Chap. 21.] LIONS. 271 



surpassed even the most monstrous spectacles that were to be 

 seen at that calamitous period. It is said that Hanno, one of 

 the most illustrious of the Carthaginians, was the first who 

 ventured to touch the lion with the hand, and to exhibit it in 

 a tame state. It was on this account that he was banished ; 

 for it was supposed, that a man so talented and so ingenious 

 would have it in his power to persuade the people to anything, 

 and it was looked upon as unsafe to trust the liberties of the 

 country to one who had so eminently triumphed over even 

 ferocity itself. There are some fortuitous occurrences cited 

 also, which have given occasion to these animals to display 

 their natural clemency. Mentor, a native of Syracuse, was 

 met in Syria by a lion, who rolled before him in a suppliant 

 manner ; though smitten with fear and desirous to escape, the 

 wild beast on every side opposed his flight, and licked his feet 

 with a fawning air. Upon this, Mentor observed on the paw 

 of the lion a swelling and a wound; from which, after extracting 

 a splinter, he relieved the creature's pain. 14 There is a picture 

 at Syracuse, which bears witness to the truth of this trans- 

 action. 



In the same manner, too, Elpis, a native of Samos, on landing 

 from a vessel on the coast of Africa, observed a lion near the 

 beach, opening his mouth in a threatening manner ; upon which 

 he climbed a tree, in the hope of escaping, while, at the same 

 time, he invoked the aid of Father Liber ; for it is the appro- 

 priate time for invocations when there is no room left for hope. 

 The wild beast did not pursue him as he fled, although he might 

 easily have done so ; but, lying down at the foot of the tree, 

 by the open mouth which had caused so much terror, tried to 

 excite his compassion. A bone, while he was devouring his 

 food with too great avidity, had stuck fast between his teeth, 

 and he was perishing with hunger ; such being the punishment 

 inflicted upon him by his own weapons, every now and then 

 he would look up and supplicate him, as it were, with mute 

 entreaties. Elpis, 15 not wishing to risk trusting himself to 



woman and mistress of Volumnius Eutrapelus, and then successively the 

 mistress of Antony and the poet Gallus, who mentioned her in his poems 

 under the name of Lycoris ; she did not, however, continue faithful to him. 



14 Aulus Gellius, B. v. c. 14, and JElian, Anim. Nat. B. viii. c. 48, re- 

 late a similar anecdote of Androclus or Androcles, who extracted a thorn 

 from the foot of a lion. B. 



15 The text is in a state of extreme confusion here, and so hopelessly man- 



