On Animals depicted on Antique Monuments, 275 



Rome were put to death in the Circus by order of the Magis- 

 trates, 136 years A. C. At a later period they were used 

 in battle, and also, when tamed, in domestic life. Thus, in a 

 ^/i^te given by Caesar, twenty elephants encountered, first five 

 hundred foot soldiers, and afterwards an equal number of ca- 

 valry. After the conquest of Macedonia, Metellus had one 

 hundred and forty two elephants conducted to Rome, all of 

 which were killed with arrows. During the night of that day 

 on which Caesar gave his grand fete, in which there was the com- 

 bat with the elephants, he went home, illuminated by elephants 

 carrying lanterns. Domitian exhibited to the people an elephant 

 which, after having vanquished a bull, came to prostrate itself 

 on its bended knees before the Emperor in token of respect. 

 Before this period, Germanicus, on the occasion of his triumph 

 over the Germans, exhibited elephants which had been taught 

 to dance, and which were not loth to exhibit their accomplish- 

 ments. 



Be this as it may, however, the two species of the elephant 

 are most accurately represented in the Roman and Greek me- 

 dals, particularly on those of Alexander, of Commodus, of An- 

 toninus Pius, of Antiochus, and Alexander Severus. The Af- 

 rican species is easily distinguished by the round form of the 

 head, the prominence of its forehead, and the size of its ears, in 

 the medals of Regulus, and in some of those that are dedicated 

 to Julius Caesar. In a word, we may say that both the species 

 of the elephant, are drawn and engraven on an endless variety 

 of monuments. Sometimes they are represented as partially 

 clad, or laced with a variety of cords and nets. 



The same general remark may be made of the other pachyder- 

 mata — as the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, and the wild-boar, 

 as also of the varieties of the hog, which, as is generally believed, 

 is derived from the last of these, animals. There is especially 

 one of these races of the hog, which must have been very com- 

 mon at Rome, if we may judge from the frequency of its ap- 

 pearance on the monuments. It is from Guinea, and is easily dis- 

 tinguished from any other by the remarkable bristles with which 

 it is covered on the neck and back, and which are continued 

 even to the loins. This variety has always been very common 

 in Africa, with which continent the Romans had the freest in- 



