PLINY THE ELDER. 97 



and nobles of Rome do not disdain to give honour. 

 The best breeds are from Rhodes, Tenagra, Melos, 

 and Chalcis. These birds rule our rulers, nor is 

 there a great man in Rome that dare open or shut 

 the door of his house before he knows their good 

 pleasure ; even the sovereign, in all the majesty of 

 the empire, with the insignia of office, neither sets 

 forward nor recedes without their direction. They 

 give orders to armies to advance to battle, or com- 

 mand them to keep within the camp. They supplied 

 the signal and foretold the issue of all the famous 

 fields, in which the Romans achieved their victories 

 in all parts of the world. In a word, they com- 

 mand the greatest commanders of all nations, and, 

 small as they are, prove as acceptable to the gods in 

 sacrifice as the largest and fattest oxen. Their 

 crowing out of time is portentous, and it is well 

 known that, by once crowing all night long, they 

 foretold to the Boeotians the noble victory which 

 that people achieved over the Lacedemonians, for 

 this result w^as expected, as these birds never crow 

 when beaten. When converted into capons, they 

 cease to crow ; but in this state they become sooner 

 fat. At Pergamus there is a solemn cock-fight 

 every year. It is recorded that, within the territory 

 of Ariminum, in the year when Marcus Lepidus 

 and Quintus Catulus were consuls, a dunghill-cock, 

 belonging to one Galerius, spoke ; but, as far as 

 Pliny could learn, the like never happened again. 



Bees, silkworms, spiders, scorpions, locusts, gras- 

 hoppers and a few other animals of a similar nature, 

 are briefly treated of in the eleventh book, which, 

 moreover, contains an anatomical description of the 

 human body, and of various parts of animals, not 



