everal
thousand chariots. On Alexander's return from India towards Persia, he
travelled in a chariot drawn by eight horses, followed by an innumerable
number of others covered with rich carpets and purple coverlets. After
Alexander's death a funeral car was prepared to convey his body from
Babylon to Alexandria in Egypt, and this car has perhaps never been
excelled in the annals of coach-building. It was designed by the
celebrated architect Hieronymus, and took two years to build. It was 18
ft. long and 12 ft. wide, on four massive wheels, and drawn by
sixty-four mules, eight abreast. The car was composed of a platform,
with a lofty roof, supported by eighteen columns, and was profusely
adorned with drapery, gold and jewels; round the edge of the roof was a
row of golden bells; in the centre was a throne, and before it the
coffin; around were placed the weapons of war and the armour that
Alexander had used.

The Romans established the use of carriages as a private means of
conveyance, and with them carriages attained great variety of form as
well as richness of ornamentation. In all times the employment of
carriages depended greatly on the condition of the roads over which they
had to be driven, and the establishment of good roads, such as the
Appian Way, constructed 331 B.C., and others, greatly facilitated the
development of carriage travelling among the Romans. In Rome itself, and
probably also in other large towns, it was necessary to restrict
travelling in carriages to a few persons of high rank, owing to the
narrowness and crowded state of the streets. For the same reason the
transport of goods along the streets was forbidden between sunrise and
sunset. For long journeys and to convey large parties the _reda_ and
_carruca_ appear to have been mostly used, but what their construction
and arrangements were is not known. During the empire the carriage which
appears in representations of public ceremonials is the _carpentum_. It
is very slight, with two wheels, sometimes covered, and generally drawn
by two horses. If a carriage had four horses they were yoked abreast,
among the Greeks and Romans, not in two pairs as now. From the _carruca_
are traced the modern European names,--the English _carriage_, the
French _carrosse_ and the Italian _carrozza_. The _sirpea_ was a very
ancient form of vehicle, the body of which was of osier basket-work. It
originated with the Gauls, by whom it was named _lenna_, and by them it
w