176 FOSSIL REPTILES. 



the hippopotamus. Herodotus has given a tolerably exact de- 

 scription and history of this crocodile, and even his errors 

 have some foundation in truth. Aristotle reduced to their 

 just value many assertions more or less erroneous of the Father 

 of History on this subject ; and added, to the external and 

 internal description of this animal, many particulars equally 

 correct and valuable. The successors of these two great 

 writers did little more than either copy them implicitly, or add 

 to their relations circumstances of doubtful authority, or idle 

 superstitious tales. 



There are few things in history more remarkable than the 

 utter incuriosity of the Romans respecting all subjects of 

 natural science. No other nation ever possessed such ad- 

 vantages as they did for the study of zoology, and scarcely 

 any other civilized nation ever paid less attention to the 

 subject. With opportunities infinitely more numerous than 

 ever occurred to any other people, of observing the rarest 

 animals, they took no pains to transmit to us anything valuable 

 concerning them. With respect to the crocodile, they are 

 liable to the same reproaches which have been made with 

 so much justice against them on the score of the hippopo- 

 tamus. These two animals, they saw, for the first time, under 

 the edileship of Scaurus, when five crocodiles were exhibited. 

 On another occasion these animals were brought to Rome by 

 certain inhabitants of Dendera, who played a variety of tricks 

 with them. One of the most astonishing spectacles of this 

 kind was given by Augustus, in the year of Rome 748, seven 

 years before the Christian era. The Flaminian circus was 

 filled with water, and thirty-six crocodiles were exhibited and 

 destroyed there. Crocodiles were also shown by Antoninus 

 and Hehogabalus, according to the accounts of Julius Capi- 

 tolinus and Lampridius, and it is highly probable that they 

 were exhibited on many other occasions, which the authors, 

 whose works have descended to us, have not thought proper 

 to notice. 



