THE ELK, PAST AND PRESENT 



275 



Caesar wrote B.C. 53, while on his second expedi- 

 tion into the land of the Germani. He was 

 describing the animals found in the great Hercynian 

 forest of southern and central Germany. More 

 than a hundred years later Pliny gave a similar 

 description, but mentioned only the hind legs as 

 jointless, and added: "Its upper lip Is extremely 

 large, for which reason it is obliged to go backward 

 when grazing; otherwise, by moving forward, the 

 lip would get doubled up."'^ 



Gladiatorial spectacles were given in the Colos- 

 seum at Rome for nearly four hundred years 

 following its dedication, a.d. 80. The dedicatory 

 games continued for nearly one hundred days, 

 and it is said that five thousand wild beasts were 

 slaughtered in the arena during these opening 

 festivities. Julius Capitolinus, in the Histories 

 Augustce, relates that at the close of the reign of the 

 Emperor Gordianus III., in the year 244 of our 

 era, there were exhibited in Rome 32 elephants, 

 10 elk, 10 tigers, 60 tame lions, 30 tame leopards, 

 10 hyenas, i hippopotamus, i rhinoceros, 10 

 giraffes, 20 zebras, 40 wild horses, and numberless 



consuerint, omnes eo loco aut ab radicibus subruunt aut accidunt arbores, 

 tantum ut summa species earum stantium relinquatur. Hue cum se 

 consuetudine reclinaverunt, infirmas arbores pondere adfligunt atque una 

 ipscB concidunty — De Bello Gallico, book vi., chap, xxvii. 

 4 Naturalis Historia, book viii., chap. xv. 



