276 On Animals depicted on Antique Monuments. 



tercourse. In proof of the great frequency of this animal on 

 antiques, we may adduce the medals of Antoninus and other 

 Emperors, which may be seen in the works of Montfaucon, of 

 Patin, and Sallengre. We may also allude to the various dis- 

 coveries of Herculaneum. Some other races are scarcely less 

 frequently depicted upon these same monuments, as, for example, 

 that like to the hog of China, which is characterised by limbs 

 so short, that the abdomen of large dimensions touches the 

 ground. This race is very well figured in the 45th plate of the 

 fourth volume of the AntiqidUs d Herctdaneum^ which was pub- 

 lished in Rome in 1729. 



It is quite ascertained, that the wild-boar, as well as the va- 

 rious races of the hog, was well known at Rome. The first 

 wild-boar presented entire appeared at a repast given in Rome, 

 by Servius Rullus. Anthony, at the period of his triumvirate, 

 caused eight of them to be served up, and all entire. The rhi- 

 noceros also was well known to the Romans, and they repre- 

 sented it on many of their monuments. The first double- 

 horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros Africanus), seen at Rome, was 

 in the reign of Domitian. Decidedly before that period, and 

 fifty-five years before the Christian era, Pompey, at the opening 

 of his theatre, had exhibited a single-horned rhinoceros (Rhi- 

 noceros Indicus, Cuvier) to the multitude. This species which 

 is engraved on the mosaic of Palestrina, is also represented upon 

 other mosaics and medals, and particularly on a stone en- 

 graved in the work of Thomas Mangeart, which has been al- 

 ready quoted. 



Nearly the same remarks might be made of the hippopotamus, 

 which, though very inaccurately described by Latin authors, 

 has nevertheless been represented with much fidelity by the 

 statuaries of the same nation. It is designed with fidelity upon 

 the mosaic of Palestrina, and upon other monuments, such as the 

 medals which are dedicated to the Emperor Julius Philippus. 

 These medals have been copied in the works of Vaillant, Pata- 

 vini, and Mangeart. It is, moreover, known, that the first hip- 

 popotamus which was seen at Rome, was brought thither under 

 the direction of Emilius Scaurus, who, whilst Edile, took every 

 pains to exhibit to the people animals that bad never before been 

 seen in the Circus. It was he who also presented to them the 



