56 On the Luxury of the Romans. 



theatre covered over with a purple awning, four hundred maned 

 lions, several wild bulls fighting with men, and twenty elephants 

 which were attacked by five hundred infantry. On the evening 

 of his triumph, he returned home preceded by elephants carry- 

 ing torches. 



We may imagine the unbounded opulence of the men who 

 could afford such spectacles — the eagerness of allied kings to 

 gratify them — the crowds of human beings employed in obtain- 

 ing the animals exhibited to the people ! It is not less astonish- 

 ing that it was possible to collect such a multitude of large ani- 

 mals and beasts of prey. 



Yet in this kind of munificence the great Romans of the re- 

 public were afterwards outdone by the emperors. From an 

 inscription, in honour of Augustus, found at Ancyra, we learn 

 that this prince caused three thousand five hundred wild beasts 

 to be slain before the people. On one occasion he had water 

 brought into the circus of Flaminius, and shewed thirty-six 

 live crocodiles torn to pieces by other savage animals. Two 

 hundred and sixty-eight lions were killed at this entertainment. 

 There was besides, a serpent fifty cubits long, a python from 

 Africa, and a royal tiger confined in a cage, the first that had 

 been seen in Rome. Augustus, before he became emperor, at 

 his triumph over Cleopatra, had a reindeer and a hippopotamus 

 slain in the circus. Germanicus, at his triumph over the Ger- 

 mans, brought out elephants that had been taught to dance. 

 Caligula gave four hundred bears and four hundred panthers 

 to be killed. Claudius, at the dedication of the Pantheon, dis- 

 played four live royal tigers. A mosaic pavement, which has 

 lasted till our time, represents these animals of their natural 

 size. The same emperor, having been informed that a whale 

 was stranded in the harbour of Ostia, repaired thither, and en- 

 gaged the monster with his galleys. The animal was probably 

 a large species of dolphin, the area. Galba shewed an elephant 

 that went up on a tight rope to the summit of the theatre, with 

 a Roman horseman on his back. These elephants were in- 

 structed when they were young, for they were born in Rome. 

 iElian says so positively, in speaking of the elephants of Ger- 

 manicus. Mr Corse Scott has shewn, in opposition to the opi- 

 nion of Buffon, that elephants, by taking certain precautions, 



