A fact from October Horse appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 3 May 2012 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that in ancient Rome, a horse was sacrificed to the deity Mars each year on the Ides of October, with ceremonies in various venues involving different parts of the horse's body?
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The text notes: "Polybius specifies that the victim is a war horse, without observing that it was chosen as the result of chariot races, and the Romans did not use chariots in warfare." However, I recall reading (I think in Massie) that breeding horses for warfare was commonly used to justify continued support for chariot racing. Thus, "war" horses might be used in chariot races. Just a thought. --Piledhigheranddeeper (talk) 21:51, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, that is an interesting question. The wording may not be most accurate. They didn't use chariots for warfare, so the fact that a horse pulls a chariot doesn't make it a war horse, but that doesn't mean a war horse couldn't race or pull a chariot. If I had to guess, I'd say that it's probably one of those things that changed over the time the October Horse observance was in existence. I would speculate that in the beginning, the races might have been run by horses returning from war, since the point of this occurring in October was that the army was coming home. But of course as the Empire expanded and the army became professionalized, the soldiers didn't come home every year in that way. And as chariot racing became more professionalized during the Empire (there were headquarters for the professional charioteers in the general area), I wonder whether these races changed. Thanks; I'll see what turns up as I go to a physical library and get some sources still needed, but will try to fix the wording in the meantime. Cynwolfe (talk) 14:38, 4 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]
In this article as in other the d. POW is not presented on the basis of his works but through the lens of his critics or some American followers such as Puhvel (who is not a good one). As a result the reader is not objectively informed on the original theory advanced by the French scholar. D. also demonstrated conclusively there is no proof in the sources (Properce) that the suffumen of the Parilia is prepared from the blood of the tail of the horse of the EO. I could list a long series of imprecise or even biased representations and in the way the article is construed. When and if I have the time I will elaborate further.Aldrasto11 (talk) 01:29, 21 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
