BOOK VIII. xxiii. 62-x.\'v. 65 



XXIII. The panther and the tiger almost alone of The panther. 

 beasts are distinguished by a variety of markings, 

 whereas the rest have a single colour, each kind having 



its own — black in the case of Hons in Syria only. 

 Panthers have small spots hke eyes on a hght 

 ground. It is said that all four-footed animals are 

 wonderfully attracted by their smell, but frightened 

 by the savage appearance of their head ; for which 

 reason they catch them by hiding their head and 

 enticing them to approach by their other attractions. 

 Some authorities report that they have a mark on 

 the shoulder resembhng a moon, expanding into a 

 circle and hollowed out in a similar manner." As it is, 

 people use the name ' spotted ladies ', and for the 

 males ' pards ', in the whole of this genus, which 

 occurs most frequently in Africa and Syria ; some 

 persons distinguish panthers from these by their 

 hght colour only, nor have I hitherto discovered any 

 other diiference. 



XXIV. There was an old Resolution of the Senate imporiation 

 prohibiting the importation of African elephants into %ii^isf„ 

 Italy. Gnaeus Aufidius when Tribune of the Plebs * shoics. 

 carried in the Assembly of the People a resolution 

 repeahng this and allowing them to be imported for 



shows in the Circus. But Scaurus in his aedileship« 

 first sent in procession 150 female leopards in one 

 flock, then Pompey the Great 410, and the late 

 lamented Augustus 420. XXV. Augustus also, in 

 the consulship <* of Marcus Tubero and Paullus 

 Fabius, at the dedication of the Theatre of 

 Marcellus, on May 7, was the first of all persons at 

 Rome who exhibited a tamed tiger in a cage, although 

 his late Majesty Claudius exhibited four at one 

 time. 



49 



