ELEPHANTS, HISTORICAL 181 



youths sang paeans in honour of his divinity. The stars also 

 signify his assumption of divine honours during his hfetime.* 



A few of the elephant figures stamped on the Roman 

 imperial coins appear to be provided with a kind of chain 

 armour, as, for instance, in the case of a gold coin of Antoni- 

 nus Pius. It is, however, possible that the peculiar covering 

 here shown was rather a network of some ornamental kind, 

 .as the meshes are so wide that we can scarcely see how they 

 could afford efl&cient protection, and indeed the thickness of 

 the elephant's hide must have shielded it from many of the 

 weapons used in old-time warfare.f 



An ancient representation of the elephant in a precious 

 material was unearthed long since in a Roman sepulchral 

 urn, and was preserved in the collection of Cardinal Far- 

 nese. This was a small elephant figure, skilfully carved out 

 of a piece of amber. The fact that, as a rule, the objects 

 placed in these urns were believed to have some religious, 

 symbolic, or talismanic quality or virtue, suggests that here 

 some such significance was given to this elephant carving. | 



Of the thirty or forty elephants brought by Hannibal 

 from Africa in his invasion of Italy, a number perished in 

 the passage of the Pyrenees and the Alps, but he still had 

 several available for his early conflicts with the Romans, 

 especially in the first battle at Trebia with the consul 

 Sempronius. However, the comparatively severe climate of 

 northern Italy proved deadly for those who had survived the 

 exposure of the mountain transit, and a few years sufficed 

 to strip the Carthaginian army of these spectacular aux- 

 iliaries. At Hannibal's Waterloo, the battle of Zama, 

 fought against Scipio on African territory, after the Car- 



*Gisberti Cuperi, "De elephantis in nummis obviis," Hagse Comitum, 1719, col. 221. 

 flbid., col. 206. 



JNonaLebour, " Amber and Jet in AncientBurials/'reprintfrom Transactions of the Dum- 

 friesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society; November 27, 1914, p. 5. 



