Chap. 82.] AJSIMALS TAMED IN PAET ONtT. 351 



stomachs are opened for this purpose, and some of the metal is 

 always to be found there, which they have pilfered," so great 

 a delight do they take in stealiiig ! ' We learn from our Annals, 

 also, that at the siege of Casilinum," by Hannibal, a mouse was 

 sold for two hundred denarii," and that the person who sold 

 it perished with hunger, while the purchasfer survived. To 

 be visited by white mice is considered as indicative of a fortu- 

 nate event; but our Annals are fuU of instances in which <the 

 singing*"* of a mouse has interrupted the auspices.*' Nigidius 

 informs us, that the field-mouse conceals itself during winter : 

 this is also said to be the case with the dormouse, which the 

 regulations of the censors, and of M. Scaurus, the chief of the 

 senate, when he was consul,** have banished from our tables,*' 

 no less than shell-fish and birds, which are brought from a 

 foreign country. The dormouse is also a half- wild animal, and 

 the same person™ made warrens for them in large casks, who 

 first formed pai'ks for wild boars. In relation to this subject, 

 it has been remarked that dormice will not mate, unless they 

 happen to be natives of the same forest ; and that if those are 

 put together that are brought from different rivers or moun- 

 tains, they will fight and destroy each other. These animals 

 nourish their parents, when worn out with old age, with a 

 singular degree of affection. This old age of theirs is put an 



^* We have two passages in Livy, B. xxvii.and B. xxx., where gold is 

 said to have been gnawed by mice. — B. 



*5 See B. iii. c. 9. In B.o. 217, this place was occupied by Fabius with 

 a strong garrison, to prevent Hannibal from passing the Vnlturnus ; and 

 the following year, after the battle of Cannae, was occupied by a small body 

 of Roman troops, who, though little more than 1000 in number, withstood 

 the assaults of Hannibal during a protracted siege, until compelled by 

 famine to surrender. 



« This sum would be about £7.— B. 



*^* It is by no means improbable that " occentus " here means " singing," 

 and not merely " squeaking ;" as the singing of a mouse would no doubt be 

 deemed partictlarly ill-boding in those times. At the present day, a mouse 

 has been heard to emit a noise which more nearly resembled singing than 

 squeaking; and a "singing mouse" has been the subject of an exhibition 

 more than once. 



" We have frequent allusions to this occurrence in the writings of the 

 Bomans, some of which are referred to by Dalechamps ; Lemaire, vol. iii. 

 p. 663.— B. 



*8 A.u.c. 639; it does not appear wbat was the cause of this pro- 

 hibition. — B. 



*' See B. xxxvi. c. 2. 



5» Fulvins Lupinus, as already stated in c. 78. — B. 



