Pliny the Elder, Natural History (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [Plin. Nat.]. | ||
<<Plin. Nat. 8.6 | Plin. Nat. 8.7 (Latin) | >>Plin. Nat. 8.8 |
There is a famous combat mentioned of a Roman with an elephant, when Hannibal compelled our prisoners to fight against each other. The one who had survived all the others he placed before an elephant, and promised him his life if he should slay it; upon which the man advanced alone into the arena, and, to the great regret of the Carthaginians, succeeded in doing so. [Note] Hannibal, however, thinking that the news of this victory might cause a feeling of contempt for these animals, sent some horsemen to kill the man on his way home. In our battles with Pyrrhus it was found, on making trial, that it was extremely easy to cut off the trunks of these animals. [Note] Fenestella informs us, that they fought at Rome in the Circus for the first time during the curule ædileship of Claudius Pulcher, in the consulship of M. Antonius and A. Postumius, in the year of the City 655; and that twenty years afterwards, during the curule ædileship of the Luculli, they were set to fight against bulls. In the second consulship [Note] of
Pompeius, at the dedication of the temple of Venus Victrix, [Note]
the equestrian order. [Note] When, however, the elephants in the
exhibition given by Pompeius had lost all hopes of escaping,
they implored the compassion of the multitude by attitudes
which surpass all description, and with a kind of lamentation
bewailed their unhappy fate. So greatly were the people
affected by the scene, that, forgetting the general altogether,
and the munificence which had been at such pains to do them
honour, the whole assembly rose up in tears, and showered
curses on Pompeius, of which he soon afterwards became the
victim. They fought also in the third consulship of the Dic-
tator Cæsar, twenty of them against five hundred foot soldiers. [Note]
On another occasion twenty elephants, carrying towers, [Note]
The elephant is said to display such a merciful disposition towards animals that are weaker than itself, that, when it finds itself in a flock of sheep, it will remove with its trunk [Note] those that are in the way, lest it should unintentionally
trample upon them. [Note] They will never do any mischief except when provoked, and they are of a disposition so sociable, that they always move about in herds, no animal being less fond of a solitary life. When surrounded by a troop of horsemen, they place in the centre of the herd those that are weak, weary, or wounded, and then take the front rank each in its turn, just as though they acted under command and in accordance with discipline. When taken captive, they are very speedily tamed, by being fed on the juices of barley. [Note]
Pliny the Elder, Natural History (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [Plin. Nat.]. | ||
<<Plin. Nat. 8.6 | Plin. Nat. 8.7 (Latin) | >>Plin. Nat. 8.8 |
