Natural Hiftory of the Ancients. 93 



celebrated combat of a Roman captive with a 

 Carthaginian elephant in the arena before Hannibal 

 on the latter's promife that the flave's life fhould be 

 fpared did he prove victor, conclufively proved 

 that thefe creatures need not be greatly dreaded in 

 war. The Romans were never fair to Hannibal, 

 and Pliny cannot refrain from adding that Hannibal 

 was fo chagrined at this difcovery that he sent 

 horfemen, when the man had departed, to waylay 

 and flay him. For accounts of Pompey and 

 Caefar exhibiting mews of elephant-combats in the 

 circus, and a multitude of curious particulars, we 

 muft be content to refer the reader to the above 

 citation, only warning him that many of the 

 ftories told by Pliny require qualifying with the 

 warning of the mowman in a modern menagerie, 

 who pointed out the porcupine, and obferved: 

 " Buffon fays that he moots his quills ; Buffon's a 

 liar !" ^lian, Strabo, and Arrian are full of de- 

 tails on elephant-catching and taming. Cicero 

 was prefent at a venatio given by Pompey, B.C. 55, 

 when twenty elephants were exhibited in the 

 circus, and killed by darts. He adds that "a 

 great admiration for the huge beafts fell on the 

 fpectators, and no delight was taken in their 

 death. Moreover, a certain feeling of pity 

 followed the fpeftacle, the populace not being 

 able to withftand the opinion that there was a 

 kinfhip to man in the fagacious creature." 1 



Elephants were firft feen in Italy at the invafion 



1 See Lord Cockburn on " The Chafe," Nineteenth Century, 

 Dec. 1880 ; and cnf. Juvenal, "Satires," xii. 101-114. 



