BOOK VIIL] History of Nature. 1 1 



that if he could kill the Beast, he should be dismissed. So 

 this Prisoner entered into single Fight with the Elephant, 

 and to the great Grief of the Carthaginians, slew him. An- 

 nibal, considering that the Report of this Combat would 

 cause these Beasts to be little regarded, sent after him some 

 Light Horsemen to kill him upon the Way. Their Trunk 

 (Proboscis) may be easily cut off; as appeared by Experience 

 in the Battles of Pyrrhus. Fenestella writeth, that the first 

 Fight of them in Rome was in the Circus, when Claudius 

 Pulcker was Curule jEdile, and M. Antonius and A. Post- 

 humius were Consuls, in the six hundred and fiftieth Year 

 of the City. Also 20 Years after, when the Luculli were 

 Curule .ZEdiles, they fought against Bulls. Also in the 

 second Consulship of Cn. Pompeius, at the Dedication of the 

 Temple to Venus Victoress, 20 of them, or as some write, 17, 

 fought in the Circus. The Gaetulians threw Darts against 

 them. But one Elephant did Wonders : for when his Feet 

 were pierced through with Darts, he crept upon his Knees 

 among the Companies, where he caught from them their 

 Shields, and flung them aloft, which, as they fell, turned 

 round as if by Art, and not as if thrown with Violence by 

 the Beasts in their Anger, to the great Pleasure of the Be- 

 holders. And as strange a Thing was seen in another of 

 them, who was killed with one Stroke ; for the Dart was 

 driven under the Eye, and pierced to the vital Parts of the 

 Head. Whereupon all the rest endeavoured to burst away, 

 not without a great disturbance among the People, although 

 fenced round with Iron Bars. And for this Cause, Ccesar 

 the Dictator, when afterwards he was about to exhibit the 

 like Show, cast a Ditch round about the Arena ; which Prince 

 Nero removed to make room for the Knights. But those 

 Elephants of Pompey being past all Hope of escaping, in a 

 Manner that cannot be expressed seemed to supplicate the 

 Multitude, craving their Mercy, with grievous Lamentations 

 bewailing their Condition ; so that the People's Hearts 

 melted, and with Tears in their Eyes, they rose up all at 

 once, without Regard to the Imperator, or Respect to his 

 magnificent Display, and imprecated on Pompey these severe 



