hadrian had several monuments erected to his pets, however, neither of the sources mentions this Borysthemes Alanus.

 
ps
the roundels come the Arch of Constantine, and are thought to depict emperor Hadrian hunting.

Sarmatian horse

Salve,
Sarmatian riders became famous because of their contact with the Classical world, mainly the Romans and their empire. Being nomadic dwellers of the Panonian, Pontic and Caspian steppes they had to have some good, well trained horses to be able to carry their riders against their enemies while often heavily armoured and armed, at least the elite warriors.

 We know from  Strabo that they rode geldings, having castrated their colts. Strabo wrote that their horses were ''small, but exceedingly fast'' but ''difficult to control'' (for the Romans, I suppose).

Were the Sarmatian horses large, like the alleged Nisayan? Well, it does not appear to have been so, at least not from the sources, as evidenced by Starbo's description, or from the famous Trajan Column in Rome, where their horses are the same size as the Roman cavalry mounts. But they must have been strong and stout to be able to carry their bardings (scale armor) 

  Above a wikipedia photo of the pertinent section of the Trajan Column.

           In Roman work titled ''Historiae Augustae,'' a collection of biographies of the Roman emperors from Hadrian to Carinus, we have an interesting story involving  a reputedly fast Sarmatian (Alan) horse and  emperor Probus (Ad 276-282), :

   ''Once, indeed, when a horse was found among the booty taken from the Alani or some other nation — for this is uncertain — which, though not handsome or especially large, was reputed, according to the talk of the captives, to be able to run one hundred miles in a day and to continue for eight or ten days, all supposed that Probus would keep such a beast for himself. 

But first he remarked, "This horse is better suited to a soldier who flees than to one who fights,"  and then he ordered the men of the put their names into an urn, that the one drawn by lots should receive the horse.  Then, since there were in the army four other soldiers named Probus, it so chanced that the name of Probus appeared on the lot that first came forth, though the general's name had not been put into the urn.

And when the four soldiers strove with one another, each maintaining that the lot was his, he ordered the urn to be shaken a second time. But a second time, too, the name of Probus came forth; and when it was done for the third and the fourth time, on the fourth time also there leaped forth the name of Probus.  Then the entire army set apart that horse for Probus their general, and even those very soldiers whose names had come forth from the urn desired it thus.'' [David Magie's translation]

Finally,  we also know that emperor Hadrian had an Alan steed, used for hunting (thus a hunter), and he was called Borysthenes Βορυσθένης (Greek name for river god of Scythia and the Dnieper River). The name and information about this hunting horse survived because it was inscribed on its tomb at Apt, near Nimes, in present day France.
 I have copied the poem, so pretty soon I will provide the entire poem with an appropriate drawing, gods willing - :)

I did this drawing on MyPaint, and this is a Sarmatian horse, that bears a tamga{owner's brand marking] on its hindquarters, a notched ear also indicated his owner, and perhaps it belongs to the Bosporan Kingdom horseman ( a Sarmatian monarchy mixing Greek, Roman and Sarmatian elements since the rule of king Asupurgus ), and his equipment is a mix of Roman and Sarmatian tack, and while his tail is tied in the steppe manner his mane is not crenellated.