Discovery of Fossil Bones in France, 275 



Julius Caesar was at Besanyon (Vesontio), he placed a strong 

 garrison there ; but his troops were so intimidated at the 

 descriptions they heard, from the merchants, of the neigh- 

 bouring Germans, that the whole army made their wills. The 

 panic was so great, that Caesar threatened to make the tenth 

 legion his life-guard, and with them alone to go in search of 

 the enemy*. 



More than three hundred years afterwards, Aurelian, on his 

 recovering Egypt from Firmus (who had seized the remains 

 of his friend, the unfortunate Zenobia's kingdom), wrote to 

 his people: ** The tribute of Egypt, which that wicked robber 

 had suspended, will now come entire to you. Entertain 

 yourselves with the pastimes and shows of the Circus, while 

 we are taken up with the necessities of the state." This 

 Firmus kept up the commerce with India, and was enor- 

 mously rich (the Romans traded thither with one hundred and 

 twenty ships annually) ; and hence we may easily account for 

 tigers* and hycenas' bones being found at Besan^on, as the 

 triumphal arch is dedicated to Aurelian. 



If the mummy of Firmus himself had been found, he might 

 have afforded a puzzle whether he was of an extinct tribe. 

 Vopiscus describes him '^ of large stature, with prominent 

 eyes, frizzled hair, blackish visage, body fair enough, but very- 

 hairy, scars and wounds on his face, and stronger than the 

 gladiator Tritannus ; for he would bear a smith's anvil upon 

 his breast, as he lay bent back upon his hands and feet, and 

 permit any one to strike upon it with force. He ate so much, 

 that some say he would devour an ostrich in a day — (a young 

 one, no doubt !) — he drank little wine, but much watery." 

 Firmus had two elephants' tusks, ten feet long. These tusks, 

 having been designed by Aurelian to make a chair for a 

 golden statue of Jupiter, covered with jewels and a robe of 

 state, the indignant Vopiscus adds, " But the lewd Carinus J 

 presented these Indian § rarities, with two others, to a certain 



* Bladen's Caesar's Commentaries, b. i., ch. xv. 



•I- Flavius Vopiscus, Augustan Hist. — " Firmus." 



:|: Britain formed a part of the government under Carinus, during the 

 absence of his father, Carus, in Persia. — Vopiscus. 



§ These immense tusks were, probably, from Pegu, that country pro- 

 ducing the largest elephants known. An officer lately travelled into the 



