368 ON THE FOSSIL BONES OF PACHYDERMATOUS QUADRUPEDS, 



he has gone nearer to the truth when he attributes to this animal a 

 height surpassing that of the largest oxen. (Herodotus Euterp. 



P-71)- . . 



From these two descriptions one might feel tempted to believe that 

 the name of the hippopotamus was then applied to a species different 

 from that which it is at present used to designate, if Diodorus Siculus 

 did not evidently bring us back to the latter. After ascribing to the 

 hippopotamus its real figure, he goes on to say, " It is seven feet long, 

 and approaches in bulk to the elephant. It has on each side tliree 

 projecting teeth, larger than the tusks of the wild boar :" however, he 

 leaves it the cloven foot of the ox, and the tail of the horse. (Diod. 

 Sic, lib. i.) 



Pliny, who must have seen the description of Diodorus, has con- 

 tented himself with copying that of Aristotle, with the exception of 

 the height, which he leaves undetermined, and the use of the skin, 

 which he says " is only fit for making helmets and bucklers, so im- 

 penetrable that they are not even injured." (Book viii, chap. 25.) To 

 all this he annexes another error — viz. that the hippopotamus is 

 covered loith hair like the seal. (Book ix, chap. 12.) 



And yet, independently of the authority of Diodorus Siculus, he 

 had the opportunity of collecting better information on the subject, 

 since he states in express terms, that " an hippopotamus was shown at 

 Rome by Scaurus, when he was edile." (Book viii, chap. 26.) 

 And we know from Dion, that Augustus exhibited another in his 

 triumph over Cleopatra. (Dion, book li, p. 655, edition of Reimari.) 



Several other hippopotami were exposed after the death of Pliny. 

 Antoninus exhibited some crocodiles, tigers, and other rare animals, 

 according to the account of Julius Capitolinus. (Hist. Aug., edition 

 of Schrev., page 142). Moreover, Dion (book Ixxii, page 1211 and 

 page 1219), assures us that Commodus exhibited six upon one occa- 

 sion, and that he killed one with his own hand upon another. We 

 find by Lampridius (Hist. Aug., page 497), that Heliogabolus was 

 likewise possessed of some ; and by Julius Capitolinus, that there 

 were some exposed in the reign of Gordian the Third. 



If we may place any reliance upon such authority as the verses of 

 Calpurnius, there were several of these animals at the games of Ca- 

 rinus, in 284*. Nevertheless, the ancient authors posterior to Pliny, 

 and the moderns, as far as Fabius Columna, have not given us a 

 better description of this animal. Oopienus, who calls it a wild Tiorse, 

 and assigns it to Ethiopia, does nothing more than paraphrase some 

 passages of Aristotle. Ammianus, too, gives it the shape of the horse, 

 a short tail and a cloven foot. It is true, as he states, that the hip- 

 popotamus had disappeared from Egypt from the time of the Emperor 



* Calpurnius, Eclogue vii, verse 66. 



Spectavi vltules, et equorum nomine dignum 



Sed deforme pecus, quod in illo nascitur amni 



Qui sata riparum venientibus irrigat undis. 

 It is rather amusing that Mayrault, the translator of Calpurnius, should have 

 fancied that crocodiles were the animals alluded to, and should call them enormous, 

 lizards. 



