ELEPHANTS. 277 



Pompey caused a number of tliem to be slain by tlie javelins of 

 the Gffitulian archers. It was on this occasion that the populace 

 showed some feeling ; for both Dion, the historian, and Pliny relate 

 that the gallantry of the animals and the sagacity manifested in the 

 rescue of a wounded companion, as well as the piteous agony 

 they exhibited, so affected the stern Romans that the whole 

 amphitheatre rose and, with imprecations against the consul, in- 

 sisted that the fight should cease. The Dictator, Julius Caesar, in 

 his third consulship, opposed twenty of them against five hundred 

 foot-soldiers. At another time the same number had towers 

 placed upon their backs, each defended by sixty men, and both 

 foot-soldiers and horsemen were ordered to the attack, with what 

 result is not stated. Afterwards, under the Emperors Claudius 

 and Nero, elephants were also frequently seen in the circus with 

 gladiators fighting them single-handed, either as a crowning 

 exploit of the performance, or as a feat of valour undertaken by the 

 men themselves for the purposeof securing theirmanumission, which 

 was the reward generally grantedf or an extraordinary deed of daring. 



Csesar brought one of these animals with him to Britain (b.c. 54), 

 and it contributed to the conquest of this country. In the " Strata- 

 gems" of Polysenus we read that " Csesar attempted to pass a 

 great river (in all probability the Thames) ; Cassivelaunus, king of 

 the Britons, opposed his passage with a large body of horses and 

 chariots. Csesar had in his company a vastly large elephant, a 

 creature before that time unknown to the Britons. This elephant 

 he fenced with an iron coat of mail, built a large turret on it, and 

 putting up bowmen and shngers ordered them to pass first into 

 the stream. The Britons were dismayed at sight of such an 

 unknown and monstrous beast ; they fled, therefore, with their 

 horses and chariots, and the Romans passed over without opposi- 

 tion, terrifying their enemies by this single creature." 



African elephants were frequently used for the Roman sports 

 and military pageants, but after the Punic wars their employment 

 gradually lessened until the age of the later Roman emperors, 

 when their use was finally discontinued— why or wherefore does 



not appear. 



From the date of the Roman occupation until 1865, when 



