194 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT 



at most a sparing use of those he captured or otherwise 

 secured from the Indian rulers, his successors pursued a 

 different pohcy, possibly because their armies were in most 

 cases largely made up of Asiatics who had a traditional 

 respect for the onset of these ponderous beasts. In Egypt, 

 where a supply of African elephants was to be had in regions 

 not too far removed to be accessible, as early as the time of 

 Ptolemy Philadelphus regular hunting expeditions were 

 organized for their capture; indeed, Agatharcides states 

 that this Ptolemy was the first to institute such hunts. It 

 is, however, quite certain that, as we have seen, something 

 of the kind had already been undertaken many centuries 

 earlier by the native Egyptian sovereigns, perhaps only to 

 obtain the ivory of the tusks. The same writer assures us 

 that Ptolemy Philadelphus forbade the use of elephant flesh 

 as a food, as he desired that the lives of all captured should 

 be spared; the Egyptian "elephant-eaters" {elephanto- 

 phagoi) vigorously resisted this decree, as doing violence 

 to a long-standing habit. So earnestly did this Ptolemy 

 carry out his plans for obtaining African elephants that 

 he is said to have founded a town on the banks of the 

 Red Sea as a headquarters for his elephant hunters, 

 where they could fit out their expeditions, and whither 

 they could bring in and care for the elephants captured by 

 them. After Egypt became a Roman province, toward 

 the end of the first century B.C., these hunts were neglected, 

 as the Romans did not favour the employment of war 

 elephants.* 



The Lybians had the custom of interring with great 

 pomp the bodies of those who met their death while hunting 

 or combating elephants, and certain special chants were 

 composed for and sung on these occasions, for they held 

 that those who ventured to attack such powerful animals 



*Gisberti Cuperi, "De elephantis in nummis obviis," Hagse Comitum, 1719, col. 51-55. 



