Histories

The horses are called Nesaean because there is in Media a wide plain of that name, where the great horses are bred.

Behind these ten horses was the place of the sacred chariot of Zeus,[*](That is, of Ormuzd.) drawn by eight white horses, with the charioteer following the horses on foot and holding the reins; for no mortal man may mount into that seat. After these came Xerxes himself in a chariot drawn by Nesaean horses; beside him was his charioteer, whose name was Patiramphes, the son of Otanes, a Persian.