524 Pliny's nattjeal history. [BookX, 



Csesars '" have a starling and some nightingales that are being 

 taught to talk in Greek and Latin ; besides which, they are 

 studying their task the whole day, continually repeating the 

 new words that they have learnt, and gi"ving utterance to 

 phrases even of considerable length. Birds are taught to 

 talk in a retired spot, and where no other voice can be heard, 

 so as to interfere with their lesson ; a person sits by them, and 

 continually repeats the words he wishes them to learn, while 

 at the same time he encourages them by giving them food. 



CHAP. 60. (43.) — A SEDITION THAT AEOSE AMONG THE EOMAN 

 PEOPLE, IN CONSEQUENCE OF A EAVEN SPEAKING. 



Let US do justice, also, to the raven, whose merits have been 

 attested not only by the sentiments of the Roman people, but 

 by the strong expression, also, of their indignation. In the 

 reign of Tiberius, one of a brood of ravens that had bred on 

 the top of the temple of Castor, '^^ happened to fly into a shoe- 

 maker's shop that stood opposite : upon which, from a feeling 

 of religious veneration, it was looked upon as doubly recom- 

 mended by the owner of the place. The bird, having been 

 taught to speak at an early age, used every morning to fly to 

 the Eostra, which look towards the Forum ; here, addressing 

 each by his name, it would salute Tiberius, and then the 

 Csesars" Germanicus and Drusus, after which it would pro- 

 ceed to greet the Roman populace as they passed, and then re- 

 turn to the shop : for several years it was remarkable for the 

 constancy of its attendance. The owner of another shoemaker' s 

 shop in the neighbourhood, in a sudden fit of anger killed the 

 bird, enraged, as he would have had it appear, because with its 

 ordure it had soiled some shoes of his. Upon this, there was 

 such rage manifested by the multitude, that he was at once 

 driven from that part of the city, and soon after put to death. 

 The funeral, too, of the bird was celebrated with almost end- 

 less obsequies ; the body was placed upon a litter carried upon 

 the shoulders of two ^Ethiopians, preceded by a piper, and 

 borne to the pile with garlands of every size and description. 

 The pile was erected on the right-hand side of the Appian 

 Way, at the second milestone from the City, in the field gene- 



"?" Britannicus, the son of Claudius, and Nero, his stepson. 

 ■^1 In the eighth region of the city. 

 "2 The nephew and son of Tiberius. 



