BOOK X. Lxix. I20-LX. 123 



interrupt, with the trainer sitting by them to keep 

 on repeating the words he wants retained, and 

 coaxing them with morsels of food. 



LX. Let us also repay due gratitude to the ravens ^ taiking 

 the gratitude that is their due, evidenced also by the '^'"^^*' 

 indignation and not only by the knowledge of the 

 Roman nation. When Tiberius was emperor, a young 

 raven from a brood hatched on the top of the Temple 

 of Castor and Pollux flew down to a cobblers shop 

 in the vicinity, being also commended to the master 

 of the estabHshment by rehgion. It soon picked up 

 the habit of talking, and every morning used to fly 

 ofF to the Platform that faces the forum and salute 

 Tiberius and then Germanicus and Drusus Caesar 

 by name, and next the Roman pubUc passing by, 

 afterwards returning to the shop ; and it became 

 remarkable by several years' constant performance 

 of this function. This bird the tenant of the next 

 cobbler's shop killed, whether because of his neigh- 

 bour's competition or in a sudden outburst of anger, 

 as he tried to make out, because some dirt had fallen 

 on his stock of shoes from its droppings ; this caused 

 such a disturbance among the pubHc that the man was 

 first driven out of the district and later actually made 

 away with, and the bird's funeral was celebrated with 

 a vast crowd of followers, the draped bier being 

 carried on the shoulders of two Ethiopians and in 

 front of it going in procession a flute-player and all 

 kinds of wreaths right to the pyre, which had been 

 erected on the right hand side of the Appian Road 

 at the second milestone " on the ground called Redi- 

 cu]us's Plain. So adequate a justification did the 

 Roman nation consider a bird's cleverness to be for a 

 funeral procession and for the punishment of a Roman 



371 



