Natural Hiftory of the Ancients. 1 5 1 



the needs of tranflation, on the chafe of the king 

 of beafts : 



" So Libyan huntfmen on fome fandy plain, 

 From fhady coverts roufed the lion chafe ; 

 The kingly beaft roars out with loud difdain, 

 And flowly moves, unknowing to give place, 



" But if fome one approach to dare his force, 

 He fwings his tail and fwiftly turns him round, 

 With one paw feizes on his trembling horfe, 

 And with the other tears him to the ground." 1 



One or two hunting pictures will fhow the feli- 

 citous touch of Virgil. To begin with the wild 

 boar, "animal propter convivia natum" (Juvenal, 

 i. 141) ; no finer and more lifelike fcene could 

 be painted than that in " jEneid," x. 708-16: 

 "And as that wild boar, driven from the lofty 

 mountains by the grip of hounds whom pine- 

 bearing Vefulus has flickered for many a year, 

 and many years alfo the Laurentian marih, having 

 battened on the tall reeds, after it has come to 

 the nets, is wont to ftand ftill, and fiercely gnafh 

 his tuiks and fet up his bridling flanks, nor has 

 anyone the courage to dare his rage or draw near, 

 but from afar men ply him with darts and fafe 

 clamours. He then, fearlefs, delays his charge, 

 firft on one fide, then on another, champing his 

 teeth, and making off the javelins from his hide, 

 fo," etc. In contradiftinction to the timidity of 

 thefe hunters, a coin of Nero fhows a man boldly 

 confronting a wild boar with a fhort fteel fpear. 

 In another paflage the chafe of a ftag by an 



1 "Annus Mir.," 381. 



